The MUET writing paper is paper 4 of the Malaysian University English Test (MUET). You are going to get two tasks in the writing paper. The second task which is task 2 is the extended writing essay. In this task you are going to write an essay that is going to ask of you, your opinion on certain subject matter.
Writing task 2 tests you on your ability to communicate in writing your ideas on certain issues. The issues or topics that are going to be covered in task 2 of the writing paper would be relating to your life as a student or would be student. So, you are going to find the topics covered would be relating to your academic life and the educational environment.
Writing an essay maybe a frightening exercise for some. As a teacher, there are instances where I see students staring at the blank pages not knowing where to start with the writing of the extended essay. In this blog I’m going to share with you what you can expect in MUET writing task 2. This is because I feel that once you know what to expect in the writing paper, some worry about it will be taken off your chest. So do read on.
The MUET Writing exam specifications
This is the MUET writing exam specification.
- WRITING EXAM SPECIFICATIONS
- DURATION: 75 minutes
- QUESTIONS: 2 tasks - Task 1 & Task 2
- WEIGHTING: 25%
- MARKS: 90 marks
The MUET writing test will be held on a Saturday. You will sit for this test with two other papers which are the reading test and the listening test. So on that Saturday you will start with the reading test. Then after a one hour break, you will continue with your writing test and then you’re listening test.
The second paper on that day which is the writing paper will be 75 minutes long. There are going to be two tasks that you will have to complete for this paper. They are task 1 and task 2. So, you will get one hour and 15 minutes to complete both tasks.
One hour and 15 minutes may not sound that long and you are right to think this way. Time will fly very fast for this test. What I will advise you to do here is not to spend too much time thinking and planning.
You should use only 5 minutes planning your response for task 1 and your essay in task 2. You would need to spend most of the time that you get into writing and fulfilling the two tasks set for you to do in task 1 and task 2.
Use only 25 minutes to complete task 1, after which you are immediately going to start answering task 2.
The weighting of the Writing paper is 25% of the whole MUET test. You will find that all the other papers namely the listening, speaking and reading tests have an equivalent weighting of 25% also. This means that all papers have the same importance in MUET.
The maximum marks you can score for the writing paper is 90 marks.
Marks distribution for MUET Writing Task 2
- TASK 1
- MARKS: 30 marks
- TIME: 25 minutes
- TASK: Email or letter
- TASK 2
- MARKS: 60 marks
- TIME: 50 minutes
- TASK: Extended writing
The above shows you how the marks will be distributed between the two tasks. Task 1 will give you 30 marks and task 2 will give you the maximum of 60 marks. It is plain to see that task 2 will give you double the marks that you can get in task 1. This is not to say that task 1 is less important because it is not. However, I would like to emphasize that you will need to get the writing in task 2 right. You need to make sure that you understand how to write an extended essay for task 2 well. Try and get the highest marks that you can get here in task 2. It can be done!
In the aspects of time, I would like to advise you to spend 25 minutes for task 1 and 50 minutes of your time for task 2. You will have to write a short reply email or letter in task 1. Complete this first and then start writing your response for the extended essay in task 2. Let’s understand the question that you will get in task 2 little bit further In the task overview.
MUET Writing Task 2 Overview
The question that you will find in task 2 is that there is going to be a statement made on a topic or a problem. And your task, is for you to write an essay giving your opinion on the topic given.
This is a sample question for writing task 2. I shall not explain this question as I have another blog that will be focussing on this quention on a person’s choice of career directly.
Types of essay you can find in task 2
The writing task that you will get in task 2 will be one of the following: either a discursive, an argumentative or a problem-solving essay. All three of these essays test you on your critical thinking skills.
However, how your essay will be written will be quite different. In a discursive essay, you would need to present your arguments as though you are discussing the topic, which means that you would have to offer both points of view.
In an argumentative essay, you would need to take a stand on whether you agree or disagree with the statement given.
In a problem-solution essay, you would have to offer solutions based on the topic given. And then based on your knowledge and experience, you would have to present your views on the topic and your essay should be written accordingly to the type of essays that you will get. You would also need to support your arguments by including evidence and examples that you can see in our society in general.
For this extended writing essay you will need to write more than 250 words. Writing a longer essay will let you include explanations and elaborations for each content point. An extended essay allows you to show your understanding of a topic as you present your opinion.
For writing task 2, you would need to write in a more formal way. This is because as mentioned before the topics that you will be getting for this task would be relating to the academic and educational environment. And so, you will need to be writing and presenting your point of view as you will be writing in an academic paper. This would be in line with the writing context of higher education.
MUET writing task 2 assessment criteria
- MARKS ALLOCATION
- Task fulfilment
- Language & organisation
Let’s take a look now at the MUET task 2 assessment criteria. Examiners will be marking your essay according to these criteria. They are task fulfillment and language and organization. Task fulfillment means whether you have fulfilled the task set for you to complete in task 2. This is for you to write accordingly as the question wants you to. For language and organization is when the examiners provide you marks for your language use.
For task fulfillment the examiners will first of all look at whether you have understood the topic given. Next is weather the content points that you provide are aligned with the topic and that they are suitable. In other words, the examiners will look at whether you have fulfilled the task or not.
Next, in the language and organization examiners will check the accuracy of language, your sentence structure and vocabulary use in your essay. This will also include your organization of ideas. Because this is a language test, your use of language is going to be very important here.
You need to focus on the aspect of language especially for the extended writing essay. As a student you would know yourself on which aspects of the English language that you need to improve. These could be on the aspects of grammar, sentence construction, vocabulary etc. And there are a number of things that you can do to improve on these aspects.
It goes without saying that you would need to put in some work to see improvements in your writing. Keep on working on your writing and you will see the results!
