I'm taking a break from preparing for the looming final leg of the Studieprøve (which, for me, is tomorrow morning), as I realized that I haven't done a breakdown of this part of the exam.
So, it breaks down like this:
After we took the listening portion of the exam, we were handed a paper with a list of three umbrella topics, under each of which were a variety of possible directions to go in when talking about each topic. This time around, the umbrella topics are "sport's role in society," "the welfare state," and "public health in Denmark."
Unlike for the PD3, where we only needed to prepare a 2-minute presentation on a topic, for this exam we are expected to prepare three presentations, one for each umbrella topic. Each one needs to be 5 minutes long.
The day goes as follows: First, we come in and give a 1-minute presentation about ourselves (who we are, why we're taking module 6 Danish, what we're doing with our lives, etc.). We then choose, at random, one of 3 cards. That card will correspond to one of the umbrella topics we have prepared, and it's that presentation that we give. After that, we then take the remaining 20 minutes or so to have a discussion of the topic presented with the censor.
It's a lot more work that any of us expected. Because not only are we preparing 3 topics to present, we're also expected to know enough about each topic to discuss it for another 20 minutes after the presentation.
So, the exam sure does go out with a bang.
Luckily for me, I leave on Friday for a much needed trip back to the US to visit my family and friends. Even if I manage to forget every word of Danish that I've ever learned while I'm away, it's okay as long as I pass tomorrow, because I'll never have to take another Danish class EVER AGAIN.
Showing posts with label exam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exam. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Studieprøven - How to Prepare
Under two weeks until the first part of the Studieprøve exam, and I'm feeling surprisingly calm.
My grades on the practice exams have been steadily improving, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I still have the most issues with the listening and dictation portion of the exam, but that part isn't until next month, so I've got a bit more time.
Today, I had a comment on a previous post from someone who is studying for the exam on her own, asking for suggestions for books or other resources to buy online. We didn't actually use any books this module, so here are my two suggestion for anyone looking for ways to help study for the Studieprøve:
1. Read the newspaper. We spend a lot of time in class reading through recent news articles about topics from Danish and European politics, to climate change, to Greenland, and more. Not only does this help with building vocabulary, but it also gives a lot of context that can be included in both the written and oral portions of the exam.
2. Practice, practice, practice. Nearly every day in class, we practice for the exam with one or more portions from previous exams. It's really helpful to get a feel for the layout and timing of the exam. For example, similar to the PD3 exam, there is a reading portion in which we're given a pamphlet and asked to scan through it and find short answers. Easy enough, but we're only given 25 minutes for this portion of the Studieprøve, so it's important to practice scanning and knowing how much time to take for each question. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you'll find examples of the various sections of the exam from previous years. SOOOOOO important to take advantage of these and keep yourself strictly to the time allowed for each section.
Hopefully those tips are helpful to those of you heading into the exams soon. I'd love you hear how it went for all of you when you're done.
My grades on the practice exams have been steadily improving, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I still have the most issues with the listening and dictation portion of the exam, but that part isn't until next month, so I've got a bit more time.
Today, I had a comment on a previous post from someone who is studying for the exam on her own, asking for suggestions for books or other resources to buy online. We didn't actually use any books this module, so here are my two suggestion for anyone looking for ways to help study for the Studieprøve:
1. Read the newspaper. We spend a lot of time in class reading through recent news articles about topics from Danish and European politics, to climate change, to Greenland, and more. Not only does this help with building vocabulary, but it also gives a lot of context that can be included in both the written and oral portions of the exam.
2. Practice, practice, practice. Nearly every day in class, we practice for the exam with one or more portions from previous exams. It's really helpful to get a feel for the layout and timing of the exam. For example, similar to the PD3 exam, there is a reading portion in which we're given a pamphlet and asked to scan through it and find short answers. Easy enough, but we're only given 25 minutes for this portion of the Studieprøve, so it's important to practice scanning and knowing how much time to take for each question. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you'll find examples of the various sections of the exam from previous years. SOOOOOO important to take advantage of these and keep yourself strictly to the time allowed for each section.
