The English Diagnostic Test

Most students freak out when they find out they have a test to do first thing before lectures start.
You may be concerned that this will separate you out into different bands of people right from the get go.  Fear not, the English diagnostic test is designed just to make sure that you have a decent grasp of English.

It's mainly designed for non-native speakers of English.  You don't even need Year 12 or Year 13 English.  So long as you are able to write a decent essay, you should be fine.

The test is broken into three sections.

The format:

Section 1: Reading Comprehension
Time: 10 - 15 min approx.
A short paragraph from an article is given to you.  Any words that may be specific to the content are defined at the bottom as well.  Five or six questions are given to you and you have three lines to write a short answer.  You mainly have to state basic facts from the article. 
For us, we had an article on sport doping (doping was also defined), and one of the questions asked about the author's opinion.


Section 2: Dictation / Listening Comprehension
A few sentences are read out at a time.  Then a question is asked about the sentences that were just read.  You can take notes while the audio is playing.  The sentences contained words that most people would know.
For example, from what I recall:
"In NZ, the floor at ground level is called the ground floor.  The floor above it is called the first floor.
However in America the floor at ground level is called the first floor.  The floor above it is the second floor.  What is the floor one level above ground level called in New Zealand?"

Section 3: Essay Writing
Time: 30 min
An article is given to you to read.  You are then given a question with which you must agree OR disagree with. I think we were only given one topic and the article was pretty irrelevant to the topic we had to write about so it might be better to skim read the article to get the general gist of it.



In summary, the English diagnostic test is not something to really worry about.  If you think English is not your strong point, perhaps do some English comprehension e.g. reading an article and summarising the main points and author's view.

Most people who take the test pass it.
If you fail, cheer up since there are still two chances after it to pass it.  Just make sure you turn up to the allocated catch-up time (I know someone who missed it).

Also for anyone still worrying about the test, here is a link to the official information from Otago:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/englishlinguistics/english/health-sciences-test.html