作者：John Gordon(美籍)

　　Preparing for the English Portion of the Graduate School Entrance Exam Secondary Test

　　March 20, 2008

　　Congratulations to those of you who passed the initial written portion of the Graduate School Entrance Exam! You should be very proud, and you are well on your way to achieving your goal of gaining admission to a graduate program in China. However, with the written test out of the way, you now face the new challenge of passing the secondary test, or fushi, at your school of choice. In this article, I will explain the English portion of the secondary test, and give you some strategies that you can use to help you do your best on the test. I’ll focus on the speaking portion of the test, as that is the portion with which most students are least familiar.

　　Introduction to the Test

　　The English portion secondary test is administered by each school, and the format can thus vary from school to school, though most schools include both listening and speaking portions. While some schools provide candidates with detailed information about the specific format to be used, many schools leave candidates in the dark. The best indicator of the type of test used by each school is often the type of test the school administered the previous year. You can learn about the formats used by particular schools in past years by searching for accounts from students on online forums, and you should also contact your school to see if they can provide examples of test questions from previous years.

　　Listening

　　The format of the listening test is usually similar to either the listening test used on the NETEM from 2002 to 2004, or the English Band 4 and Band 6 Listening tests. To prepare for the listening test, you should spend some time doing questions from past NETEM and Band 6 listening exams.

　　Speaking

　　The speaking portion of the test generally takes the form of an interview with two to three examiners and one to four students. The examiners are usually English teachers at the university, and not professors in your area of study. The speaking test often includes one or more of the following elements:

　　1.Self-Introduction