Traiblazers Written Placement Test A new thing we’re doing since our teachers are so very busy… being awesome. Directions for students: Read the questions in bold and answer them. Write on the back of this paper if you need more space. More is better! Directions for teachers: Read the rationale for the questions in italics below each question. 1. Why are you interested in studying English? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ This is important since we want interested students and not class potatoes. 2. What is a typical day for you like? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ How comfortable are students describing their daily routines? 3. Describe a teacher you have. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Are students able to elaborate beyond funny and interesting? 4. What would you do with a million dollars? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Are students creative? If they aren’t, are they at least able to use modals (I would, I’d, if…) correctly? 5. Describe a difficult test or examination you have had in school. How did you prepare for it? How did you do? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Even our highest-level students struggle with simple conjugations. Can students correctly use past tense forms? Open-ended questions are a better fluency and oral competence indicator than multiple-choice exams. This simple exam should help us identify students who are suitable to attend Trailblazers-level classes. Questions test grammar usage, too! Renato Ganoza for EF Zhengzhou, 2009