Hola todos! So Jess Mylan and I asked Javier about whether notes would be allowed in the oral exam and asked for some tips about how to handle the exam. This is the response he gave us, I hope it helps clarify some things and helps with preparation: Hola, Jess y Sam: I am afraid that reference in the Topic Guide is not specific enough, and I thank you for bringing it to my attention. What we meant by that is that a) some students do need us to read literally the sample questions in the guide, otherwise they just don’t understand a thing in Spanish; b) some students memorize chunks of text on their routines or past experiences and “drop them” at the smallest occasion. None of these is necessarily bad in itself. However, when considered with other aspects of the exam (intonation, range of structures and so on) it may reflect a limited ability to interact in Spanish. An oral exam is an artificial but otherwise unstructured conversation. Its main objective is to measure the capacity of the student to respond (or lead, even) to the conversation initiated by the teacher. It is NOT a presentation. Now it is not that you are not “allowed” to bring notes to the oral exam (Perhaps you would like to bring some pictures or documents in case you may have the chance to show them if the opportunity arises). What really matters is that you won’t need them. Even if you bring notes to the exam, you won’t have the chance to read them, because you will be too busy trying to answer my questions! Feel free to prepare for the exam with any kind of notes. Feel free to even bring them into the exam. It will be fine by me if you even need to read a particular detail from your notes (the name of a subject in Spanish, the name of an ingredient), as long as you understand the main point: the notes cannot get in the way of the conversation, otherwise they will may have a negative impact on your overall grade for the oral. Personally, I’d suggest you make sure you know how to ask for a word in Spanish (“¿cómo se dice…?”) than looking for it in your notes every time you want to use it. The former is a skill that is required as a natural part of speaking a second language; the latter is very unlikely to ever be of assistance when dealing with native speakers in a real life situation. I hope this information helps. Please don’t hesitate to contact me again otherwise. The main thing is: relax and trust yourselves. Best wishes, JD Hope that clears things up about it and Bueno suerte for it everyone :D
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 09:20:18 +0000
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