The worst thing to do in the TEF/TCF Canada writing section
In my experience, the biggest mistake is starting a writing task without a plan. Even if you’re brilliant at writing off the cuff in Russian, please don’t rely on that talent when you take the exam. ⠀
Some may feel that planning eats up preparation time. Especially if the topic seems obvious. In fact, a plan significantly saves your time and effort, structures and directs your thoughts. And in this case, there is definitely no risk of accidentally going to the wrong steppe and then hastily correcting what was written. ⠀
In order to make the written assignment work faster and more efficiently during the exam, I suggest breaking it down into 5 stages. ⠀
1️⃣Read the assignment carefully and make sure you thoroughly understand every word and general meaning. If you don’t grasp the essence of the issue, don’t figure out what aspects you need to cover, this will negate all your efforts. ⠀
2️⃣Actually a plan. It is not necessary to write it down in detail; short abstracts are sufficient. If your task is to compose an argumentative essay/letter, then you need to determine the arguments on which the text will be based. If you are writing an article in the genre of an incident, it is worth thinking through the storyline. And so on... ⠀
3️⃣Prepare several beginning and ending options in advance. When checking students' texts, I pay special attention to this issue. There is no universal introduction or conclusion. You need to select them depending on the type of text, topic, etc. But if you keep several blanks in your head, you will quickly be able to find the necessary phrases and save time for the main semantic part. ⠀
4️⃣Write the text itself according to the prepared plan. ⠀
5️⃣Be sure to check what you have written - read the task again, analyze whether the topic has been covered, whether all questions have been answered, etc. Also pay attention to spelling and punctuation.
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