Short-term Strategy for Grade 12 Students (Study Techniques)

By Million Abebe (MA in English/in TEFL and B. Ed. Degree in Pedagogy): 2024

Brief Overview

Welcome to our Study Techniques Page!
This material is prepared and presented so that Grade 12 students will be able to make self-assessment based on Grade 12 Entrance Exam Focus areas and make necessary adjustments!

The strategy is for grade 12 students (Ethiopia) who have short time: less than a semester to take national exam. 
It has three parts: 
  • Focus areas (Revised Based on 'New Curriculum', MoE, 2023: Ethiopia: English Textbooks)!
  • 3 quick measures to be taken 
  • Compensation strategy
Dear students, if you use this strategy, I am sure, you will be able to balance (contents) your preparation and cover each area before exam!
  • Check yourself/make self-assessment and take necessary measures!
  • For English, use the next focus areas and use your Textbooks Table of Contents!
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I. Focus Areas 
Note
First, let's see some updates on New Curriculum (English: Textbooks)!
Grade 12 Entrance: ENGLISH Exam Focus Areas: Based on 1995-2015EC Exams (Ethiopia)

Grammar Focus Areas

1. Tenses 
2. Passive and Active Voices 
3. Subject Verb Agreement
4. Adverbial Clauses and Related
A. Common Clauses 
   ☞  Reason clauses
   ☞  Result clauses
   ☞  Contrast clauses
   ☞  Purpose clauses
   ☞  Relative clauses
   ☞  Time clauses
B. Other Transitional Words to:
   ☞  give emphasis
   ☞  focus attention on what follows
   ☞  give additional ideas
   ☞  give examples
   ☞  show sequence/order of events:
   ☞  show different ideas
5. Comparisons
6. As, like, as if, as though.. .
7.Conditional Clauses:
8.Regret/wish/unreal...
9.Quantifiers
   ☞  Each and Every
   ☞  No 
   ☞  None
   ☞  Any and Some 
   ☞  No one, Someone…  
   ☞  Little and A little
   ☞  A few, Few and others
10. Uses of Modal Verbs
   ☞  Obligation
   ☞  Absence of Obligation
   ☞  Possibility
   ☞  Deduction
   ☞  Ability
   ☞  Permission and Request
   ☞  Suggestion and Advice
11. Gerund, Infinitive & Participle
12. Parts of Speeches and Others
  ☞ Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs
  ☞ Adverbs, Adjectives, Articles
  ☞ Conjunctions, prepositions
  ☞ Word formations 
  ☞ Use of had better, no sooner...
13. Questions and Related Areas
  ☞ Wh-word questions
  ☞ Tag questions 
  ☞ Yes or No questions 
  ☞ Indirect questions.. .
14. Verbs and their Types
A. Main Verbs: 
   ☞  Action Verbs 
   ☞  State Verbs 
   ☞  Transitive Verbs 
   ☞  Intransitive Verbs
B. Auxiliary Verbs: 
   ☞  Verb to be 
   ☞  Verb to have 
   ☞  Verb to do
   ☞  Modal Verbs 

Writing Focus Areas

1.Word Spelling
2. Word Order/Jumbled Words
3. Paragraph Writing
A. Paragraph Coherence
B. Paragraph Development Techniques/ Methods
  ☞  Narration/Narrative 
  ☞  Exposition
  ☞  Definition
  ☞  Classification
  ☞  Description/Descriptive
  ☞  Process/process analysis
  ☞  Persuasion/Argumentative
  ☞  Cause and effect
  ☞  Contrast/comparison
C. Main Idea of Paragraph 
4. Punctuations and Capitalization
5. Letter Writing 

Communicative Activities Focus Areas

  ☞  Advice
  ☞  Permission 
  ☞  Request
  ☞  Opinion
  ☞  Agreement 
  ☞  Telephoning 
  ☞  Direction
  ☞  Shopping
  ☞  Help
  ☞  Greeting/Introduction 
  ☞  Other contextual areas

Comprehension Focus Areas

1. Sentence Comprehension
A. Nearest/closest meaning 
B. Best Combination 
2. Vocabulary
3. Reading Passage

Attention Please 

'New Curriculum' (MoE, 2023: Ethiopia: English Textbooks)!
1. Pronunciation (Not new but more emphasized)
2. Verbal reasoning
3. Analogy
4. Anatomy
5. Syllable and Syllable Stress (Not new but more emphasized)
6. Adverbial Clauses of Time (Not new but more emphasized)
7. Sentence fragmentation
8. Run-on sentences
9. Participles and Participles phrases (Not new but more emphasized)
10. Misplaced Participles/Misplaced Modifiers
11. Dangling Modifiers
12. Faulty parallelism 
13. Wordiness 
14. Common mistakes in sentence writing
15. Jumbled paragraph
16. Agenda setting 

Note
  • Dear students, not only English Subject, but also you should and could do these for other subjects; taking your textbooks' table of contents.
  • There are a lot of English Worksheets with answers, explanations and exam taking strategies/exam techniques almost on all of the above listed areas, except a few areas are available, for free, on our: 
Our Materials/Contents :
  1. Special Handouts 
  2. Grade 12 University Entrance (Ethiopia: 1995EC upto now) Questions:  
  3. Explanation (for Grade 12 University Entrance) with Exam Techniques 
  4. Answers for each question 
  5. Integrated Worksheets 
  6. Grade 12 Model Exam Questions (Various Schools in Ethiopia) with Answers 
  7. Study Techniques
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II. 3 Key Measures/ Actions to be Taken

1. Focus on Not Covered Areas: 
  • Identify the areas you have covered and haven't yet covered; then focus only on areas you haven't yet covered!
2. Have Complete Note: 
  • Identify the areas upon which you have had note and haven't yet had note; then focus on areas you haven't yet had note and had complete note! 
NB: Do this only for the areas which need note!
3. Focus on Not Understood Areas
  • Identify the areas which have understood and you haven't yet understood; then focus on areas you haven't yet understood! 
  • The only way to do this is by practicing questions: if not you can't.
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III. Using Compensation Strategy

If you have short time to improve your weakness areas, focus on the areas in which you have strength and compensate your weaknesses! 
As a rule, you have to focus on the areas in which you have weaknesses and then improve them! But 'compensation strategy' is the opposite to this. 

In compensation strategy, you focus on the areas in which you don't have weaknesses and understand them deeply so that you will not miss any question taken from that areas. This is compensation strategy.

Brief Summary in Local Languages  
  • Yeroon siif haafe, mata dureewwan siif hin galiin irratti xiyyeeffattee, dubbisuun hubachuun kan siif hin ta'uu yoo amante, mata dureewwan haalaan siif galan irratti xiyyeeffadhu! 
  • Gaafilee as keessaa bahan akka hin dhabneetti qophooytee, waldandeessisuun barbaachisaadha!
  • ያለህ ጊዜ ያልገቡክን ርዕሶች cover አድርገህ/ሽ መጨረስ የማያስችል መሆኑን ከተረዳህ፣ ያልገቡክ ርዕሶች ላይ ከማተኮር ይልቅ የገቡክ ላይ በደንብ ማተኮር ይጠቅማል። 
  • ከገቡክ ርዕሶች ውስጥ የሚወጡ ጥያቄዎችን "ድብን" አድርገህ በመስራት "ማካካስ" እንድትችል የገቡክ ርዕሶች ላይ በደንብ አትኩረህ መዘጋች ያስፈልጋል! 
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