Selamat Hari Merdeka!

I would like to wish all readers, especially to us all - Malaysians, on this auspicious day, the Malaysia Day, a "Happy Malaysia Day" and "Selamat Hari Merdeka!". On this day in 1963, Malaysia was born.  Since then it has grown from strength to strength. Praise be to Allaah, Praise be to Allaah! (Alhamdulillaah!)

Malaysia gained independence from the British colonials on the 31 August 1957. It was cleverly negotiated from the British by our founding fathers. Merdeka means independence.
 

The British Colonials have gone but the English language is still very important as it is the international language.  MUET initiatives, the university English, is one of our efforts to realise this aspiration. English is important for our nation as "no man is an island". Likewise our sovereign nation cannot exist alone. One of the global business that our nation has to do is we should trade and forge good relationships with other nations. 

In the field of education - our students go overseas for further studies and foreign students come to Malaysia, in droves, to study in our colleges and universities. They have to use English as the medium of learning and instruction. Most of the reference materials are still in English. This language is undoubtedly essential in education.

I would like to thank all of our loyal readers that have kept coming back to this blog. I hope it will also grow from strength to strength just like our beloved nation. To all the international readers I would like to say a big "thank you" for giving this blog their support.

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

All The Best To MUET Candidates!

Wishing You All The Best! I would like to wish YOU ALL the best in the MUET Mid Year Tests for 2011 that starts tomorrow, 04 April 2011. I hope all of you have got rid of your nervousness, qualms and the butterflies in your stomachs! I hope you will not sleep too late tonight as tomorrow some of you will be taking the MUET Speaking 800/2 test. Please be early as the test starts early. You will have to be at the MUET quarantine room by 07:30 am as you will have your attendance noted. Then you will be assigned to your Speaking groups of fours. Do not forget to have your IC and exam slips that you have obtained from the MPM - either the official exam slip posted to you or downloaded through the net and printed.  Please treat this Test as though it is a very important interview for you. Show your best impression and well rested the night before. Have your breakfast before you enter the Quarantine room. If you are the "cold engine" type try to engage in a conversation with somebody in the room where you can "warm up your engine" - that is you get yourself as a person ready mentally and emotionally for the test in the next room which is the Speaking Test room proper. With a "warmed up engine", I hope you will be more creative and will be able to come up with ideas that you can talk about in the test. In task A make full use of the two minutes speaking time. Fill up the two minutes with your speech. It is not time to keep quite. In task B please get involved in the discussion and try to help your fellow candidates that seems to be hesitant or "lost". There are marks for participation, there are marks for your content and there are marks for the way you convey your spoken words. Of course none for being quite.  All the best to you!

MUET Made Easy - Malaysia Students Blog

MUET Made Easy - Malaysia Students Blog

The writer had portrayed an overall picture of MUET through the experience that she had when she took the MUET papers. She had reminded the candidates to practice and to prepare well beforehand to get the desired results in the MUET examinations.

If your vocabulary is limited, getting a good band, i.e. bands 4-6 is not going to be as easy as it sounds in this article. One of the key factors to do well in MUET is to have a competently sufficient vocabulary! The vocabulary is of preuniversity standard. The standards can be found and discernible in articles that come out in The Star, The New Straits Times and other respectable journals and magazines.  So, your vocabulary should measure up to these standards.  Otherwise you would not be able to understand even  simple instructions in the MUET papers. You may have strong feelings that you understand but actually you have misunderstood. You might be grasping things out of context.

I hope all of you will be doing well in MUET and will be able to be accepted into universities and other institutions of higher learning. All the best to you!