Question 3 Template and Tips Flashcards
Question: The man expresses his opinion of the university’s plan to add a new science course requirement. State his opinion and explain the reasons he gives for holding that opinion.
1st: The change
2nd: The opinion
3rd: 1st reason
4th: 2nd reason
5th: Conclusion
1st: The reading states that. . . and provides two reasons for it.
2nd: The man’s/woman’s opinion is that. . . and supports/opposes each reason.
3rd: First, he/she explains that . . .
4th: Second, he/she states that . . .
5th: That’s why the man/women feels that. . .
Finish 1st by 51s
Finish 2nd by 43s
Finish 3rd by 23s
Finish 4th by 3s
Finish 5th by 0s
The announcement states that the university will add a new science course requirement and gives two reasons for the change.
The man’s opinion is that it is a bad decision and he opposes each reason.
First, he explains that this new requirement is unnecessary. The university already has plenty of requirements. He likes the fact that students are required to take a variety of courses. In fact, that’s why he says he went to this university, but he thinks this addition is too much. He feels that students won’t have time for their major.
Second, he states that the new class will not add diversity. If the university really wants to add diversity, it should accept more international students. He adds that it should not add a new science course requirement to increase the number of science majors for diversity.
That’s why the man feels that it’s a bad decision.
Quick Notes from Reading
The time for reading passes by faster than you think. Don’t worry about spelling out the words (as you see we’ve misspelled many words [scnce]); trying to spell everything correctly takes too much time. Just make sure that you can understand your notes. One tip is not to abbreviate–for example, don’t write com–but misspell–instead, we should write complt (complete)–because the word will be easier to identify that way. And please, take your notes as you read, not after you finish. I notice that some of my students do this and it wastes a lot of time and makes things much harder. They often can’t get all of the important information in time.
Don’t worry too much if you can’t find or understand the two reasons for the change; you don’t need to say them in your speech. We only care about them to understand and take better notes in the conversation that follows, which is important to earn a higher score.
Take all Notes from Listening
Here’s an incredibly important point that stops students from earning a top score: take all the notes that you can on this question. During quite a few tutoring sessions, students have scored lower because they didn’t have enough information in their notes. When I ask if they remembered hearing what they didn’t mention, they say that they do remember. Then I ask why they didn’t take notes on it. Their response? “I didn’t think it was important.” Don’t think that way. For question 3, everything from the student giving the opinion is important, so make sure to write all that you can. You don’t have to write every single word though; the point is to make sure that you write down all that you comfortably
Important Tip
Important Tip: What I say now will help those students who practice gain another point on their speaking score. It is absolutely critical that you read these words carefully. Before you begin speaking, take a deep breath, let yourself become calm, and speak like a TOEFL-test-taking machine. Give every word its focus. Don’t rush. You might need to speak quickly, but do it in a controlled manner. When you just start talking without focusing on being calm, cool, controlled, and machine-like, you increase the level of your stress because you will react to the stress in your voice. Consequently, your grammar worsens, as does your pronunciation. Trust me; I say this because it makes a difference; I’ve heard it with many students. Do this and you will develop the right attitude, mentality, and delivery for the test. Do it; do it; do it. Got it? Also, do this for every question, 1 through 6.
