The Malaysian University English Test (commonly abbreviated as MUET) is a test of English language proficiency, largely used for university admissions in Malaysia. The test is set and run by the Malaysian Examinations Council. MUET is largely recognised in Malaysia and Singapore, with limited recognition in other countries worldwide.1 MUET consists of 4 sections, which are speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
I spent some one and a half year preparing for MUET while I was in form six and it is this period of time that I focus very much on learning English. It was like “life-changing”, I started to enjoy learning it, not only have I improved very much on English proficiency, but I was also exposed to various topics that I might never have learnt had I chosen not to take MUET and not met a teacher who aroused my interest in learning English. Remember two years ago I was still “afraid” of English, I even had the thought of “Could I not take this subject?”
I believe you are here for a reason, writing is not as difficult as you think. Believe me, I used to get a really bad result in English, yet I am still here writing this for people just like the previous me who might really need this. So, I am going to tell you my secret know-how of writing that I discovered along my MUET journey.
First, you have to choose a topic to write. Don’t spend too much time on this. You can simply ask one from your teacher, get one online, or find it in your reference books.
🔎 Research
After choosing a topic, don’t start to write right away. All you need to do is to collect information as much as you can. It is so much easier to get information today. By the click of a mouse, you could get almost every information you want.
If you are going to write topics about relationship, you could get much information in the form of news, article, etc by entering the keywords like “friends”, “spouse”, or “family” via any search engine like Google. Go through the websites, read those articles online which contain the information or data you need. After that, you are encouraged to record or jot down the important information — it could be in the form of mind map — so that you could refer to it while writing. By reading more and more articles online, you may realize that you could read even faster every time you read another one, and of course your language and writing skills must become better and better. This is why I found out that if you are below the level of intermediate, it is wise for you to start reading before you dive into writing.
Reading someone else’s articles, online writing, or books is like stealing their experience and ready-made findings. They have left clues to us. All you need to do is extracting their essence, study their way of writing, and the precious information that you need.
The first thing you need to do after collecting enough information is to write, just try to write anything no matter it is right or wrong. The first word, first sentence, second, introduction…
A small trick is to write in your point of view. Never try to force you to agree with and write someone else’s ideas if those ideas do not even resonate with you!
Here’s what I did after doing research on the topic “Face-to-face bullying is dangerous than cyberbullying”
✏️ Practice
Have you ever wondered why are there people who demonstrate outstanding result in every field ? Why are there some people who always get a really good result in their examination? Why are some able to write a really long essay without any effort seemingly? Is there really in-born talent?
Warren Buffett’s almost obsessive study of businesses began when he was just nine years old, he spends 5 to 6 hours each day reading financial statements of companies. Mozart is famously known for writing music at age 6. They simply worked harder and even started earlier. People with superior talent simply work very much harder than everybody else.2 Your friends who write or speak really well in English simply because they spent a lot more time than others in learning and practicing it. What if I did not start out at a young age? It’s fine for anybody to start learning something at any age! Although you are not the best writer, you can certainly become a much better one as long as you keep practicing.
In fact, writing is like doing any other things, you know how to bake only after you try to do it, you know how to drive only after you learnt it, and you begin to master it only after you do it over and over again. Every time you write, you are definitely improving. You would become familiar with it and write more fluently over time, as your brain is naturally constructing and structuring every sentence for you in a faster pace than the last time you did.
Now, it’s your turn!
Make your own schedule (It would be hard to write consistently without schedule unless it has become a habit)
Include “writing” in your schedule (once a week / twice a month)
Stick to your schedule!
These are the 4 books with full of my writing that I wrote in about 2 years. Seems impossible to you? I can do it, so can you!
👩🏫 Find a Mentor
Simply practice is not enough. You need external feedback. You need a teacher or mentor to guide you, remind you your mistakes, and encourage you particularly those who lack discipline. You should choose a mentor who is able to guide you based on your current level of proficiency.
Thanks Ong Jean, my MUET teacher. It is because of her that I develop the habits of reading and writing in English. She knows that encouragement is a key to arouse motivation. More importantly, her way of teaching really suits me.
I had a teacher who taught me English a few years ago, I did learn something from her, but I had the feeling of fear whenever I stepped into her classroom, I even lost confidence in learning English. I guess the main reason is encouragement. I did not receive any encouragement from her, instead, I felt that I was blamed for not having fundamentals even though I was trying my best. Again, choose a teacher who can trigger you interest in learning English.
Keep doing the same thing without ever knowing your mistakes is counterproductive, you may get bored very soon even though you started enthusiastically. You are not improving and growing from your mistakes. After receiving feedback from your mentor, you should
1. Realize your shortcomings
Mentor is someone who make us aware of our blind spots and kick our butts when we get slack. When they give us feedback, we should analyze our mistakes by listing it out and then refer to it every time you write.
2. Re-alignment
It’s time to amend your writing. You could amend it by following your teacher’s suggestion.
3. Improvement
You are improving every time you practice, but how? After you write, ask yourself questions like “Is there better way to write this sentence?” or “How can I write a better introduction?”. After that, you should measure your result every week and every month to ensure you are constantly getting better.
4. Pushing beyond your comfort zone
Try to challenge yourself with a harder topic than the last one.
Thank you for reading this till the very end!
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Adam Khoo
wow this is very very well written! gained lots of insights and encouragements to write better next time!! thank you!