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Education and Religion Affairs, are held twice a year (in May and November)and are well-supported by the fully - equipped tertiary education system. In the first phase of the KPG system in (April2003) examinations were designed and implemented at 'upper intermediate' level (B2 on the European Council System) in 4 languages: English, French, German and Italian. In 2007 B1 level 'Intermediate' was introduced and in May 2008 a combined exam for A1+A2 ('Beginner + Elementary') was introduced. In November2008 'full mastery' C2 level will be examined for the first time in Spanish. The full expansion of the system has already been designed so that very soon all 6 graded levels will be examined and certified. The educational and administrative support for these examinations by experienced and specialised personnel, contributed to the direct award of this new institution, which is now considered a particularly competitive and reliable system of certification language learning. Thus it is already recognized as evidence of knowledge of a foreign language in most Institutes of Higher Education in this country. It is also recognised by ASEP. It is included in the all bilateral education agreements that are contracted by the Ministry. A concerted effort is being made to inform the appropriate institutions responsible in all EU countries, and brief them about the KPG.
We strongly recommend that before starting the course, you review and revise the English you already know. Find your old text books, exercise books, notes etc... and read them again. You should already be familiar with their contents, but having another look at them will help you a great deal. It will reinforce what you already know, and refresh your memory for things you may have forgotten. This will serve as both a solid foundation, and a bridge between your current knowledge and the rest of the C2 programme. Study Time Self-discipline is by far the most important criterion for the successful completion of any course. This is especially true of this programme. You must be very rigorous with your study plans, and find the time to work on the course every week. You must complete the weekly programme, which we give you as an absolute minimum requirement. In addition, we expect you to read books, newspapers, magazines, and view internet sites in English. You should also watch TV programmes and DVDs both with and without subtitles. The more you do this the better you will get at understanding, speaking and writing English. You should spend at least 5hours per week dedicated to learning English using a combination of these methods. Please read the section called "Specific work for C2 papers" which explains this in more detail. Student Forum As an aid to encouraging student participation and integration, an online forum is provided through which both students and tutors may interact. This may be used for general discussion, guided debates, general chat or simply as a means of making friends with other students on the course. Course Monitoring. Your progress will be constantly monitored all the way through the course by the tutors, who are all native English speakers. The platform on which the course is designed permits the tutors to see which exercises you have completed, and the grades you have achieved. It also allows them to give you written feedback in the form of corrected essays and useful comments. In order for you to gain practice and experience with your spoken English, additional face - to - face aural tutorials are also regularly scheduled.
Many of the exercises are automatically marked by the platform, giving you instant results. If you have difficulty answering a question, hints are provided, and of course the correct answers may also be viewed. When calculating the grades for the exercises however, the system will take into account the number of correct answers, mistakes, requested hints and attempts, and will calculate your score accordingly. Your score then represents a true reflection of your current ability in performing the particular task. The Course Format. The 12 month course starts with a full-length B2 exam, which designed to check your current level of English. If you have already previously achieved B2 level, or equivalent, you will find this exam fairly straightforward. The main course itself then begins and is split into two main parts. Part 1 consists of 28 weeks of theory and exercises. These increase in difficulty as the course progresses, leading up to C2 level. Included in the exercises each week is a sample of one of the papers in the KPG exam format. These are only half- length papers to start with, but build up to full-length later in the course. At regular intervals in the course we will also give you full-length C1 exams for you to complete. This gives both us and you the opportunity to further measure your progress at the level between B2 and C2. In part 2 of the course you will complete a full-length C2 exam every week for 20 weeks. These will all be done under exam conditions. This will prepare you very well for the actual C2 exam which you should take shortly after completing the course. If you do everything we recommend, you should be able to not only pass the C2 exam, but also get a good grade too! There will naturally be short breaks from the course for Easter, Christmas and a longer break for the summer holidays.
Study Requirements
Below is a list of recommendations and a lot of good advice which you must not ignore. We want to you get the most out of
this course and to reach the level required to pass the KPG C2 exam. Please do not ignore any of the following points.
Tips for Studying 1.Allocate yourself enough time in your schedule every week to sit somewhere that is peaceful and has internet access. You can then concentrate on reading and understanding the weekly theory and completing the exercises and exam questions undisturbed. 2.Develop a system for making additional notes which best suits you. These may be grammar rules, syntax, examples of collocation, vocabulary, idioms, or phrasal verbs. In other words, anything you find useful to reinforce what you are learning from both the platform and also from other sources. 3.If you make mistakes, learn from them! 4.Sometimes you will be given research tasks to perform in addition to the exercises. This will normally require you to find more examples of words or expressions relating to a particular subject. You must try and do the research. In the process of further exploring the particular subject, you will learn more vocabulary and become familiar with other sources of information. You may wish to share these on the forum with other students. 5.You must have hard copies (i.e. books) of the following: a) A good English Dictionary b) A good Greek - English / English - Greek Dictionary c) An English Thesaurus Dictionary d) A Book of Phrasal Verbs e) A Book of English Idioms 6. Any textbooks containing advanced English grammar are also very useful. These will all be extremely helpful for you in every aspect of the course, and are items which you will keep for ever afterwards. It is worth investing in them! Books published by Oxford or Cambridge University Press are especially good. Learn how to use them effectively, and do so regularly. You may even occasionally just browse through them for fun. You will be surprised how much you can learn just by doing this! 7. Microsoft Word has a spell-checker (F7), a Thesaurus (Shift +F7) and can also have a translation option installed. In addition there many internet sites which do all the above and also offer grammar tips.
For all the papers and exercises, make sure you have understood all the theory and completed all the exercises you are given every week. Check any wrong answers and learn from your mistakes. In addition to the work we give you, we also expect you to do extra work in your own time for each paper, as is explained below.
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the novel in English, and if you get stuck, you can read the Greek translation. Conversely, you can read passages in the Greek version and practice translating them into English. This is a great way of learning English and enjoying the book and the experience too!
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difficult passages. Learn from these and make notes for future reference. Exactly the same is true for DVDs. Watch them both with and without subtitles. Some films may be hard to understand because the language used is very colloquial or the actors are speaking with strong regional accents. The film may also contain a lot of background noise and sound effects, or the sound quality of the dialogue may be poor. This is all good for you as it simulates real life. Choosing films with more dialogue than action is preferable to begin with, as these often allow you to hear what is being said more clearly.
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