Are you an AY student? Hang on, what is an AY student? AY stands for Academic Year, and you’re an AY student if you study at EC for 24 weeks or more. At EC, we have a special programme for AY students. Can you guess what it’s called? Yes, it’s called the Academic Year Programme.
The Academic Year Programme includes support from the Academic Year Coordinator (that’s me) through tutorials, and a special document called My Language Portfolio, which is very useful for your studies (if you’re an AY student and haven’t received a My Language Portfolio or a tutorial, send me an email and let me know).
Also, if you’re an AY30 student (that means you have intensive classes, so you have 30 lessons per week), you get reading club every other Friday, a lecture and an elective task every 4 weeks, and a new self-study programme called Independent
Research Skills (more information will follow on this).
Now for the important part: when you leave EC, you will either get a Certificate of Merit (AY20 students) or a Diploma (AY30), and these will be graded.
What are the grades? Good question. See below.
A: 80%+
B: 60 – 79%
C: 45 – 59%
D: 31 – 44%
E: 30% or below
So, how will you be assessed? Your teachers give you scores for your work, and these scores are added up to make the final grade. These are the things you will be assessed on:
– Assessment (Monday tests and end-of-level tests – AY20 and AY30)
– Homework (AY20 and AY30)
– Participation and motivation (Do you come to school every day? Do you arrive on time? Do you work hard in class? – AY20
and AY30)
– Electives (your teacher will give you a task every 4 weeks – AY30 only)
– Reading Club (AY30 only)
– Lecture assignments (AY30 only)
– Independent Research Skills (AY30 only)
So, make sure you work hard, and you should be on course for an ‘A’ grade!
If you have any questions about any of the above, then please send me an email, at: danielwoodard@ecenglish.com
Grammar Spot
In English, some words often go together. These are called collocations. Here are some examples of collocations with
prepositions from the text above:
AY stands for Academic Year…
… study at EC…
… support from the Academic Year Coordinator
… very useful for your studies
… you will be assessed on
Can you see any others? When you learn new words, find out which preposition collocates with it and make a note of it in your vocabulary book – it’s a good way to improve your accuracy…