Guide For Students - ISE A1 - Online Edition
Guide For Students - ISE A1 - Online Edition
Guide For Students - ISE A1 - Online Edition
Contents
What is ISE A1? 5
ISE A1 summary 6
Reading & Writing 6
Speaking & Listening 7
3
Foreword
Trinity’s Integrated Skills in English (ISE) exams assess all four language skills — reading,
writing, speaking and listening — in a way that reflects real-life communication in English.
This guide:
gives a summary of both modules of the ISE A1 exam — Reading & Writing and Speaking &
Listening
gives you some ideas about how to prepare for the ISE A1 exam
tells you what the examiner is looking for
tells you about results and certificates.
Please check trinitycollege.com/ISE-A1 for the latest information about Trinity’s ISE exams,
and to make sure you are using the latest version of the related documents.
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What is ISE A1?
trinitycollege.com/recognition
5
ISE A1 summary
ISE A1 summary
Reading & Writing
How long is the Reading & Writing exam? 1 hour 30 minutes.
Which skills do the reading tasks test?
Reading to understand the main idea of a paragraph.
Reading to find and understand specific information, for example a word.
Which skills do the writing tasks test?
How you use information from the reading texts in your writing.
How well you answer the question.
How you group information.
Your range of language functions, grammar and vocabulary.
trinitycollege.com/ISE-A1
6
ISE A1 summary
Independent
Conversation task
listening tasks
(4 minutes)
(8 minutes)
Subject areas
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ISE A1 summary
Task 1
You listen to a recording (3 minutes) twice. You hear four conversations and answer a question on
each one by selecting a picture. For each question, you choose from three pictures.
... ...
The examiner tells you what Listen to a recording (twice) You tell the examiner the
you have to do answer to each question
Task 2
You listen to a recording (2 minutes 30 seconds) twice. If you like, you can take some notes on
paper — you do not have to take notes and you will not get a mark for them. You then answer
three questions, based on what you heard in the recording.
... ...
The examiner tells you what Listen to a recording (twice) You tell the examiner the
you have to do answer to each question
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How to prepare for ISE A1
Reading
Do
Use graded readers, which are books specially written for A1 level learners of English.
Practise reading in English by, for example, reading English websites, newspapers or magazines
— look for subjects in English that interest you and subjects that you are studying in school or
college.
Try to understand the meaning of words you don’t know. Look at the whole sentence, the
paragraph and the context and try to think of possible meanings of the word. After you finish
reading the paragraph or the whole text, check the meanings of the words in a dictionary.
Practise highlighting words or phrases that you think are important for your answer. You can
use a highlighter pen to highlight parts of the texts or questions in the exam, if you want to.
Writing
Do
Look at the question carefully (How many different ideas are there in the question? How many
ideas do you have to write in your answer?).
Practise writing in three stages:
– plan what you want to write
– write your answer
– check your writing/answer.
Check your work to see if it is:
– organised (Is the information grouped in a way that makes sense?)
– appropriate (Have you answered the question? Have you thought about who will read
your writing?)
– accurate (Is your spelling correct? Have you used capital letters and full stops?)
– legible (Is it easy to read?).
Practise doing sample exams from the Trinity website trinitycollege.com/ISE-A1.
Practise writing in English outside class — for example, write emails or messages to friends
in English or write descriptions of things and people you know, like rooms in your house or
members of your family.
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How to prepare for ISE A1
Conversation task
Do
Be prepared to talk about all the conversation subject areas.
Think about what questions the examiner could ask about the different conversation subject
areas, and how you would answer them.
Remember to think of a question to ask the examiner about each conversation subject area.
Practise listening to English as well as speaking it — you are tested on your interactive listening
skills (how well you follow the conversation), so practise having conversations in English.
Don’t
Write down everything you hear — you don’t need 100% of the information.
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What happens on the day of the exam?
Tip
If you make a mistake, cross out your answer like this and write a new answer next to it.
Tip
Don’t just copy from the texts — always try to use your own words.
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What happens on the day of the exam?
Introductions
The examiner says ‘Hello’ and asks your name.
The examiner uses some simple greetings like
‘How are you?’.
You are not tested during the introduction
part of the exam.
Tip
It is natural to be nervous when taking an exam, but try to think of the Speaking & Listening exam
as an opportunity to talk about things that interest you. It’s a chance to show the examiner what
you can do in English.
If you don’t understand something, ask the examiner to repeat what he or she said. You might say:
‘Sorry?’ or ‘Pardon?’
Conversation task
The examiner tells you which subject you are going to talk about and then asks you a question to
start the conversation. Listen carefully and answer the examiner’s questions. You will talk about
more than one subject.
Don’t forget to ask questions too.
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What is the examiner assessing in ISE A1?
Reading
There are 20 questions in the reading section. Depending on the number of correct answers you
give, your Reading result will be Distinction, Merit, Pass or Fail.
Writing
Here are the four skills that the examiner assesses:
Task fulfilment: How well you answer the question.
Organisation and structure: How well you organise your writing, use sentences and link your
ideas together.
Language control: How well you use the language functions of ISE A1 and the range and accuracy
of the vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and spelling that you use.
Reading for writing (task 3 only): How well you use the reading texts from task 2 to write answers
using your own words in task 3.
For the writing tasks your scores in the four scales are combined. Your Writing result is Distinction,
Merit, Pass or Fail.
If you pass the reading part and the writing part, you will pass the Reading & Writing module. If you fail
either the reading part or the writing part, or both, you will not pass the Reading & Writing module.
Distinction Distinction
Merit Merit = Pass
Pass
+ Pass
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What is the examiner assessing in ISE A1?
Speaking
The examiner assesses these four abilities:
Communicative effectiveness: How well you
complete the task of having a conversation.
How well you respond to the examiner and how
you cope with problems. For example, can you
ask the examiner to repeat when you don’t
understand?
Interactive listening: How well you follow the
conversation and understand the examiner.
Language control: How well you use the
language functions of ISE A1 (see page 13) and
the range and accuracy of the vocabulary and grammar that you use.
Delivery: Your pronunciation and fluency, and how well the examiner understands you.
Your Speaking result will be Distinction, Merit, Pass or Fail.
Listening
In Independent listening task 1 you receive a score out of 4. In task 2, you receive a score out of 3.
Both scores are based on the number of correct responses you give.
Your speaking and writing are not assessed in the Independent listening tasks.
Your scores in task 1 and task 2 are combined to give your overall Listening result, which will be
Distinction, Merit, Pass or Fail.
If you pass the speaking part and the listening part, you will pass the Speaking & Listening
module. If you fail either the speaking part or the listening part, or both, you will not pass the
Speaking & Listening module.
Distinction Distinction
Merit Merit = Pass
Pass
+ Pass
You also receive a report showing your strengths and areas for future improvement in each skill.
You get this report if you pass or fail.
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