When you get into HKUST as a postgraduate student (MPhil or PhD student), it is mandatory to teach something to undergraduate students as TA(Teaching Assistant). According to an orientation I joined yesterday, although it is a paid work, TA is not just a part-time job but regarded as one of the important educational programs for graduate students in HKUST. After the graduation, they will have a lot of time to explain their ideas or outcomes to others in whatever field they work. In order to deliver a good presentation in such a situation, experiences you got from being a TA should be very helpful. Before starting your TA works, all of the graduate students are supposed to take a series of classes to get some knowledge of teaching. I will write the experience I get from this class in due course.
However, what waits for them firstly is an English test called ELPA(English Language Proficiency Assessment) (not Emacs Lisp Package Archive). It’s a 8-minutes speaking test conducted before the class to being a TA. Booking for the test can be made online depending on your schedule. Particularly in this year, the test was held on Zoom due to the pandemic of COVID-19. I took it on Aug 18th and there were two instructors in the meeting room. The test had two parts. In the first part, I was instructed to talk about raising a pet with one of the instructors. After that, I was asked to answer the solutions to an environmental issue after 3 minutes preparation time. Throughout the test, I thought I did it not so badly.
Today, I received the test result and I knew I passed the exam! The examinees are scored based on 4 criteria ranging from 0 to 7 points. The criteria are “Topic development and coherence”, “Vocabulary range and accuracy”, “Grammar range and accuracy” and “Pronunciation”. The border score is 4 and if any of the scores is 3 or below, you have to take a supplementary English class. My score on each criteria is 4, that means I passed the exam! Although I got enough points in this exam, I will keep improving my English skills.