I've been busy these days writing tests for my students. Intermediate, upper-intermediate and the like.
If you think that writing tests is a trifle, a pleasant free time activity, a little diversion from everyday routine - you're wrong. It is also not an act of vegneance, a way to expose your students imbecility or to punish them for not working hard enough during the term. There are so many objectives that a good test has to meet, I believe, that writing it is really time consuming and exhausting. Whenever I write a test, I have to ask myself this essential question: Have I succeeded? Am I sure the input was clear and practised long enough to be tested? So, that's the first thing I need to bear in mind.
Second thing - is the context I am providing in the exercises on the appropriate level of difficulty? In other words: is the topic of the exercise designed for practising present simple and continuous on an equally simple level? Because I could make sentences about silkworm cocoons and then, would my rookies understand anything of it?
Thirdly, the exercises must be composed in such a way, that an intelligent student will learn from them the things he/she doesn't know or knows only slightly. Even if he/she happens not to understand every single word or phrase - the test must expose enough clarity and logic so that the students can figure some things out by themselves.
So, it's all not just a piece of cake. I'll have a cake now, though, as a reward for doing this excellent job of writing tests. I need calories, for soon I'll have to be checking how my students did in the test. But that's another story...
a trifle - igraszka
diversion - odmiana
an act of vengeance - akt zemsty
objectives = goals
silkworm cocoons - kokony jedwabników
rookie - nowicjusz
a piece of cake (idiom) = bułka z masłem
bear in mind - mieć na uwadze
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