Hopefully those tips are helpful to those of you heading into the exams soon. I'd love you hear how it went for all of you when you're done.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Studieskolen - Module 6 is Melting My Brain
Oh, hi there!
Remember me? I'm that terrible blogger who hasn't written anything in nearly a month in a half. Yeah, that one!
The truth is, module 6 has us writing so much that I just haven't been able to bring myself to write more. Strangely, we took the entire class today to do a practice of the writing portion of the studieprøve exam, which is 3 hours of writing.
And yet, here I am. Go figure.
So, let's catch up a bit.
Firstly, module 6 is hard. On the very first day of class, we were already doing practice portions of the exam, which isn't until May/June. And everyone in the class got high scores on their PD3 exam, which means everyone is really damn good at Danish.
That being said, I at least would have passed the portion that we practiced that first day, which is reassuring. And the majority of university programs that require the studieprøve exam only require that you pass it with a score of 2 or higher.
As I mentioned, we're doing tons of writing, and often on topics that I struggle to stay interested in. For example, we spent a couple of weeks discussing the EU parliament and the Danes who sit on it. I wish I could care about EU politics, but as of yet, I haven't been able to.
Our teacher is tough, but nice. She knows a lot and expects a lot, but is also perfectly willing to go off topic on occasion.
And she reminds me of my sister. She actually looks a bit like her, and drinks huge amounts of coffee out of pint glasses, just like my sister does.
We'll be continuing to practice all of the many different bits of the exam for the next few months. Not only does this exam include the reading, writing, and speaking portions like the PD3 exam, but it also includes a listening portion, which includes some dictation. Dictation in which every word has to be spelled exactly correctly, otherwise the answer is considered completely wrong.
I'd like to go ahead and recommend a Danish dictionary. It's just Danish, not Danish-English, but I've found it really useful. It's actually just the updated version of one of the dictionaries that they have in every classroom at Studieskolen. Here it is:
Remember me? I'm that terrible blogger who hasn't written anything in nearly a month in a half. Yeah, that one!
The truth is, module 6 has us writing so much that I just haven't been able to bring myself to write more. Strangely, we took the entire class today to do a practice of the writing portion of the studieprøve exam, which is 3 hours of writing.
And yet, here I am. Go figure.
So, let's catch up a bit.
Firstly, module 6 is hard. On the very first day of class, we were already doing practice portions of the exam, which isn't until May/June. And everyone in the class got high scores on their PD3 exam, which means everyone is really damn good at Danish.
That being said, I at least would have passed the portion that we practiced that first day, which is reassuring. And the majority of university programs that require the studieprøve exam only require that you pass it with a score of 2 or higher.
As I mentioned, we're doing tons of writing, and often on topics that I struggle to stay interested in. For example, we spent a couple of weeks discussing the EU parliament and the Danes who sit on it. I wish I could care about EU politics, but as of yet, I haven't been able to.
Our teacher is tough, but nice. She knows a lot and expects a lot, but is also perfectly willing to go off topic on occasion.
And she reminds me of my sister. She actually looks a bit like her, and drinks huge amounts of coffee out of pint glasses, just like my sister does.
We'll be continuing to practice all of the many different bits of the exam for the next few months. Not only does this exam include the reading, writing, and speaking portions like the PD3 exam, but it also includes a listening portion, which includes some dictation. Dictation in which every word has to be spelled exactly correctly, otherwise the answer is considered completely wrong.
I'd like to go ahead and recommend a Danish dictionary. It's just Danish, not Danish-English, but I've found it really useful. It's actually just the updated version of one of the dictionaries that they have in every classroom at Studieskolen. Here it is:
Monday, November 18, 2013
Studieskolen - HERE COMES THE PD3
What a terrible blogger I've been!
