Hey Guys,
I was just wondering whether or not I should memorize the entire general conversation over the holidays and if so whether or not u guys have any tips on how I can memorize such a large quantity of personal information in such a short time.
Thanks In Advance and merry Christmas!!!!
Speaking from personal experience, you don't necessarily have to memorise your entire general conversation, but it's important to really familiarise yourself with it just to get it out of the way. I did Chinese SLA which requires a little more content for gen con, and I made sure to read 5-6 new questions/answers every single day for around 30 minutes. I wouldn't have it memorised word for word but I knew by the end of the summer what I was saying for each topic in the correct order (e.g. for '请介绍一下你的家庭‘ I'd know to first talk about my mum, then my dad, then my sister and finally how we interacted as a whole).
At the end of the day, however, there's no point working on your gencon during the holidays if you're not going to practice consistently throughout the year. I made the mistake of taking a two week break in March from oral practice, and I found by the end of it that I had forgotten a lot of my gencon and had to start over again for some parts
In terms of memorisation- I would always do things sequentially. I'd read through one sentence, close my eyes and try to recite it, and move on to the next sentence when I was ready. After every two-three sentences, I'd put my paper down and try to memorise the whole thing from the beginning. I also used highlighters and pencils to circle key words, such as nouns and names, underline adjectives, highlight 成语, and mark certain phrases or sentences I messed up often. I had one highlighted, annotated printed-out copy of my gen con that I basically used for the entire year. After a while, I realised I could rely on my visual memory to help me recall my general convo based on the location of each answer/topic on the page etc.
The most important thing in terms of memorising though is still practice. I did around 30 minutes of oral practice every single day without fail for a good 3-4 months. Of course this might not be necessary if you're not aiming for the 45+s as that's when the oral really matters, but either way it'll save you a lot of stress come exam time, and it'll also allow you to walk into the room for your oral exam feeling calm and confident.
Best of luck
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