Sooner or later, most students are to take some form of English examinations. Often the more successful students are better prepared. However, sometimes students who do well have better test-taking skills. These abilities really have nothing to do with understanding English better. They are skills that make taking the test easier, and therefore provide better results.

Here are some very important — and often ignored — guidelines(指导方针) to take a test successfully.

Do not insist on completing each question before going to the next. This is extremely important. Remember one question may only be worth one point! You will become nervous when you fail to find out its answer, making you lose your concentration and leading to worse results. However, answering the questions you are sure you know results in your being more relaxed and feeling more confident.

Go through the test a second time to work out the answers to more difficult questions. Sometimes questions asked are answered in later questions asking for different things.

Usually (but not always) a strong first impulse (冲动) means we know the answer and we don’t really have to think about it too much. Going back to think about it usually makes you unsure and often causes a mistake. This is very common, so be very careful!

If you don’t know the answer, write something. If you are answering a 4-possibility multiple-choice question you will still have a 25% chance of being correct!

Taking a test is as much for you as for your teacher, so never cheat. If you cheat, you won’t help yourself in the long run.

With the start of the new term, the students around the country exchange their fun and fashionable clothes for boring school uniforms. But not all schools are fashion deserts. Colorful sports shoes, school bags, T-shirts and even drink containers are breathing life into campuses.

"The uniform makes us look like a bunch of clones, especially when we are doing morning exercises on the playground," said Qing Pei, a Senior 2 from Shanghai Qibao High School. "But the boys wear different sports shoes and girls have different decorations in their hair. These are the areas where you can express yourself," said Qing.

Although it might be strange for boys to talk about fashion, they do care about what they wear in school, especially shoes, according to Qing.

"Nike and Adidas basketball shoes, although they are still the must-have items for many of my friends, are becoming out-of-date," Qing added. He explained that "Since Liu Xiang ran so fast in Athens, running shoes are becoming popular in this autumn. "

"Still in fashion are the various baseball caps and American-style T-shirts with random (随意的) English words printed on them," said Qing. "The accuracy of the written message is not important. Often, the words are not spelt correctly. Sometimes they do not even make sense, "Qing said with a smile.

Besides sports shoes and T-shirts, styles and colors of school bags are another opportunity for students to express their taste in fashion. Some bags are made more eye-catching by decorating them with small hanging dolls.

Other fashionable items are the colorful drink containers which are now popular among girls this term.

"Some teachers are surprised to see a teenager sucking a bottle like this at school and criticize it as a childish regression (退化). But some girls just love it," said Yang Rui, a Senior 3. from High School attached to Xi’an Jiaotong University.