Open Letter: Etseri, Svaneti
To the Minister of Science and Education of Georgia, Mr. Sandro Jejelava
Dear Sir,
I wrote an email to you over a week ago regarding the great number of mistakes and ambiguities I found in a recent online mock English exam for Georgian high school students. This was one of the tests which they can either complete online and get an instant result, or print off and do on paper with someone then correcting it. In these ways, they can see how they are doing in English in general, get a feel for what the actual test will be like, and practice taking it. While this site is NOT an official Ministry of Science and Education site, and thus not said Ministry’s responsibility, it disturbs me much that such sites (there are more than one) are being used for assessments which cannot be accurate.
My suggestion would be that the Ministry have someone, preferably a native English speaker, examine such sites and form an accurate opinion (based on statistics) of their tests’ quality. The number of mistakes I found in the 65-question test which I saw a print of was 13, or exactly 20%. Such an amount of errors leaves one wondering about the competency of those who compile these tests to correct them and give any kind of honest assessment of a pupil’s level of mastery of English. If I was such a pupil, I would protest publicly and formally request new, properly proofread tests before being able to participate. The Ministry might then make a public statement in the form of a warning of the statistically-based quality of the tests; and suggest officially sanctioned sites and tests, which would have no mistakes.
The test which I read was found at www.online.exam.ge/english.html
I also saw similar online mock tests at another Georgian website, while serving the end of my last term in Becho public school this last May. Again, grade 12 students were doing these tests to see how their English proficiency would fare in real-world tests like the one they were about to take; and the level of wrongness there was similar to the samples below, though I don’t remember that website.
Here are some examples of actual mistakes from the test which I read through, with other unreported errors such as missing periods not noted:
If I lost my handbag, ……… the police
1. 'd phone
2. 'll phone
3. 'm phone
4. phone
[no personal pronoun in question]
… 50 years old in 2013.
1. Will be
2. Is
3. Am
4. Am being
[no personal pronoun in question; and all answers start incorrectly with capital letters]
… her since she went to Germany
1. Won't see
2. Haven't seen
3. Didn't see
4. Wasn't seen
[again, no personal pronoun in question; and all answers start incorrectly with capital letters, when none of them is the start of the sentence]
I … Portuguese because I lived in Brazil for ten years.
1. to understand
2. 'm understand
3. Understand
4. 'll understand
[otherwise correct answer, 3, is capitalized, making it wrong]
… anything about astronomy?
1. Do you knowing
2. Are you know
3. Are you knowing
4. Have you know
[Well... which one is correct?]
Sorry, we … green apples
1. any
2. no
3. nothing
4. none
[Well... again, which one is correct?]
Mark the correct answer:
1. ask your mother when will be lunch ready.
2. ask you mother when will lunch ready be.
3. ask you mother when lunch will be ready.
4. ask your mother when will be ready lunch.
[3 is closest to being correct, but doesn't start with a capital letter and should have "your" instead of "you"]
He is … officer in the army
1. --
2. An
3. a
4. the
[Again, 2 is closest to being correct, but doesn't start with a capital letter]
Where does this dialogue take place? Mark the correct answer
We must run to the cinema. The film___ at 5 minute
1. runs
2. will run
3. run
4. is going to start
[question should read "in 5 minutes", not "at 5 minute"]
If I hadn't got married when I was eighteen, ... to university to study agriculture.
1. 'd go
2. was going
3. 'll go
4. 'd gone
[Well... again, which one is correct?]
[and my favorite:]
Don't start making the past until I …you
1. 'm phoning
2. phoned
3. phone
4. will phone
[making the past"...?!]
Sir, I look forward to hearing from you about this matter, which I am sure has simply not been reported to you until now. I hear nothing but good things about you and hope that you will bring much needed further reform and improvement to the Georgian educational system!
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 1500 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
Tony Hanmer