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Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Level
9689 Tamil November 2011
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers
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Paper 9689/02
Reading and Writing
Key messages
In order to do well in this paper, candidates should take care to understand the full demands of the question
before attempting to answer.
In Question 5, candidates should avoid repetition of ideas.
General comments
In general, candidates performed well on this paper.
Candidates generally made a number of spelling errors throughout and in some cases this rendered parts of
their answers unintelligible. Candidates could benefit from reading widely in order to consolidate spelling and
points of grammar.
Comments on specific questions
Section 1
Question 1
The majority of candidates answered this question well, choosing appropriate synonyms for the given words.
In 1(e), a number of candidates struggled to find an equivalent for Vaazaiadi Vaazaiyaaka.
Question 2
Responses to this question were generally adequate. In 2(b), many candidates struggled to use the word
Vizukkaadu.
Question 3
Candidates generally tackled Question 3 well. There were many instances of poor spelling which sometimes
rendered their answers unintelligible.
Section 2
Question 4
Overall, candidates answered this question very well.
Question 5
Question 5(a) was generally not answered well. Candidates did not seem to understand the requirements of
a summary and they would benefit from more practice in this area. In Question 5(b), candidates are
expected to offer a personal response. Candidates often wrote general answers and needed to use the first
person. A small number of candidates answered well.
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© 2011
Cambridge International Advanced Level
9689 Tamil November 2011
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers
TAMIL
Paper 9689/03
Essay
Key messages
In order to do well in this paper, candidates need to ensure that they answer the specific question asked and
that they understand the focus of the question before beginning to write their answers.
Candidates need to ensure that they expand their answers.
General comments
This is an Essay paper in which candidates are required to compose one essay from a choice of five topics.
The essay is marked out of 40, with 16 marks for Content and 24 marks for Quality of Language.
Overall, the performance of candidates was good and there were no infringements of the rubric.
The best candidates produced fluent and coherent essays and focused on the precise requirement of the
question.
Weaker responses were characterised by a combination of misunderstanding of the question (leading to loss
of marks for Content) and poor language skills.
The most common spelling errors occurred in the use of the following letters, which were often written in an
incorrect form:
1. ல – ழ – ள
2. ந – ன – ண
3. ர – ற
Candidates would benefit from more practice in using these letters. Candidates should also be reminded that
the letter ஏ, when conjugated with consonants, will become ேக, ேச etc.
Some candidates wrote அங்ைக, இங்ைக, எங்ைக rather than அங்ேக, இங்ேக, எங்ேக.
Comments on specific questions
Question 1
This was the most popular question. The best answers were characterised by well-structured, complex
sentences and few spelling and grammatical errors. Weaker responses tended to demonstrate poor spelling
and lack of focus.
Question 2
Overall, answers to this question were good.
Question 3
Performance on this question was varied.
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© 2011
Cambridge International Advanced Level
9689 Tamil November 2011
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers
Question 4
There were many excellent responses to this question and these were characterised by well-structured,
complex sentences and few spelling and grammatical errors.
Question 5
There were some good answers to this question and the best were characterised by well-structured, complex
sentences and few spelling and grammatical errors.
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© 2011
Cambridge International Advanced Level
9689 Tamil November 2011
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers
TAMIL
Paper 9689/04
Texts
Key messages
In order to do well in this paper, candidates need to ensure that they answer the specific question asked and
that they understand the focus of the question before beginning to write their answers.
Candidates should be reminded that, in passage-based questions, the passage is a stimulus to be used as a
springboard to give them a starting point for their answer.
Candidates need to ensure that they expand their answers.
General comments
Overall, candidates performed well on this paper.
Candidates sometimes struggled to provide a suitable response to questions that asked for a comparison;
they would benefit from more practice in this area.
When studying a play, it can be helpful for candidates if they watch a suitable version of the play to help
bring the text to life and to boost their confidence when tackling questions on it.
Candidates often struggled to justify genre (Thurai) and would benefit from more practice in this area.
Comments on specific questions
Section 1
Question 1
(a)
Responses to this question were generally satisfactory.
(b)
Some candidates needed to develop their answer as more.
Question 2
(a)
This was a popular question. Some candidates started out well but needed to explain fully the
meaning of certain words/phrases as required by the question. It seemed that some candidates had
memorised the text rather than studying and analysing it in detail.
(b)
This was another popular question. Some candidates needed to elaborate their answers in order to
demonstrate adequate understanding of the text.
Question 3
(a)
This question proved popular. Responses were generally not developed sufficiently.
(b)
This was another popular question. Responses were generally not developed sufficiently.
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© 2011
Cambridge International Advanced Level
9689 Tamil November 2011
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers
Section 2
Question 4
(a)
Many candidates answered this question very well.
(b)
Several candidates wrote in detail about just one poem and paid little attention to the second poem.
If a question asks for a comparison, candidates must ensure that they follow this instruction.
Question 5
(a)
Responses to this question were generally adequate.
(b)
Answers to this question were generally adequate.
Question 6
(a)
Answers to this question were generally basic and lacked structure.
(b)
Responses to this question were generally basic and lacked structure and focus.
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© 2011
Cambridge International Advanced Level
9689 Tamil November 2011
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers
TAMIL
Paper 9689/05
Prose
Key messages
In order to do well in this paper, candidates should ensure that they read through the prose passage
carefully before beginning to translate. When translating, candidates should bear in mind the context of the
passage: it is not enough to translate individual words or short phrases from the text without regard for the
context in which they are found in the question paper.
Candidates should try to allow themselves a little time at the end to read over what they have written to
ensure that it makes sense and to check their spelling and grammar.
General comments
In this paper, candidates are required to translate a short passage from English into Tamil.
Performance on this paper was generally good and there were no infringements of the rubric.
Stronger candidates were often able to break up some of the longer sentences into two separate sentences
and produce a meaningful translation that was largely correct.
Weaker answers were characterised by spelling errors, faulty sentence construction and incorrect translation
of vocabulary items.
A few candidates encountered difficulty with the sentences “Some take place on the same date every year,
like Christmas, but others may be celebrated on different dates because they are determined by the solar
and lunar calendars” and “Some festivals last only for one day; others may last for several days or even
weeks.”
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© 2011