TOEFL® Intergated writing : Topic_2

[Konstantin]

Hello!
You know than the TOEFL iBT writing section consists of 2 different tasks:Free writing (our usual essays) and integrated writing : you have to read passage than listen to a small lecture and finally answer on the question. Now I've started to prepare for such exam's part and I will publish examples of questions and my responses. Please, check up them.
To download files from www.rapidshare.com click My_Link-->Free -->Download via Cogent #2(or any other).
Reading part:
The Sociology Department of State University has been receiving negative comments about its program from employers of the graduates of its department. As a result of these negative comments, the department has come to the conclusion that its graduates are not adequately prepared for jobs in their chosen profession because they are lacking expertise in certain areas.

The faculty of the department considered this a very serious blow to the reputation of the department, so they began holding a series of meetings to determine the best solution to the problem. Considerable discussion of the problem and possible solutions ensued.

As a result of these meetings, the faculty came to the conclusion that a change in the curriculum of the department was the best solution. Up to that point, the department required eight upper-division courses for a major in sociology, and the remaining five courses were elective courses selected from a variety of courses offered by the department. The department decided that the best solution to the problem they were discussing was to increase the number of required courses from three to five, so that a wider variety of topics could be covered in the courses required of all students, and decrease the number of elective courses from five to three, to keep the total number for the major at eight.

The department announced the change in the number of required courses from three to five and also announced that this change would affect all students in the department immediately.
Listening part:
http://rapidshare.com/files/23660414/AMW01.MP3
Question:
What does the information in the listening passage add to what is presented in the reading passage?
Answer:
The lecture describes how the preposition about new curriculum will affect on the schedules of current and new students of The Sociology Department. The reading stated that there are many negative comments from the working places of the Department’s graduate students and the faculty made a decision to change the education process by increasing the amount of required courses and decreasing the amount of elective courses.

According to the lecture, for new students, who only want to enter the educational program, the new curriculum will be necessary. Instead of the previous years when there were three obligatory and five free courses, new students will be able to choose only three free courses. Since the total amount of courses is eight the remaining five courses will be mandatory. The faculty members think that such modification could increase the average level of students’ grounding in the main subjects.

On the other hand the above preposition will not affect the students, who already have entered The Sociology Department because of The University’s policy. They will not be forced to change their educational planes and take five required subjects and three free subjects. But they will be given the strong recommendation which free courses they should take to comprehend the material better.