With the looming PD3 exam, I've been utterly distracted. So distracted, in fact, that the damn thing snuck right up on me.
In fact, it's tomorrow. Or rather, the first part of it is tomorrow.
Since we've spent the last month or so doing practice exams with actual previous PD3s, I am able to give a pretty good breakdown of how the thing works. So, here goes:
The first day of the exam lasts about 5 hours. It starts with the "reading and understanding" portion, which is broken up into 2 sections. First, we're given some kind of information booklet (so far we've seen booklets about Danish taxes, university programs, nature hikes and short trips within Denmark, among others), from which we answer maybe a dozen questions. We're given 25 minutes for this bit, so it's all about reading the Table of Contents and scanning through information. Next, we're given a packet with 2-3 articles and we're given 65 minutes to read them and answer questions. The tricky bit here is that they're looking for very specific answers, so if you haven't fully understood the text, you're likely to give either too much or too little information for your response, leading to them counting your answer wrong, even if it's mostly right. An important thing to note for this part of the exam is that, despite being allowed to use dictionaries for this part during all of the previous module exams, dictionaries of any kind are not allowed during this part of the PD3.
We'll then be given a 30 minute break, followed by the writing portion. Good news, folks - dictionaries of all kinds are allowed for this part! Here, we're expected to write two essays. One is a response to a letter or email, in which they're looking for more casual language. And for the second, we have a choice between two topics: One is based on statistics about Danes or Denmark in which we're supposed to show that we know how to analyze and discuss said statistics, and the second gives a topic for which there are several points of view and asks that we discuss the merits of some of them.
As I mentioned, we've been doing practice exams for the last month or so, and our teacher has been grading them as though they were real PD3 exams. Being used to an American grading system in which we're either graded from A to F, or we're graded on a percentage scale up to 100%, the Danish grading system is baffling to me. The possible grades are as follows: -3 and 00 are the grades below the failure line, a 2 is a passing grade, next is a 4 (which is the score needed to attain citizenship), followed by 7 (the American equivalent to getting a B), and finally 10 and 12. You need a 10 on all sections of the PD3 in order to proceed directly on the module 6.
How have I been doing to far? In the beginning, I was getting 7's on absolutely everything. Even the ones that I thought I'd done really well on, always a 7. Lately, though, I've been doing better. Mostly 10s, and even a 12 last week on a "reading and understanding" portion.
Here's hoping tomorrow's exam goes as well. A lot is riding on it.
No pressure or anything...
With the looming PD3 exam, I've been utterly distracted. So distracted, in fact, that the damn thing snuck right up on me.
In fact, it's tomorrow. Or rather, the first part of it is tomorrow.
Since we've spent the last month or so doing practice exams with actual previous PD3s, I am able to give a pretty good breakdown of how the thing works. So, here goes:
The first day of the exam lasts about 5 hours. It starts with the "reading and understanding" portion, which is broken up into 2 sections. First, we're given some kind of information booklet (so far we've seen booklets about Danish taxes, university programs, nature hikes and short trips within Denmark, among others), from which we answer maybe a dozen questions. We're given 25 minutes for this bit, so it's all about reading the Table of Contents and scanning through information. Next, we're given a packet with 2-3 articles and we're given 65 minutes to read them and answer questions. The tricky bit here is that they're looking for very specific answers, so if you haven't fully understood the text, you're likely to give either too much or too little information for your response, leading to them counting your answer wrong, even if it's mostly right. An important thing to note for this part of the exam is that, despite being allowed to use dictionaries for this part during all of the previous module exams, dictionaries of any kind are not allowed during this part of the PD3.
We'll then be given a 30 minute break, followed by the writing portion. Good news, folks - dictionaries of all kinds are allowed for this part! Here, we're expected to write two essays. One is a response to a letter or email, in which they're looking for more casual language. And for the second, we have a choice between two topics: One is based on statistics about Danes or Denmark in which we're supposed to show that we know how to analyze and discuss said statistics, and the second gives a topic for which there are several points of view and asks that we discuss the merits of some of them.
