Marking Scheme for PMR English Language Paper

PMR English Language Examination paper consist of 3 papers ,paper 1 ,paper 2

and English Oral Examination.Students must answer all questions.
Paper 1
Candidates have to answer 60 questions on objective type of questions and
select the best answer from option A ,B ,C ,D .Time allocation is one and half
hours where students are given an average of one and a half minutes to answer
each question.
Questions 1 to 30
These questions are based from 6 reading materials which can be Articles
,Dialogue ,Report, Letter ,Descriptive ,Narrative ,Notice , Speech, Process,
Graph, or Poem. Students read the reading materials and answer the questions
that follow then.
Questions 31-33

Language Forms And Functions

For these questions, students have to complete a conversation in a situation

given according to each of the underline function by selecting the best answer
from options A, B, C and D.
Questions 34-39
Students are given two situations .The verb, noun, subject and verb agreement
etc.please take note that the format of English paper 1 will show a bit of change
from time to time. Anyway, if one is good in English, one will be able to answer
question in whatever format.
For paper 1 the number of questions is 60.Each question carries one mark and
therefore the total marks for paper 1 is 60% of the English Language Paper.

Paper 2
Paper 2 consist of 3 questions. Candidates need to complete them in one and a
half hour.
Question 1
Students are advised to spend about 20 minutes on this questions. Read the
passage given andthen fill in each of the numbered blanks with ONE suitable
word. The word can be an article, pronoun, singular or plural from any suitable
word. There are 10 blanks which carry 10 marks.
Each word chosen must be spelt correctly. Wrong spelling means zero marks.
Students are to write the number together with the answer on the answer sheets
provided. DO NOT COPY THE ENTIRE PASSAGE.
Question 2
Students are advised to spend about 35 minutes on this question. Student
maybe given short dialogues. Based on the dialogue the student either have to
write their opinions or certain topic of interest or write an article between 100-150
words.
Question 3
Student are advised to spend about 35 minutes on this question. Question
number 3 is usually a series of pictures in a picture composition .You are asked
to describe or report what happened in the picture in not more than 150 words.
The marks allocation for question number 2 and 3 is 15 marks each; 7 for
contents and another 7 for expression or language ,when marking ,first we
change the 7 to 15 marks for easier marking. We add up the total for contents
and expressions and divide by two to get the actual mark for each question.
The mark for expression according to the bands as follow :
A (13-15)

Language is very accurate. No spelling errors across

the script.

B (10- 12)

The language is accurate but there may be more

minor errors.

C (7 - 9)

Language is largely accurate. Mistake may occur

when more sophiscated structures are attempted.

D (3- 6)

The language is sufficiently accurate. Mistake occur

when more complex sentences are attempted.

E (0 - 2)

Award 0 if no writing or the writing make no sense at

all.

40 marks are allocated for paper 2. We add up the total marks obtained from
paper 1 and paper 2. That`s the actual marks for the candidates in the PMR
English Language Paper.
PMR English Oral Examination
The test is divided into 3 sections :
Listening comprehension , Reading comprehension and conversation.
Listening Comprehension
This section of the examination is a test of the students ability to understand
spoken English.Three tapescripts will be played.Each will be read once and each
tapescript is followed by three questions.The questions and alternative answers
will be read once each. Choose the best answer to each questions .
Reading Comprehension
The student will read a passage silently for three minutes in front of a time
keeper. Then he/she has to read it aloud before an examiner.The candidate than
has to answer three questions following the reading passage.