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.
Showing posts with label practice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label practice. Show all posts
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Chatting with Children
Here's a conversation that I had today with a little boy who lives in our building (translated from Danish, as he has not yet started to learn English):
Little boy: What have you been doing today?
Me: I had Danish class this morning.
Little boy: I think you speak Danish well.
Me: Thank you! But there are still a lot of words that I can't understand.
Little boy: Yeah, me too.
All together now... Awwwwwww!
It has actually been really helpful and confidence-building to speak with the children in the neighborhood lately. The language is new-ish enough to them that they don't find it strange or frustrating if there are words I don't understand. In fact, I found myself nervously not unsure about a question that some kids in the dog park asked me a few weeks ago, but they happily obliged me by miming the action of picking up the dog. They were just asking if they could hold the puppy.
I'm getting to the point where I understand quite a lot of what people are saying around me. In fact, I tend to understand more than I think I understand. The trouble comes when someone asks a familiar question in a slightly unfamiliar way, and I completely lose the context and assume they're asking something I won't understand. For example, I was just in the dog park (again) and a little boy asked me how old my dog was. Trouble was, he didn't ask it in the way most people ask, which is "How old is he?" or "Hvor gammel er han?" in Danish. Instead, he asked "How many years is he?" or "Hvor mange år er han?" I knew the words, but wasn't used to being asked that way, so it took me a moment to wrap my head around the question.
It's all just going to take lots of practice.
And I'm going to need to start stepping up my Danish practice and consumption outside of class if I plan to continue on to module 6.
After class today, I asked my teacher if there was anything special I should do in order to continue on to the 6th module, as most people only go through module 5. The big Danish fluency exam takes place after module 5, and only those who want to take university courses in Danish continue on to the 6th. She clarified that I will need to get a very high score on my module 5 exam in order to be allowed to take module 6, so she recommended watching lots of Danish television, reading lots of Danish books and newspapers, and listening to Danish radio. Apparently, once you take and pass your big module 5 exam (known as Prøve i Dansk 3), you cannot be readmitted into module 5 classes without paying for them yourself. So, if I pass the Prøve i Dansk 3, but don't have a high enough score to continue to module 6, I'll have to pay to re-take classes and to re-take the exam.
So... you know...
No pressure.
Little boy: What have you been doing today?
Me: I had Danish class this morning.
Little boy: I think you speak Danish well.
Me: Thank you! But there are still a lot of words that I can't understand.
Little boy: Yeah, me too.
All together now... Awwwwwww!
It has actually been really helpful and confidence-building to speak with the children in the neighborhood lately. The language is new-ish enough to them that they don't find it strange or frustrating if there are words I don't understand. In fact, I found myself nervously not unsure about a question that some kids in the dog park asked me a few weeks ago, but they happily obliged me by miming the action of picking up the dog. They were just asking if they could hold the puppy.
I'm getting to the point where I understand quite a lot of what people are saying around me. In fact, I tend to understand more than I think I understand. The trouble comes when someone asks a familiar question in a slightly unfamiliar way, and I completely lose the context and assume they're asking something I won't understand. For example, I was just in the dog park (again) and a little boy asked me how old my dog was. Trouble was, he didn't ask it in the way most people ask, which is "How old is he?" or "Hvor gammel er han?" in Danish. Instead, he asked "How many years is he?" or "Hvor mange år er han?" I knew the words, but wasn't used to being asked that way, so it took me a moment to wrap my head around the question.
It's all just going to take lots of practice.
And I'm going to need to start stepping up my Danish practice and consumption outside of class if I plan to continue on to module 6.
After class today, I asked my teacher if there was anything special I should do in order to continue on to the 6th module, as most people only go through module 5. The big Danish fluency exam takes place after module 5, and only those who want to take university courses in Danish continue on to the 6th. She clarified that I will need to get a very high score on my module 5 exam in order to be allowed to take module 6, so she recommended watching lots of Danish television, reading lots of Danish books and newspapers, and listening to Danish radio. Apparently, once you take and pass your big module 5 exam (known as Prøve i Dansk 3), you cannot be readmitted into module 5 classes without paying for them yourself. So, if I pass the Prøve i Dansk 3, but don't have a high enough score to continue to module 6, I'll have to pay to re-take classes and to re-take the exam.
So... you know...
No pressure.
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