Faculty of translation theory and practice department of translation theory and practice

MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIAL EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
TASHKENT STATE UNIVERSITY OF THE UZBEK LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE NAMED AFTER ALISHER NAVAI


FACULTY OF TRANSLATION THEORY AND PRACTICE
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSLATION THEORY AND PRACTICE


COURSEWORK

THEME: DEVELOPING STUDENT'S TEST TAKING COMPETENCE

Scientific adviser: Khujakulova Nargiza
Student: Sotiboldiev Jasurbek
Group: 402
Tashkent 2022

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION		3
CHAPTER 1. THE THEORIES ABOUT DEVELOPING STUDENT'S TEST TAKING COMPETENCE		5
The role of test taking in teaching English		5
Test taking strategies		9
CHAPER 2. Stages of test taking competence		13
CONCLUSION		22
REFERENCES		24

INTRODUCTION

Taking a test is similar to taking a ride in a car. Although no one in the car has total control of the car and every driving situation, the person in the car who has the greatest sense of control is the driver. Therefore, the driver frequently handles driving situations in a more relaxed and comfortable manner than the passengers in the car.

Similarly, the person in the test situation who is the most relaxed and comfortable is the person who has a greater sense of control. Therefore, to reduce the average anxiety that is a part of preparing for and taking a test, you need to work on gaining a sense of control in the testing situation.
You can feel less anxious in a testing situation by learning to control what you can - your emotional self, physical self and academic self. Students often forget that their body and mind are integral; thus, both need to be carefully attended to, especially at particularly stressful times like test time. If the emotional and physical selves are attended to and controlled, then the academic self will be allowed to perform at its best.
Test-taking skills are cognitive skills that allow students to undertake any test-taking
situation in an appropriate manner, and to know what to do before, during, and after
the test. These skills help students to translate their knowledge from classroom learning to answering and responding to questions when taking tests.
Every year, a few weeks after new freshmen students started on their course of studies in Computer Science, many lecturers complain that some of their students are ill-equipped with those competences that are necessary to study successfully. Hence, these students struggle. This situation can be observed universally, at different universities and in various countries. On the other hand, at the same time there usually are some students around, which meet study requirements rather

easily. To effectively deal with this heterogeneity, lecturers need to gain a quick overview of initial competences in their student cohorts. This paper describes the development of a test that assesses first-year students' initial cognitive competences as well as basic knowledge in maths and computer usage. On this basis, lecturers can adapt their lectures to address the students’ current level, in order to quickly develop those skills that are still missing. We have been using this test for four years, for a pilot study as well as three regular runs. So far, we have collected test results of over 750 students.

First insights into the results confirm our assumption that important competences
are lacking in many freshmen students. As a consequence, we adapt our
teaching in introductory courses, to enable students to close the gap and quickly
meet study requirements.