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Author Topic: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown  (Read 9721 times)  Share 

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UmbrellaBogan

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2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« on: September 30, 2012, 03:16:30 pm »
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Hey guys,
The oral exam is REALLY close but I'm really disorganised and writing my oral now.
I'm a little iffy with the time breakdown of the exam. I know it's 7 minutes of general conversation, 1 minute of introduction and then 7 minutes of detailed study, but how should I structure my detailed study?

Is it 3 minutes explaining and then 4 on questions? Or is the explanation longer?

PLEASE HELP!

Kaille

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2012, 04:23:03 pm »
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The detailed study bit is all questions. They use your introduction to find out your topic and your three texts and from this they draw their questions :)



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joseph95

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2012, 04:30:24 pm »
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When are everyone's dates? :D

monkeywantsabanana

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2012, 05:16:25 pm »
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Last Friday of next month. I am so screwed. :(

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UmbrellaBogan

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2012, 05:47:36 pm »
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Wait, so they don't ask you to talk about it first? They just ask questions straight away?

Kaille

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2012, 05:50:49 pm »
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Wait, so they don't ask you to talk about it first? They just ask questions straight away?

So once your 78 mins of general convo are up, they'll be like oh ok we'll be starting your detailed study now, could you tell me what you studied? This is your cue to vomit up your 1 minute introduction where you tell them your topic and your three texts. Then the examiners begin to ask you questions on your topic right away. :P
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Kaille

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2012, 05:51:02 pm »
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Oh and when i mean 78 mins i really mean 7 haha
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joseph95

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2012, 06:01:00 pm »
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Last Friday of next month. I am so screwed. :(

You have ages! That's so good, I'm in week 2. Freeking owt.

Starlight

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2012, 06:12:24 pm »
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Heyyy guys, just thought i'd share my experiences, I did two vce languages and went through the exact same thing as you guys are about to.. orals:



1) You guys appear to be pretty nervous, don't worry this is a good thing!
Nerves can atually help you out in knowing what you want to mention in the conversation, I remember my first oral was better than my second in that sense

2) Write a few dot points down on things you MUST mention for the general conversation/ study design, these might be interesting proverbs or sophisticated grammar that set you apart from every other person doing the same language and make your conversation unique.

3) The people are really nice who conduct the conversation. There are two people and they actually seem like they are interested in what you have to say, it's not scary in that sense :)

4) You might get pretty nervous outside the building because they have a few security people there, I suppose it's pretty intimidating but just try not to think about it :)

5) The usual procedure is something like this: There will be maybe 10 or so people in your allocated time. The security officer guy will buzz you all in and you have to go to some special area (maybe 15 mins before your oral, but double check with your teachers). At this special area, a lady will check your ID and everything to make sure you're a vce student doing french etc. You will then be escorted to another room outside where your interviews are to be held. I remember them just assuring us we'll be fine etc. Then you will be asked to sit outside your conversation room and then one of your interviewers will ask you to come inside. They will make sure the recording is working and then you will start your oral!

6) Time goes REALLY QUICK during the oral, at the end you'll be thinking oh my god I spoke french for 15 mins but it felt like 5, hence why I stress the importance of saying EVERYTHING you want to say that's interesting about grammar etc.

7) In terms of approaching the conversation I found that for general convo: Knowing what to say in english was important and knowing the sentence structures for how to translate it. The detailed study is easy, you can pretty much memorise this as you lead the conversation, just as Kaille was talking about when you discuss your intro. When they say your intro is 1 minute, it's 1 minute! Don't go into your conversation until they hear your intro and ask you questions:

One question they will ask you (i'm 99% certain they will) is at the end of the conversation, they will ask "and did you like your detailed study?".. so there's a response to practice for :)

Hope this helps!
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joseph95

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #9 on: September 30, 2012, 06:20:50 pm »
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Great advice! Thanks! What languages did you do?

And I've heard they will most likely ask a question they really think you might not have studied for to test your repair mechanisms etc., did you get asked a really strange/difficult question?

E.g. a girl I know was doing a practice one with an examiner, and she was talking about how she likes to bake cupcakes or something, and the examiner interrupted her and asked her "give us the recipe of the cupcakes."
She freaked out hard.

Starlight

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #10 on: September 30, 2012, 06:26:26 pm »
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Great advice! Thanks! What languages did you do?

And I've heard they will most likely ask a question they really think you might not have studied for to test your repair mechanisms etc., did you get asked a really strange/difficult question?

E.g. a girl I know was doing a practice one with an examiner, and she was talking about how she likes to bake cupcakes or something, and the examiner interrupted her and asked her "give us the recipe of the cupcakes."
She freaked out hard.

Italian and german, my italian exam was the day before my german one :O

No i didn't get that in my oral, I found that I was leading the direction of the conversation, I don't think the examiners are that cruel in most circumstances :P

Maybe because it was a practice one they tried to prepare her for the worst haha, but it's okay to say you haven't studied that aspect of the detailed conversation and then talk about something similar you may have studied :)
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DavidSheena

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2012, 06:44:39 pm »
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Thanks El2012! I don't quite get how you would lead the conversation during the detailed study? And memorise it completely? I'm so scared and stressed. -.-

joseph95

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2012, 06:46:24 pm »
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Jeez that must've been so hard with two detailed studies. I'm guessing you pretty much reproduced your general conversation in each though haha

Starlight

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2012, 06:48:40 pm »
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Thanks El2012! I don't quite get how you would lead the conversation during the detailed study? And memorise it completely? I'm so scared and stressed. -.-

You lead it from your 1 min intro really, the examiners don't know what aspects in particular you have studied. In terms of memorising, just memorise the points you know you have covered well in class, I might of had 30 questions I memorised or something (I made the questions up :) ).

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Starlight

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Re: 2012 Oral Exam Time Breakdown
« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2012, 06:49:18 pm »
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Jeez that must've been so hard with two detailed studies. I'm guessing you pretty much reproduced your general conversation in each though haha

lol exactly, trying to translate the same english sentence into two languages haha.
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