About the Trinity Exam

Trinity Exam

My approach for preparing for the Trinity Exam is very student centred.  I am fortunate that I can work with the students in small groups and give them one-on-one attention throughout the school year, to not only prepare them for the exam, but to also give them opportunities to practice their English directly with a native speaker, ask them if they any questions or concerns and give immediate feedback and support.

Grade 3 Trinity

The grade 3 Trinity Exam is an oral speaking exam that will be around 8 minutes long with an external examiner.  I have included in another post called Grade 3 Trinity - Information Manuel  exactly what is expected for the grade 3 level.  I have also included another post called Grade 3 Trinity - Practice Questions.  

I took out two students at a time and I asked them to read the practice questions and then write their answer.  I would correct their answers and then get them to write it again on a fresh worksheet with the corrected answers.  After they finished writing, I would chose randomly some of the questions to ask them and get them to answer without looking at their worksheet. They would practice reading, writing, speaking and listening with this activity. Per session, I would usually do about 5 or 6 questions with each student and spend about 15 minutes with the two students.  I would go through the entire class and then start again with the next 5 or 6 questions until we had practiced all the of the questions.  At some points, I would review and ask them questions at random from any of the worksheets we had covered in the past.  With the two students, sometimes I would make it a game or competition to make it more fun by pointing to one of the students to answer and giving them a point for each correct answer. I noticed, having them write their answers and giving them immediate feedback on their answers made a huge different helping them to answer the questions again correctly in the future.


In addition to the worksheets, I would also have a couple sheets with pictures to practice asking questions in the present continuous, practice using can/can't and to go over vocabulary words.  There are some good resources for that on the Trinity website.  Finally, I also have a worksheet with a map to practice simple directions.



Grade 4 and 5 Trinity

PART 1

Part 1 is a personal topic.  The students are required to each choose their own personal topic and to be able to answers questions about it with the examiner.  I took the students out in small groups and we went through each part of the topic together, I would ask them the questions, get their ideas, help them write their responses and then we would practice together.  The four main points for each topic are, talking about the topic in the past, likes and dislikes, how often and comparisons.  It is also good to go over the topic in the future and have a question ready to ask the examiner.  I have included a blog post with a template of the grade 4 and 5 personal topic called Grade 4 & 5 Trinity Part 1 - Template of Answers.  The examiner also told us in the feedback one year that he liked when the students brought in a personal item or poster related to their topic.

PART 2

The resources for grade 4  and 5 trinity also include worksheets with questions, but these questions are about specific categories.  You can find these under Grade 4: PART 2   -  Discussion Topics Practice and Grade 5 PART 2 - Discussion Questions Practice

For grade 4 

Food
Weekend/Seasonal Activities
Hobbies and Sports
School and Work
Shopping
Holidays

For grade 5

Festivals
Means of Transportation
Special Occasions
Entertainment
Music
Recent Personal Events

I would use a similar method as I did for the grade 3 Trinity by getting them to answer the questions in a worksheet, correcting it and then getting them to rewrite their answers correctly and finally practicing the questions and answers with the assistant.  Another way I like to get them to practice is as a class or in partners by getting them to work with another student asking and answering the questions.  It helped them see some of their own errors by asking the questions and hearing their partner's response.