As I mentioned, we've been doing practice exams for the last month or so, and our teacher has been grading them as though they were real PD3 exams. Being used to an American grading system in which we're either graded from A to F, or we're graded on a percentage scale up to 100%, the Danish grading system is baffling to me. The possible grades are as follows: -3 and 00 are the grades below the failure line, a 2 is a passing grade, next is a 4 (which is the score needed to attain citizenship), followed by 7 (the American equivalent to getting a B), and finally 10 and 12. You need a 10 on all sections of the PD3 in order to proceed directly on the module 6.
How have I been doing to far? In the beginning, I was getting 7's on absolutely everything. Even the ones that I thought I'd done really well on, always a 7. Lately, though, I've been doing better. Mostly 10s, and even a 12 last week on a "reading and understanding" portion.
Here's hoping tomorrow's exam goes as well. A lot is riding on it.
No pressure or anything...
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Studieskolen - Module 4.2, EXAM PANIC!
They've gone and scheduled our module 4 exam. It'll be broken up into two bits. The first bit will be a week from this Friday, and the last bit the following Monday.
As far as the actual make-up of the test, I don't have too many details. What I do know is that, much like the module 1 exam, we will have a spoken portion in which we are given a topic at random (from a list of three books we've read and two topics that we've prepared), and we are supposed to talk about the topic for two minutes, followed by questions from the teacher.
As far as the rest of the exam, for now I assume it will be much like the previous exams: some reading comprehension, some listening bits, and a written portion involving writing letters and/or emails.
To be honest, I'm not especially panicked about this exam.
It's the module 5 exam that's stressing me.
We were given Monday's class to decide on and research the two topics of our choosing for the spoken section of the test, and I found myself sitting at a computer next to our new teacher. I took the opportunity to grill him on what would be needed to proceed to module 6 after the PD3 exam at the end of module 5.
He explained the grading system, which is on a scale of 12. To pass the PD3, you only need to score a 2. In order to get Danish citizenship, you need to pass the test with a score of at least 4. In order to be allowed to proceed to module 6, which I would need in order to take university courses in Danish...
I'll need to score a 10.
So, the plan is to seriously buckle down. I've downloaded a couple of language-learning apps onto my iPad (the most useful of which, so far, is called Memrise, and teaches languages and loads of other topics), and plan to jump back into the Rosetta Stone practice as well. My main problem is, as always, remembering the vocabulary. I find myself looking up words a dozen times and still not being able to remember them the next time.
My plan, as well, is to try to continue to take Danish classes through the Summer break. There's only one day class offered at Studieskolen during the break, and my teacher admitted that it's entirely possible that there won't be room for everyone and that there's nothing I can do to ensure a spot, so...
Just gonna cross my fingers and hope that everyone else decides that they need a Summer vacation.
As far as the actual make-up of the test, I don't have too many details. What I do know is that, much like the module 1 exam, we will have a spoken portion in which we are given a topic at random (from a list of three books we've read and two topics that we've prepared), and we are supposed to talk about the topic for two minutes, followed by questions from the teacher.
As far as the rest of the exam, for now I assume it will be much like the previous exams: some reading comprehension, some listening bits, and a written portion involving writing letters and/or emails.
To be honest, I'm not especially panicked about this exam.
It's the module 5 exam that's stressing me.
We were given Monday's class to decide on and research the two topics of our choosing for the spoken section of the test, and I found myself sitting at a computer next to our new teacher. I took the opportunity to grill him on what would be needed to proceed to module 6 after the PD3 exam at the end of module 5.
He explained the grading system, which is on a scale of 12. To pass the PD3, you only need to score a 2. In order to get Danish citizenship, you need to pass the test with a score of at least 4. In order to be allowed to proceed to module 6, which I would need in order to take university courses in Danish...
