School and education 学校与教育

Asked what a passage says about a rule, weaker candidates copy a whole sentence instead of selecting the point. ✓ 学生上课时不能用手机。(Xuésheng shàngkè shí bùnéng yòng shǒujī.) — students may not use phones in lessons. Select the exact point and re-express it in your own words; a copied answer with extra or wrong material can cancel a correct point.

Reading and listening answers need the exact high-frequency term. ✗ 一个放很多书的房间 (vague, no noun) ✓ 图书馆 (túshūguǎn) — library. ✗ 我们做实验的地方 ✓ 实验室 (shíyànshì) — laboratory. Learn the precise noun for the subject or facility rather than describing it in a roundabout way; a near-synonym or sub-category loses the mark.

Simple sentences must still be grammatically COMPLETE with the required element present — do not drop the verb. ✗ 早上上课，下午。(no verb in the second clause) ✓ 我们早上上课，下午做体育活动。(Wǒmen zǎoshang shàngkè, xiàwǔ zuò tǐyù huódòng.) — we have lessons in the morning and do sports in the afternoon. Even strong candidates lose marks on imprecise basics.

For an extended-writing debate on school life (e.g. whether students should have less homework, or do work experience each term), do not just repeat the prompt or the stimulus comments. Develop your OWN reasoned view with connectives (因为……所以……, 虽然……但是……). Candidates who merely re-stated the two stimulus comments, or argued the wrong side, lost marks.

In Paper 1 writing (Ex4 and Ex5) you must write in characters only — candidates are reminded not to use pinyin in their writing. Pinyin earns no credit there; it is accepted only as a substitute for a character in the Listening answers, where tones are not required but the answer must be unambiguous. Practise school vocabulary (课程表, 实验室, 校规) as characters, not pinyin.

Imprecision and answering more than asked can cancel a correct point: the mark cannot be awarded if the Examiner has to choose the correct answer from a longer response. Extra, contradictory or ambiguous material may cancel an otherwise-correct answer. Keep school-life answers short, precise and on-target — give the exact point asked for and stop.

Learners treat 必须, 应该, 可以 and 不能 as one word for must. They are not: 必须 is a STRICT requirement (学生必须准时到校 — must arrive on time); 应该 a RECOMMENDATION (学生应该尊重老师 — should respect teachers); 可以 PERMISSION (下课以后可以离开教室 — may leave after class); 不能 PROHIBITION (上课时不能吃东西 — may not eat in lessons). If a penalty attaches it is a strict rule: 学生必须穿校服 (bìxū), not 应该.

了 marks COMPLETION or a CHANGE OF STATE, not English past tense. It is NOT used with habitual actions (每天/常常) even when narrating the past. ✗ 我昨天每天上数学课了。(每天 = habitual, so 了 is wrong) ✓ 我昨天上了数学课，也做完了作业。(shàng le… zuòwán le… — attended class and finished homework: completion, not tense). Habitual needs no 了: 我每天早上八点上课。