When it comes to pre entry testing, it’s hard to find a tool that suits an individual schools needs. That’s what we found at BROWNS – we listened to our agents, both off shore and on shore, as well as our prospective students and decided that we could write our own tool that would allow us to focus on key elements that we wanted to test, and at the same time, design a tool that is user friendly for our prospective clients.
From this, we have created the BROWNS Online Placement test (BOPT). The Academic team at BROWNS has spent considerable time analysing question types for validity and reliability in scores, to ensure that we can gain an appropriate understanding of a student’s level prior to starting their course at BROWNS. This test allows us to place a student in the most appropriate level according to their ability, as well as to help students to create the most appropriate study plan to suit each student’s goals and needs while they study at BROWNS.
The BOPT is broken up into three sections. This includes Grammar; Vocabulary (or Use of English); and Reading.
Many students are familiar with typical Grammar questions. The BOPT incorporates question types that are familiar to most students, including multiple choice, cloze activities, and short written responses, so even students who may be at a lower level still have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability. The Grammar questions do get progressively harder as the test continues to allow us to understand a student’s prior knowledge in English; and therefore place accordingly.
The Vocabulary section of the test has a strong focus on phrases verbs and idiomatic language, or functional language expressions. We find that designing questions around how language is used in context allows us to gauge a student’s ability to use more natural language expressions.
The Reading test has been designed with a focus on comprehension and global reading skills to give us an understanding of a students global reading ability. A student will need to demonstrate understanding of inferring the meaning of key words from text; the ability to paraphrase information, as well as to demonstrate their ability to read for gist and comprehension.
The great thing with designing our own test is that we can keep it updated, vary question types and make improvements over time.
Don’t forget though, once a student arrives at BROWNS, a writing and speaking test is also conducted to ensure accuracy of scores, and this provides the Academic team with a well-rounded look at a student’s abilities in the four macro skills, and provides a good opportunity to discuss a student’s learning goals.
We hope you find using the new BOPT an efficient, and reliable tool.
The Academic Management Team