I'll need to score a 10.
So, the plan is to seriously buckle down. I've downloaded a couple of language-learning apps onto my iPad (the most useful of which, so far, is called Memrise, and teaches languages and loads of other topics), and plan to jump back into the Rosetta Stone practice as well. My main problem is, as always, remembering the vocabulary. I find myself looking up words a dozen times and still not being able to remember them the next time.
My plan, as well, is to try to continue to take Danish classes through the Summer break. There's only one day class offered at Studieskolen during the break, and my teacher admitted that it's entirely possible that there won't be room for everyone and that there's nothing I can do to ensure a spot, so...
Just gonna cross my fingers and hope that everyone else decides that they need a Summer vacation.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Studieskolen - Module 3.2, Frustrations
I'm about a week away from my module 3 exam, and there's definitely tension in the air in my class. It seems that quite a few of my classmates are frustrated with the class for various reasons.
Some feel like they're not learning anything new, or they don't feel like we're focusing on the things they need help with. Others are simple lost completely. Still others (myself included) are getting tired of our Monday/Wednesday teacher's teaching methods.
It's been a very different vibe in class during module 3, and not always in a good way. Especially on Mondays and Wednesdays, when many of us feel that even the teacher doesn't know the correct answers. And if he doesn't really know what the answers are, then how are we supposed to learn?
Today was especially frustrating. We spent part of the class working on the "tryk" or stress on words in sentences. Danish is a sort of musical language, and the inflection has a sort of rhythm to it. Unfortunately, our teacher doesn't seem to be a terribly rhythmic guy, so even when he's saying a sentence with the stresses clearly on one word, he tells us that the stress is on different words. It's baffling and frustrating. It's never been an exercise that I've had problems with until I started taking classes with him.
As far as the module 3 exam, it's entirely made up of reading and writing exercises. No listening or speaking this time around, which is fine with me.
However, we've just now started learning how to write the more formal letters that we'll have to write for the exam. Things like job application letters and formal requests for various things. If it were up to me, that's the kind of thing we would have been working on from the start. The Danish job application letter is very different from an American cover letter, and I just today found out that I've been writing them incorrectly since I got here.
It's frustrating.
More frustrating still, it looks like I'll have the same teachers for module 4. I still really like our Thursday/Friday teacher, but Monday/Wednesday-guy needs to get his act together.
Some feel like they're not learning anything new, or they don't feel like we're focusing on the things they need help with. Others are simple lost completely. Still others (myself included) are getting tired of our Monday/Wednesday teacher's teaching methods.
It's been a very different vibe in class during module 3, and not always in a good way. Especially on Mondays and Wednesdays, when many of us feel that even the teacher doesn't know the correct answers. And if he doesn't really know what the answers are, then how are we supposed to learn?
Today was especially frustrating. We spent part of the class working on the "tryk" or stress on words in sentences. Danish is a sort of musical language, and the inflection has a sort of rhythm to it. Unfortunately, our teacher doesn't seem to be a terribly rhythmic guy, so even when he's saying a sentence with the stresses clearly on one word, he tells us that the stress is on different words. It's baffling and frustrating. It's never been an exercise that I've had problems with until I started taking classes with him.
As far as the module 3 exam, it's entirely made up of reading and writing exercises. No listening or speaking this time around, which is fine with me.
However, we've just now started learning how to write the more formal letters that we'll have to write for the exam. Things like job application letters and formal requests for various things. If it were up to me, that's the kind of thing we would have been working on from the start. The Danish job application letter is very different from an American cover letter, and I just today found out that I've been writing them incorrectly since I got here.
It's frustrating.
More frustrating still, it looks like I'll have the same teachers for module 4. I still really like our Thursday/Friday teacher, but Monday/Wednesday-guy needs to get his act together.
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