This document discusses exam preparation classes and their potential positives and negatives. It examines general English courses which aim to develop real-world skills versus exam-focused classes. While exams can motivate students and measure progress, exam classes risk overemphasizing testing at the expense of teaching. The document suggests encouraging a growth mindset in students and reducing the potential negative effects of an overly exam-focused approach through balancing testing with teaching.

1. Examining obsessions:
Exam preparation classes,
their effects on the individual and society,
and what we can do to reduce the negatives
James Egerton

2. Albacete, Spain.

3. What are we going to talk about?
 Positives of exams
 Negatives of exams
 How can we avoid or transform the negatives?
- General courses
- Exam classes

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(Cambridge FCE writing marking criteria)

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9. - General courses
- Exam classes

10. General courses
Objectives
Real-world Academic
- Survive a weekend trip to London
- Watch an English-language film in
original voice and understand the
plot
- Read a novel in English
- Hold a conversation with an English-
speaking friend
- Pass an official B2 exam by the end
of 2016
- Pass English-language modules of my
university degree

11. General courses

12. General courses
TBL

13. Exam classes
´The biggest problem is the potentially negative
effect that the exam can have on the exam
class…A course consisting far more of testing than
teaching´.
May, P., 1996. Exam Classes, Oxford: Oxford
University Press (page 4)

14. Exam classes
Encourage growth mindsets!
Mindset theory (Professor Carol Dwerk):

15. ENGLISH TEACHER
OR
EXAM COACH?

16. Thanks for attending!
Any questions or comments?
Get in touch:
james@nessie.es
I also blog on more TEFL topics at:
www.nessie.es/author/jamesegerton