School and Study
Learn 20 easy A1 English words for school and study - homework, exam, mark, pass, fail, subject - with examples, a story and a quiz.
Every learner needs these words, because every learner ends up describing their own education sooner or later. There are two traps waiting here: homework never takes an -s, and pass an exam does not mean what many learners think it means. Learn the 20 words, then sit at the back desk with me for three years.
20 words to learn
The 20 words
/ˈstjuːdnt/
A person who studies at a school or university.
There are thirty students in my class.
/ˈklɑːsruːm/
The room where lessons happen.
Our classroom is on the first floor.
/ˈlesn/
One period of teaching, usually forty-five minutes.
The English lesson is after lunch.
/ˈsʌbdʒɪkt/
An area you study: maths, history, English.
My favourite subject is geography.
/ˈhəʊmwɜːk/
The work the teacher gives you to do at home. Uncountable.
I have a lot of homework tonight.
/ɪɡˈzæm/
A big important test at the end of a course.
The final exam is in June.
/test/
A small exam during the year.
We have a short test every Thursday.
/mɑːk/
The number or letter a teacher gives your work. Americans say grade.
She got the highest mark in the class.
/pɑːs/
To do well enough in an exam to succeed.
I passed all my exams except one.
/feɪl/
To not do well enough in an exam.
He failed chemistry twice.
/ˈnəʊtbʊk/
A book with empty pages that you write in.
I keep a notebook for every subject.
/pen/
You write with it in ink.
Can I borrow a pen?
/ˈpensl/
You write with it and you can rub it out.
Draw the line in pencil first.
/desk/
The table you sit at to study or work.
My desk was at the back, near the window.
/bɔːd/
The big flat surface at the front that the teacher writes on.
Copy the words from the board.
/ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsəti/
Where you study after school, for a degree.
She is studying medicine at university.
/lɜːn/
To get new knowledge or a new skill.
I want to learn Spanish next year.
/tiːtʃ/
To give knowledge to somebody. Past tense: taught.
She teaches English to beginners.
/ˈkwestʃən/
What you ask when you want to know something.
Does anybody have a question?
/ˈɑːnsə(r)/
What you say or write when somebody asks you something.
I knew the answer but I said nothing.
Now read the story
Story · all 20 words
The Back Desk
For three years I sat at the same desk at the back of the classroom, next to the window, because that is where you end up when you are quiet and not very good at maths.
I was not a bad student. I did my homework, I brought a pen, a pencil and a clean notebook for every subject, and I never once put my hand up. If the teacher wrote a question on the board, I knew the answer about eighty per cent of the time and said it out loud approximately none of the time.
Then in the second year a new English teacher arrived. In her very first lesson she moved every single person in the room, and I went from the back row to the front one. I have never entirely forgiven her and I have never stopped being grateful.
She had one strange rule: nobody in her class was allowed to say “I do not know.” You had to say “I do not know yet.” It sounds like nothing. It changed the way I learn anything, even now, twelve years later. She also used to say that anybody can teach a room full of confident students, and that the real work is the other one.
That year I got the best mark of my life in the English exam. I passed every test that summer except chemistry, which I failed so completely that my father asked to see the paper twice and then put it in a drawer. Two years after that I was at university, in a lecture room with three hundred people in it, and on the first morning I walked past six empty rows and sat down in the front one.
Homework never takes -s. It is uncountable, like work, furniture and information:
✓ I have a lot of homework. ✗ I have many homeworks.
✓ I do my homework. ✗ I make my homework.
Take an exam or pass an exam? These are not the same, and mixing them up changes your meaning completely:
take an exam (British also sit an exam) = you do it, on the day
pass an exam = you succeed
fail an exam = you do not succeed
So I took the exam tells your teacher nothing about the result. I passed the exam is the good news.
Learn, study or teach?
I learn English (it goes into my head) · I study for the exam (the work I do) · She teaches me (she gives it to me)
No the: at school, at university, go to school – when you mean the activity of studying there.
People and places: student, classroom, desk, board, university.
The work: lesson, subject, homework, question, answer, learn, teach.
The tools: notebook, pen, pencil.
The results: test, exam, mark, pass, fail.
Tell your own school story in four sentences: your favourite subject, your worst subject, one teacher you remember, and one exam you will never forget.
Now practise with the questions below.
Check your understanding
Answer the questions below. You will see instantly if you are right.
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