Happy New Year!!

I want to wish all my loyal readers a happy new year, I hope 2012 brings more love, peace and success into all our lives :)

At the beginning of every year, it's nice to put goals for yourself, things you want to do or achieve to be a more productive or better person. So what will your goals be for 2012?

Dog loves guitar!!

~Quote of the day~

EL111 Vocab 4 Final Exam

Click on the link below to download all the vocabulary words (Units 1 - 12) you need for the final exam.

It's important to go over the words and make sure you know what most of them mean, but don't waste all your time memorizing them as the reading, writing and grammar are much more important!

Click here to get the list.

Student Blogs

It's always nice to see students create their own websites and blogs. Below you will find two interesting blogs from two unique students. Check them out!

Abeer's blog: Click me

Yasmeen's blog: Click me

Samar's blog: Click me

Merna's blog: Click me

If you have a blog or website you'd like to share with the others please let me know.

Change yourself first

Courses for next semester

So what courses are you going to take for next semester? If you're not sure, I'll help you.

For English majors click here.

For Business majors click here.

For Computer majors click here.

For Education majors click here.

When you visit the links above, click on the Read More button to see your study plan and what courses you need to take.

Great Online Dictionary

If you're looking for a great online dictionary that gives you both definitions and sentences as examples, click here.

It's very important not only to know the definition of a word, but to also know how to use it in a sentence. A lot of students know what words mean, but unfortunately don't know how to use them in sentences. The above link will hopefully help you with this problem.

Today's advice...

Life's short, don't forget to smile :)

Surprised Kitty!

~ Quote of the day ~

Evil Child

Minimum needed to pass

There are 3 conditions you need to meet to pass most courses in AOU.

1. You need to get at least 20/50 in the coursework (Midterm + TMA).

2. You need to get at least 20/50 in the final exam.

3. You need to get at least 50/100 total to pass the course.


The above is only the minimum, I expect and believe all of you can do a lot better of course inshalla!

Rainbow Sheikh

Sheikh Hamad owns Futaisi Island and covers an area of 50 square kilometres. He recently had "HAMAD" carved into the island. The letters are dug so deep they form waterways, and the inscription can be read from space.


He's called the "Rainbow Sheikh" because of his famous Mercedes 500 SEL collection. He has seven of them painted like the colors of the rainbow, one car for each day of the week.

Final exams...

Final exams start on the 14th January and end on the 26th January.

This leaves use with exactly 6 weeks from today to finish everything.

Saturday & Sunday

Good News: Sunday 27th is a public holiday :)

Bad News: Saturday 26th is a normal university day.


If you enjoy coming to AOU, then it's the opposite!

Exam Week Office Hours

I'll be in my office if you need to see me for any reasons or ask me any questions on the following days and times:

Monday: From 1pm - 3pm and from 5pm - 6pm.

Tuesday: From 11am - 12pm and from 2 - 3pm.

Good luck :)

Sample Midterm Exams

The sample exams are finally here!!

Click here for EL111.

Click here for EL121.


These sample exams will really help you and will give you a good idea of what to expect in the real exam. Please do them and as always, let me know if you have any questions.

Wishing you all the best of luck :)

How do I study for the EL111 midterm?

The secret in doing well in any exam depends on how hard you study and prepare for it. It's best to start revising early so that the material doesn't pile up on you on the last few days. The more work you do today, the less you have to do tomorrow. My advice is to first start reviewing and studying everything I (or your teacher) gave you. Second, make a list of everything you don't understand and come and see me or ask me through LMS.

Remember that the midterm will cover Units 1 - 6 and have 4 sections.

1. Writing (20 marks)
2. Reading (15 marks)
3. Grammar (15 marks)
4. Vocab (10 marks)

You will have 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete the exam. Please make sure you organize your time properly and give yourself 5 or 10 minutes at the end to check your work before you hand in your paper.

So what do I need to know to get a good mark?

1. Writing - you need to know how to write a 3 paragraph essay! If you don't know how to write an essay by now, I suggest you download my notes on this blog and start practicing.
2. Reading - you will read a short article (you've never seen before) and answer multiple choice questions about it.
3. Grammar - you need to understand everything I explained in class and go over the grammar exercises we did in the textbook.
4. Vocab - again from the book, every unit has a theme (food is the theme for Unit 6 for example). Do the vocab exercises in the book to help you.


Click here to download the transition words document (connecting words) which will help you in your writing.

The links below will also give you some helpful tips about essay writing.

Link #1

Link #2

Link #3

Link #4


I wish you all the best of luck :)

EL121 - TMA + Notes

Click here to download the TMA.

Click here to download notes for 'The Tell Tale Heart'

Happy Eid!!

I hope you all have a wonderful short vacation :)

EL121 Online Quizzes!!

Click on the units below to do the quizzes!

Unit 1

Unit 2

Units 3 + 4

Units 5 + 6

EL111 TMA

Click here to download the TMA.

Click here to get important info for the TMA.

Midterms

EL121 - Tuesday 22nd Nov / From 3pm - 5pm

EL111 - Wednesday 23rd Nov / From 9am - 11am


The above exam dates are for all sections. There will be no classes from 19th Nov - 26th Nov.

I wish you all the best of luck :)

How to write an essay!

Click here for the notes.

Click here to see a very short but great video about essay writing.

Kuwait International Book Fair

If you haven't already been to the Book Fair please go and check it out. It's located in the Mishref Fairgrounds halls 5, 6 and 7. I am sure you'll find something interesting there!

From: 19th October to 29th October.

Timing: 10:00 am to 1:00pm & 4:30 pm to 9:30

Picture taken from BananaQ8

EL111 - Active & Passive

Click here to download the notes.

Click here to download the exercise.

EL121 - A Letter From Gaza

I hope you all read the story, and enjoyed it as much as I did. The story is beautiful and very meaningful. Click here to download the notes.

Click here to download the Story Summary Excel Sheet I talked about in class.

EL121 - Alive: A true story of survival

When I was talking about 'To Build a Fire' in class, I told you that there was once a true story about a plane that crashes in the mountains and the people there had to eat each other to survive. Click on the link below to see the documentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA2zYwp4XzY&feature=related

EL111 Important Links

English is all about practice! The more you practice, the better your language will be. Below you will find two websites with fun activities, exercises & games. Check them out...

Website #1

Website #2

Welcome

Welcome AOU students!

On this blog, you will find a lot of useful information to help you with your courses. Please feel free to ask me any questions that might come up and please do give me your suggestions and ideas on ways to improve this blog. I want to hear from you all!

I hope you all have a wonderful semester!