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Orals!

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited March 27 in Work & Study
I have my A-level spanish oral exam in 6 days and it's safe to say I am shitting myself. I always get so nervous and seem to forget everything... anyone got any good advice on how to prepare and not be nervous?
Post edited by JustV on

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    OK i've just done my french and german AS orals and I suffer from really bad exam nerves. I found that sitting on my own and just practising worked well, coz being with my friends/class mates just winds me up more. Also stress relief stuff/rescue remedy/kalms.Although they meant not actually do too much the psycological effect on your mind is amazong. You're convinced they'll work so they do. If ya get my drift. Just make your sure you're prepared, so every time you panic stop and think i dont need to panic coz i know it.As for learning it, break down what you need to learn into blocks, makes it more managable:)
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    littlemissylittlemissy Posts: 9,972 Supreme Poster
    Re: Orals!
    Originally posted by natos
    I have my A-level spanish oral exam in 6 days and it's safe to say I am shitting myself. I always get so nervous and seem to forget everything... anyone got any good advice on how to prepare and not be nervous?

    i had 2 oral exams and i hated them. one was for standard grade german and the other was higher french. both times i mucked them up as i forgot silly words and panicked. just do as girl_gunner says ... practice on your own and if you are confident enough to talk away in spanish then you should have nothing to worry about. i do believe that that is the trick. if you are cofident with it then you should be fine :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Re: Orals!
    Originally posted by natos
    I have my A-level spanish oral exam in 6 days and it's safe to say I am shitting myself. I always get so nervous and seem to forget everything... anyone got any good advice on how to prepare and not be nervous?

    I'll join the club. My A-level Spanish oral is on friday (11th). And we have an external examiner doing ours so ive never even met them before-Im petrified.

    Do you have a list of the suggested oral questions published by the exam board? I had the list and am making sure I can answer all of the questions on there, on all of the topics. Record yourself talking about the topics you studied that they might ask you (the same ones as the written paper). the listen back to it-make sure you have the facts right, then check your own grammar.

    Thats about all I can offer. :)

    By the way, what topics are you doing for the writen paper?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    thanks everyone! I have an external examiner too, last year got this really nice guy, who asked the questions on the paper exactly, and spoke nice and slow!! This year we have a lady, hope she's the same!

    I've most the set questions, a few still to do. They are on stuff like Transport Issues, The State and Individual, Health Issues, Distribution of wealth... real interesting! we've done coursework not a writen paper, and what i'm not looking forward to is them asking about that!!!! Arghhhh i don't mind written exams, but orals mess me up!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We had what I thought was a nice woman last year...she started off asking the questions on the sheet, about leisure and computers, and dangers of computers, and then she asked me "if you were a parent, what would you do to stop your children talking to paedophiles on the internet?" I nearly cried.

    I wish we had done coursework-the written exam topics are quite hard.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We had an external examiner too, and I was chatting to her afterwards. She said basically they have to ask you a couple of unexpected questions, but when they do, it really doesn't matter about the content of your reply, as long as it's coherent. You could say: I have no idea, sorry! and you'd get marks for it. So if you find yourself in MoonShiner's position, just smile and say you don't know! Good luck - just remeber it's all over in like, 15 minutes!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    arg my examiner asked me about advances in medical technology and cloning in spanish!! i don't even know how to say stuff about that in english!!


    so i kinda figure...u cant prepare for *everything*. Just make sure you prepare your speech and your topic really really well, and maybe get together with a friend, and just chat about stuff in general in Spanish- cos anything could come up!!

    best of luck, i know they are so so scary!!

    xxx
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    First thing: make sure you revise your coursework!

    My Spanish exam was a nightmare, the invigilator was so disorganised.

    Anyhoo, the best way to prepare is to go through the suggested questions and make sure you're ok to answer them all. Work out some subjunctive and some imperfect subjunctive sentences in advance so you know you can get them in.

    Everything else has been said. Good luck!

    Picc
    x
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by piccolo
    First thing: make sure you revise your coursework!

    My Spanish exam was a nightmare, the invigilator was so disorganised.

    Anyhoo, the best way to prepare is to go through the suggested questions and make sure you're ok to answer them all. Work out some subjunctive and some imperfect subjunctive sentences in advance so you know you can get them in.

    Everything else has been said. Good luck!

    Picc
    x

    I was so chuffed yesterday. I was doing Spanish revision of tenses, and got both subjunctive and imperfect subjunctive right!! Ive always had problems with those two, I was so proud :D
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i can learn the endings of subjunctive and all that, but I still have no idea when to use them, except after 'que'... just gonna stick a few in my exam somewhere i think! Thank god i don't have to do a writing one though!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    well i did it, and IT WAS HORRIBLE! the woman just kept on arguing with everything I said....... arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! :impissed:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sorry it didnt go great for you...Im just hoping mine goes better :nervous:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Usually, if they start arguing with you, it means they've worked out you're good enough. You obviously spoke your mind, spoke well, and so she thought you were capable of more demanding stuff. They've got to try and push everyone to their limits or they wouldn't give you an opportunity to do as well as you can, so feel pleased with yourself! In my experience, it means you've performed pretty well.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Really hope so! ! Good luck to everyone else with orals left to do!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by natos
    the woman just kept on arguing with everything I said.......
    At A Level they're briefed to, it doesn't mean you said anything wrong. Both my Spanish and French examiners argued with every point I made! As perfect***day says, it's actually a good sign because they're pushing you - they're trying to get you to show them what you know. :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    my replies kinda fell to pieces though :( oh well, can do nothing but try hard in my reading and listening, and hope for the best! I'm hoping to get a B, on a high B at AS level so hopefully should be ok... my coursework was of quite good standard (I HOPE!)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Mine went really well! The bloke kept arguing with me as well, my teacher told me that theyre told to argue with you.
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