What the exam asks
In Write an Email (7 minutes), you write to a named person in an academic or social situation and cover exactly three required points. High-scoring responses sound natural for the relationship: student to professor, roommate to roommate, club member to organizer, and so on.
The exam is really testing three things at once:
- Register: formal, semi-formal, or informal
- Politeness: direct enough to be clear, but not rude
- Communicative function: can you request, apologize, refuse, thank, suggest, complain, invite, or recommend effectively?
In Build a Sentence, the deciding cue is often the social function of the reply. A grammatically possible order may still be wrong if it sounds too blunt or too casual.
Core ideas
Choose register from the relationship
Use the name, role, and situation to decide the tone.
| Relationship | Greeting | Tone | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professor, administrator, supervisor | Dear Professor Lee, / Dear Ms. Chen, | formal to semi-formal | Best regards, / Sincerely, |
| Teaching assistant, club advisor, work contact you know | Dear Alex, / Hi Alex, | semi-formal | Best, / Kind regards, |
| Friend, classmate, roommate | Hi Sam, / Hello Maya, | informal | Thanks, / See you, / Best, |
A safe rule: