Important Notice for Cert III Students

This post is only for my certivicate III students who come to AMES in my evening class. You will have to do a second writing test this week. You will have to write 300 words. 299 words are not enough. You will write a narrative. A narrative is an even that happened to you or a situation you have been in. It is like a simple story that you tell.

There are different things you can write about. I will give you some ideas to think about:

• an exciting/unusual event at work (The day you got your driving licence)
• a dangerous encounter (The day when a robber entered your house)
• a difficult experience (When you lost your train ticket and got a fine)
• a natural disaster (The day when the river water flooded your city)
• a difficult childhood experience (An annoying boy in your class)
• an imaginary event (The day you became a film star at Holywood)

I want you to tell me when and where the event took place. I also want you to use the past simple tense in your writing. I want you to use adjectives like (nice - beautiful - sunny - wonderful - dangerous). I also expect you to produce good handwriting so I don't need to go and get my eyes tested after reading your test. You will have to write more than one paragraph. Of course I expect you to make some small grammar mistakes. Very big grammar mistakes will affect your test of course.

There are many transitional words and phrases you can use.

First of all ...................
in addition to that, .............
after that .................
later on ................
From my point of view ............
I would have thought that = I think that ........
in the end ..................

You will have to use at least one of these words:
because, so, hence

This test will tell you how good your English is and if you need to do some extra work on your own at home. It is a good idea to ask some "Wh" questions to get more ideas of things to write about.
Think of a bank robbery that you witnessed one day.

What is the title of your text?   (A Robbery at a Bank )
Whre did the event take place?
What was the weather like?
Why were you there?
What time of the day?
What were you doing?
What were you wearing?
What other people were involved?
What were the people doing at the place?
How did you react to the situation? What did you do?
How did you feel when the event was taking place?
How did the event end?
What did you learn from the experience?

Here is a sample of the writing:

The Day I Witnessed a Bank Robbery

Last October I went to the Commonwealth Bank in Box Hill to withdraw some money. I needed the money to buy some food for my family. It was a sunny day and there was no rain at all. I felt happy because I had three days off work and wanted to spend them with my family.   ............

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I want you to write simple sentences. If you need any help in class, ask me before you start. Go to Google and search "Writing a narrative" and see how much reading you can do. Good luck.  

Why I came to Australia

My name is Abdullah and I come from Saudi Arabia. I came to Australia in February this year. I love learning. I went to a very good school in Saudi Arabia. I came to Melbourne to do a degree at Victoria University. I hope to finish my degree in three years. I want to finish my studies and then go back to my country. I want to work in my city. I want to work at a bank.

I have one problem. My problem is that my English is not good enough. I can't understand people when they talk to me. I find it difficult to answer the phone. I don't speak English good enough. I think that my English is poor compared to other people.

I am doing an English course now at VU. My course will take one year to finish. I hope that by the end of this year, my English will be good enough to start my study at uni.

I go to class every day. I make sure I go on time. It is not nice to come to class late or not to come to class at all. In Australia students learn in a different way than in my country. The teacher in my country keeps talking all the time. Students have to listen and not talk at all.

In Australia teachers don't talk all the time. Students don't keep quiet and just listen. They talk to each other and to the teacher. Students in Australia don't have to ask the teacher before they go to the toilet. They just open the door quietly and go. They show that they are nice to other students by not talking loudly in class.

In my home I have a computer. My computer is connected to the interent. I use the internet to learn English. I listen to lessons. I read a lot. I also watch TV in the evening. I like watching the news.

Teachers in Australia are very good. They listen to me if I have a problem in class. They give me all the help I need. If I am late one day or if I skip class, they email me the lessons I missed. Sometimes I don't understand a word or a sentence. I look the word up in my dictionary. If I still don't understand, I go to my teacher. My teacher helps me understand what the word means.

I find life in Australia very different from my country. In Melbourne it is sometimes hot and cold in the same day. It is sometimes sunny and rainy in the same day. I make sure I take my umbrella with me before I leave home in the morning. I don't have a car and I use the train.

Trains here are good but they are expensive. Tickets are very expensive. The good thing is that I can use one ticket and use a train, a tram or a bus. In my country I have to buy three tickets. I buy one ticket to use a train. I buy another ticket to use a tram. Still I buy a third one to use a tram. We don't have trams in every city in my country.

In class I learn with people from different countries. I made friends with all the students. I have friends from India, Korea, Japan and Iran. I also have friends who study at VU. They are not in my class but we are friends.

I like playing football. I have some friends who like playing football too. We play football every Sunday. We play football for two hours. We have fun. After we play football, we have a meal. We cook some meat and vegetables. We also eat some fruits.

Take a Test Online

After you finish the test, please click on the magnifying glass to get feedback on your test.

After publishing this lesson, my Saudi students told me that there is no public transport at all in Saudi Arabia. All people have cars. If they don't have cars, they use taxis.