As the exam season gears up the consciousness of students, I often think that teachers are even more anxious for them — not to speak of the poor parents who are going all over the city driving from one tuition to the next! Thus it is with great relief that teachers will welcome Exam Classes.
It is one of the Resource Books for Teachers series edited by Alan Maley, one of Oxford University Press’s most useful aids for the teacher. Of the more than 32 titles in it this one truly stands out among them all.
It contains over ninety activities (yes, ninety!) on the single most important factor in most young lives: how to pass exams. The all time favourites with teachers are there of course: past papers and sample answers for practicing in a timed environment but the added goodies include: a detailed section on question rubrics; a section on grammar; sample essays for marking by the students followed by the remarks by the Examiners (so that the students can get a clear idea of how a good answer is written); and the criteria of the major exam boards. Plus an index of the question types so that the weary tutor and teacher can turn directly to the one he/she needs to practice with (equally) weary student.
One of my frequent observations has been that poor students are lacking in some basic skills that get in the way of their working. They do not know working hard is one thing; working smart is another. Here is a book that zooms in on the exams, accepts the anxiety it causes and pulling the student forward by the nose as it were, makes the nitty gritty of the business of exams come, surprisingly enough, amenable. It makes the student think, “Hey, it isn’t so daunting after all!” Of all things I am sure this sentence will be music to the teacher’s / parent’s/tutor’s ears!
ABBAS HUSAIN
IF YOU READ ONE BOOK THIS WEEK, PICK UP
ROSE by MARTIN CRUZ SMITH
I am a great fan of Martin Cruz Smith ever since I read his amazing detective novel set in Moscow, Gorky Park featuring Arkady Renko, the sleuth. Later the novel was turned into a thriller starring Lee Marvin but nothing comes close to the excellent three-dimensional writing. I mean, his style is so vivid, with such an appeal to the five senses that the descriptions of the scenes and the events come in 3-D clarity in our minds. Later, his two other books, with the same detective, Polar Star and Red Square had the same magic.
Here he turns to a new genre: romance combined with mystery. Rose is a story of Jonathan Blair, set in 1872, in Victorian England. The same musical lilt to the writing is there and the setting does call for the exercise of the imagination. But when the story gets going, there is only the comment from the Times: “Another adventure of Jonathan Blair would be welcome.” Yes, indeed.
An added reason for my excitement about this particular book is that it has the date of publication in it: 1997. To read a book published in 1997 so early in the year calls for a miniature celebration!
Published in DAWN The Review March 13, 1997
ABBAS HUSAIN