Okay, less than a week until this exam, wahoo!
- Has anyone practiced with the technology? I haven't (I'm a cyber-school student taking the exam at a random public school) and I'm afraid I'll have problems/technical issues.
- I'm confused about the second speaking prompt, the presentational one. Last year the prompt was about athletics, and the year before, it was about the benefits of water, but we're still expected to speak about the culture? Are we just supposed to insert cultural knowledge/facts into our answers to the prompt?
@skieurope well yes, if it’s completely incorrect, then they can and very well might take off points. But I’m almost confident that if you make up an organization or something to use in a speaking presentation about, say, ecology, they won’t check it and won’t take off points. That is at least what my teacher told me, and he graded the exam multiple times.
I would learn a few organizations. They’re mainly focused on the cultural facts about the Spanish-speaking country. I’m sure you could figure out some facts about the US.
My teacher told me that including a cultural fact or two in the email makes a good impression as well
I speak fluent Spanish but I’m confused. @apactstudent What kind of cultural fact do they want you to include in an email? Could you give an example of this? Looking at prompts from previous years, it seems like a cultural fact would be irrelevant to many of the prompts…
The test was redesigned last year, so any prompts prior to 2014 will not be applicable.
@evan241 We went over the scoring guidelines as a class. I can send you a copy of them if you’d like (and if it’s allowed, @skieurope ). I’ll show you where it says that a cultural fact would be appropriate.
Btw, the test was redesigned (as skieurope said) and the emphasis on culture is much bigger. They even included it in the multiple choice section (i.e. which of the following cultural values is most strongly expressed/referred to in the first paragraph?)
Is anyone preparing with the PR book? Imo, those practice mc are way too easy, basically restates the passage.
@apactstudent That’s okay, thanks for clarifying! I looked up the guidelines and figured it out.
Has anyone here actually used/tested the recording technology we’ll use the day of? Also, for the audio prompts, is that a “go at your own pace” and you pause the recording to answer the questions, or are they played for the entire room to hear? I’ve got the Spanish part of this test down, it’s just the technology part that worries me haha.
@evan241 My class has used the recording technology weekly–it’s not too complicated. For the audio prompts, it really is all prompted. I know for my class and I think everyone taking to test, you’ll be at a computer individually hearing the audio being streamed to you and whoever is doing the speaking part at the same time as you, and the audio will tell you that you have a minute to read the instructions and then tell you. Just make sure you can record beforehand and play the recording back. And in between the conversational part and cultural presentation, it’ll tell you, but make sure to hit pause instead of stop. No biggy.
Everything besides the technological part of the test is what I’m worrying about!
Guys, I have a huge problem! I’ve been sick for several days now and my voice is almost gone. Will the raspiness of my voice affect how the speaking parts are graded? I am scared the scorers will not understand what I am saying.
I know the MC is worth 50% and the free response is 50%, but how are the writing and speaking parts weighted within that score? Is each (interpersonal writing, presentational writing, interpersonal speaking, cultural comparison) weighted the same?
@evan241 In the free response, the writing and speaking are 25% each. So yes, all four parts are weighted the same 12.5%. If anyone is interested, my teacher gave us a “last minute tips” sheet for the exam. Here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14w8bxwJ0q17sOytFKZRe55tp3sIGnWLe_9kpAHUB4cU/edit?usp=sharing
@katterik the link seems to not be working. Is it possible you could post a working link? Thank you!
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Generally google docs are not allowed, but post 53 is actually some very good advice.
Replace the asterisks with docs(dot)google(dot)com. Obviously replace (dot) with a period. @katterik If s/he has a webpage on the school’s website, encourage him/her to post it there. These really are good tips.
@skieurope his page is through edline and it is password protected. Are other document sharing websites allowed? If not I could just put it all on here, i just didn’t want to take up all the space. Here is the fixed link.
https://docs(.)google(.)com/document/d/14w8bxwJ0q17sOytFKZRe55tp3sIGnWLe_9kpAHUB4cU/edit?usp=sharing
No. I thought it would be useful for future generations. Oh, well.
If I can formulate a decent response during the conversation for 10 seconds or I can elaborate poorly for 20 seconds. Should I attempt to do the former or the latter?. I’m running into the problem of the recording cutting me off. 
Edit: Grammar
guys do u know where can we practice the conversations??