Kirjutamine - two writing tasks and how they are scored
Kirjutamine in the basic-school Russian exam normally has two tasks: a short functional text (a note, message or informal e-mail of roughly 30–50 words) and a longer text (opinion, description, story or letter of roughly 80–120 words). Marks come from task achievement - every bullet point in the prompt - plus organisation, vocabulary range and grammatical accuracy. Language errors are counted, so controlled simple Russian scores better than ambitious broken Russian.
Cover every bullet
Each bullet in the prompt is a content point. Read the task twice, number the bullets, and tick them off in your draft. A missing bullet loses more than a grammar slip.
Register and format
- Informal, friend: Привет, Маша! … Пока! / До встречи!, address with ты.
- Formal, adult or institution: Здравствуйте, Анна Петровна! … С уважением, …, address with Вы.
- Keep one register throughout; mixing ты and Вы in one text is a visible error.
Length and structure
Stay close to the required word count; a text 30% short loses content marks. In the longer task use an opening, two body points and a conclusion, one idea per paragraph, with connectors: сначала, кроме того, поэтому, однако, в заключение.
Accuracy you can control
- Prepositional phrases: в субботу, на соревнования, у меня, по плаванию.
- Aspect and tense: я не смогу прийти (single future event), not я не мог прийти.
- Verb government: заниматься плаванием, играть в футбол, интересоваться музыкой.
- не with verbs is written separately: не приду, не смог.
Worked example
Prompt: Напиши другу, что не сможешь прийти на его день рождения: извинись, объясни причину, предложи другой день. Model: «Привет, Андрей! Извини, но в субботу я не смогу прийти: у меня соревнования по плаванию. Давай встретимся в воскресенье вечером? Позвони мне. Пока!» Reasoning: greeting and apology, refusal, reason with у меня, alternative day, closing - all bullets covered; ты-form; 30 words; every verb in a form you control.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing about the topic in general and skipping one prompt bullet.
- Copying whole sentences from the prompt instead of producing your own.
- No greeting or closing, which breaks the text type.
- Very long sentences with stacked cases; two short correct sentences score higher.
- Switching to Estonian for a word you cannot recall.