Why might you have failed the Module One exam?

Delta Module One is tough - and nearly 30% of candidates fail. However, the Module One exam is, in my opinion,  very fair and reliable, and does a good job of distinguishing which candidates are and aren't at Delta standard (Pass and Fail candidates) and which are slightly or considerably above average (Merit and Distinction candidates). Of course, there's always the possibility of bad luck - if you go down with a migraine in the middle of the exam, it's obviously going to affect your result. And Cambridge do occasionally make mistakes - if you think this is true for you you can ask (through your centre) for an admin check (to make sure it wasn't a clerical error and the correct result was registered) and, if you're still not satisfied, for a complete remark. There is a charge for these checks but it is refunded if your query was correct. See the Enquiries and Appeals page on the Cambridge website.  But generally, if you haven't achieved the result you wanted, there will be a good reason. What are these reasons?

1. You may simply not have a deep enough understanding of the items on the Module One syllabus. If you've done a course, these should have been covered - but no course has the time to cover everything in detail. You need to have done a considerable amount of background reading (from the books on the Cambridge reading list or, if you don't have access to them, from reliable sources on the web) and/or have viewed the most important videos available on the web in order to consolidate and extend what was discussed in the course sessions. If you've been self-preparing, this reading and viewing is even more important. This weakness could be a problem for example if you haven't researched sufficiently into the topic that comes up in Paper 2/3.

2. You may have a good grasp of the theory but not have considered how it needs to be applied differently for different learner types or in different learning contexts. This is a particular problem for candidates whose experience is limited to only a few different contexts. You need to be able to draw on your knowledge of and refer to a wide range of contexts in the exam - different L1 groups, different group sizes, different age groups, different course types, etc.

3. You may be weak in a specific syllabus area. For example, if your problem is a weak understanding of the language systems, this will affect your performance on Paper 1/5. But as this question carries 50 marks - ie 25% of the marks for the whole exam, doing badly on it could easily bring down your overall marks radically. 

4. You may have done the reading but have misunderstood what is being said. There are two remedies for this. First of all, you need to go over things again - probably changing the study skills you use. And secondly, you need to do a lot more practice activities with suggested answers. And it's no use "cheating" and just looking at the suggested answers. You must do the task yourself first and then compare your answer with the SAs - looking for inaccuracies, for information you left out, and information you included which was not needed or irrelevant. You should then do some follow-up reading to work more on the area. You'll find a lot of help for this in the articles included in the ELT Notebook - a lot of which come from our Module One course. They may be practice activities for Paper 2/3 (you'll find the questions at the top - write your own answers before looking at the suggested answers in the article itself), or for Paper 1/5 - see the Language Matters section and the Tasks and Input sub-section. Again, make sure you do the tasks first before looking at the suggested answers.

5. You may not have a clear understanding of "what Cambridge wants" in the answers for each question, causing you either to omit the information which carries marks, or to waste time adding information which doesn't - and in the exam you don't have time to waste.  This also means that you may do more badly than you might have done if...

6. ...you don't know how much time you can afford to devote to each task, or you haven't practised answering the tasks to the time available. If you don't finish answering all the tasks on each paper, you're obviously going to lose marks which will bring down your marks.

There are 200 marks available over the two papers, and the marks you need to achieve for each grade are:

• Pass: approximately 100 
• Pass with Merit: approximately 130 
• Pass with Distinction: approximately 150

Why "approximately"? This allows Cambridge to consider factors such as:

• the quality of your answers. See p 11 of the Handbook for Tutors and Candidates to see what is meant by "quality". So let's imagine you were a borderline candidate because you didn't manage to finish all the tasks on each paper in the time allowed and only achieved 99 marks. However,  the answers you did give actually matched the description of the quality of a Merit grade. That would allow Cambridge to give you the benefit of the doubt and award you a pass grade.
• How the results overall compared with results in previous exams. For example, if it was clear from the number of candidates receiving each grade that this session's exam had been more difficult than usual, the marks needed might be lowered slightly. Again, see p. 11 of the Handbook.

So unless you did develop that migraine halfway through, you can probably trust that your result is an accurate reflection of your current ability - which means that if you want to retake the exam to gain a higher grade, you have more work to do.

The most usual mistake that people make at this point is to think that they have plenty of time and to leave everything to the last few weeks before the following exam - finding that they then gain exactly the same result. You can't do everything in a few weeks. You need to start immediately you receive your result and work steadily and systematically to ensure you improve radically in whichever of the six weaknesses listed above brought your mark down - and this may be just one of the areas, more than one or all six.

And this is where our exam preparation course can help. It contains ample work to allow you to improve your performance over the three months before the exam if you work steadily and consistently. And it's available for just a €50 donation to any charity of your choice. What does it contain?

• Three diagnostic activities which will show you exactly where you need to improve. Is it your general knowledge and understanding of the syllabus areas which is the problem, or are you weak on specific tasks? When you've done the task you'll receive the suggested answers, feedback on common problems, and suggested follow-up reading if you need to work more on the topic. Once you know what your weaknesses are, you also know which areas you need to focus on most thoroughly.
• Guided reading and viewing (all from the web, so no extra costs involved) which allow you to work steadily through all or any of the syllabus areas to improve your understanding, reading three or four articles at a time on the same topic.
• A thorough analysis of the requirements for each of the tasks on the two papers, with reference to Cambridge documents intended for candidates but not available on their website (these will be sent to you by email)...
• ... each followed by a number of exam preparation and practice activities, with suggested answers, feedback on common problems and suggested follow-up reading, to allow you to check your understanding and to do both general and timed practice of individual tasks.
• Mock exams which allow you to do timed practice of each paper - as always with suggested answers and feedback.
• Exam tips to improve your general approach to revising for and dealing with the exam papers.

Want to know more? See here for information on how to enrol.