Friday news

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, Graduates and Friends of Open Gate,

The spring weather in Babice continues, although the temperatures dropped a bit and raindrops drifted from the sky. Today the sun is shining again.

Again, the week was full of events. Mainly, one-week English language tests in the form of IELTS exams took place. From Monday to Friday, Prima – Kvinta students were tested in four categories: writing, listening, reading and speaking. You will learn the results in the near future.

On Monday, a few Spanish language studying Sexta students flew to our new partner school in Alicante, Spain, for a week. From all the photos and reports, it seems they have had more than a good time. See for yourselves on our FB page. There are also messages from the Innovation Week and, among other things, our students in a photo with Sophia, the first humanoid robot with citizenship. You can also have a look at our website.

http://www.opengate.cz/en/studentsky-kampus/studentske-reportaze/tyden-inovaci-2018-15170.shtml

Sexta B students had first aid training on Tuesday, and others from Sexta flew to French Brittany on Wednesday, for another round of traditional student exchanges with Rosteren school.

This week we also sent our representatives to the MASO Mathematical Competition, the nationwide final of the Astronomical Olympiad and an art competition.

Today is the end of the marathon of this year's IB Exams; Czech maturita exams and oral examinations are the last thing that awaits our Oktáva students next week. On Wednesday afternoon, the long exam period ends, and on Friday we'll say goodbye to our tenth class of graduates.

Last time I started a series of more detailed information about the course and the system of international exams, so here’s another promised continuation. This time I’ll talk about the structure of testing of the Group 4 - Experimental Sciences - namely IB Biology (for this group we also offer Physics, Chemistry and Environmental System and Societies at OG).

The final exam also has the internal part, externally checked, which accounts for 20% of the total score. Then there’s the external testing itself. For both the standard and the higher level (SL and HL), this consists of 3 tests, which differ in length, the number of topics, and "depth" for these individual levels. Paper 1 consists of classic multiple-choice questions, while Paper 2 has open and short answer questions with an extended response. In general, this test is more extensive and more demanding, requiring work with data, graphs, and deeper analysis. In Paper 3 students also work with data, but here they can choose their own studied area and their practical skills are tested as well. Overall, it’s all about a thorough, systematic and profound examination of knowledge, which lasts for 4.5 hours in total! And the evaluation is the same as I described last time, especially with open questions.

It is obvious that the exams are really designed for motivated students and require profound preparation, professional guidance and also courage, diligence and endurance. And I remind you that there are six subjects in total--next time we will take a look at the language tests.

But life is not just about studying! We can also make it sweeter (see the article about the visit to the Prague Candy Festival on the website) or spice it up with sporting performances. Yesterday, the final of the 13th OPEN GATE Floorball League was held. Additional sport news will certainly be brought by our colleague Mr. Kašpar (and not only because he is a member of the winning team). For now, first place belongs to KappaSpar, second to Santové, and third to Buldogs.

We learn, we play, we travel, and we will summarize everything to you next week again.

Petr Chára