Scholarship Samoan

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• Samoan assessment specification

Samoan assessment specification

Resources or information supplied

There will be a question-and-answer booklet. The listening material is supplied on a CD.

Special notes

The exam consists of TWO parts, held in a three-hour time slot:

• first, a two-hour Writing section with two questions
• second, a one-hour Speaking section with one question.

Candidates will have their spoken responses recorded in a separate room. A Waiting Room will need to be provided for candidates who are waiting to record their responses. 

Content/Context details

The examination will be marked out of 24 marks.
Section One, Writing, will have two questions, each worth 8 marks.
Section Two, Speaking, will have one question, worth 8 marks. 

Section One: Writing, two hours

QUESTION ONE will require a written response to a spoken passage(s), provided on CD.

The listening resources will:

• contain at least one and no more than three passages, linked around a common theme, which will take 30 minutes in total
• contain approximately 400-450 words total
• be repeated three times. The first time, candidates will hear it read as a whole. The second and third times, they will hear it read in sections, with a pause after each section.

The written response will have two parts:

• candidates will provide evidence of specific understanding of the text and also go beyond the text, giving their own views and ideas using their own words
• candidates should write for approximately 30 minutes.

QUESTION TWO will require translations of two texts that contain complex language and concepts. The first translation will be from Samoan to English. The second translation will be from English to Samoan. 

Candidates will be required to:

• write a translation in clear, well-structured English that accurately reflects the literal and implied meaning of the text
• spend approximately 45 minutes on the translation.

Section Two: Speaking, one hour

QUESTION THREE

Candidates will be required to give a spoken response of 3–4 minutes to a question related to either the spoken passage on the CD, or the text for translation.

At the end of the written examination, all candidate answer booklets will be collected and candidates will then be embargoed to a Waiting Room, which could be the room that has been used for the Writing.

They will go, one at a time, in predetermined order to the Recording Room. Once there, they will be given:

• a straightforward question linked to Question One or Two, written on a laminated card
• paper and pen on which to draft a response / write notes
• 5 minutes to draft an oral response to the question.

At the end of the 5 minutes they will hand back the laminated card, and give a 3- to 4-minute oral response to the question. They may use their notes as they speak.

Once they have given their oral response, they will leave the Recording Room and exit the Exam Centre; they will not return to the Waiting Room.

Samoan Resources

• Performance Standard
• Examination Requirements (DOC, 48KB)
• Information for Candidates (DOC, 46KB)
• Top Scholar 2011 (PDF, 7.6MB)
• Previous years' material (ZIP, 8.1MB)