How did your HSC Speaking Exam go?

[Poad]

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Oh em gee I was so nervous!

The ten minutes ended up going really fast, and I think I went okay. Some of the questions really put me off though, but I was able to scrape some kind of respectable answer. However, there were other questions which (I think) I absolutely nailed due to have prepared responses earlier.

All in all it was alright.

(Eep, I just realised how inappropriate it was of me to write this in english. Oh well. >_>)

[russianROULETTE]

I'm so freaking glad it's over, since I'm the type of person who stresses for weeks before these things... the questions I prepared for were alright, obviously, and I managed to slip in a couple of segues - i.e. from family to music, so I got to say a lot of what I wanted. But a couple were very difficult, with some pausing, umms, and 'mi sbaglio!', but I think, in general I went alright.

I talked to a friend after the exam (who is last in our class), she said that she said sorry heaps of times. In fact she said sorry in ENGLISH, then apologised in Italian for speaking in English, lol.

[Poad]

Hehe, glad to hear you went good.

Where was your exam btw? Mine was at Parramatta High.

[russianROULETTE]

Mine was at Smith's Hill, since I'm not a Sydney sider. One of the guys at our exam centre turned up without his letter from the BoS. Apparently his mum had thrown it out :/ That would have been so nerve-wracking, as if exams aren't bad enough already.

What questions did you get asked? The four people at my school that do Continuers all got the same examiner, but the questions were really different.

My first question was on my family, then music, if I have my license, what I do with my friends in my spare time, how I found year 12, whether I'd ever been to Italy, whether I found it difficult at the start, if my Italian got better, about the life of teenagers in Italy, is this the type of lifestyle I'd like to have, and what advice would I give to a year 11 student about going to Italy... and I think that's about it.

[Poad]

Originally Posted by russianROULETTE

What questions did you get asked? The four people at my school that do Continuers all got the same examiner, but the questions were really different.

My first question was on my family, then music, if I have my license, what I do with my friends in my spare time, how I found year 12, whether I'd ever been to Italy, whether I found it difficult at the start, if my Italian got better, about the life of teenagers in Italy, is this the type of lifestyle I'd like to have, and what advice would I give to a year 11 student about going to Italy... and I think that's about it.

Wow, your questions look really hard!

I can't really remember all mine now, it just seems like a blur. Here's some things I spoke about though: If I had brothers or sisters, how it is being the youngest and any specific things I do around the house because im the youngest, if I do any sport and whether or not yr 12 students do enough sport, what I do with my friends, what movie I'd watched in the past year (Ugh you would not believe how freaking hard it was to think of ANY RECENT MOVIE. I probly paused the most in the whole exam trying to think of one), my subjects; why I chose italian, will I continue to study it, what do I like about the italian culture, whether I'll be sad to leave school.

[russianROULETTE]

Originally Posted by Poad

Wow, your questions look really hard!

I can't really remember all mine now, it just seems like a blur. Here's some things I spoke about though: If I had brothers or sisters, how it is being the youngest and any specific things I do around the house because im the youngest, if I do any sport and whether or not yr 12 students do enough sport, what I do with my friends, what movie I'd watched in the past year (Ugh you would not believe how freaking hard it was to think of ANY RECENT MOVIE. I probly paused the most in the whole exam trying to think of one), my subjects; why I chose italian, will I continue to study it, what do I like about the italian culture, whether I'll be sad to leave school.

Haha, I wish I got your questions. Our teacher wanted us to prepare for a book and movie, so I would have been okay with that type of question... I had an entire rant prepared and everything.

Now I keep having these terrible 'in retrospect' moments, where I realise what stupid mistakes I've made. For example when it asked about family, I said I fight a bit with my mum because I don't like cleaning my room, then I said she thinks there might be 'un topolino' - when I meant 'un topo'. I don't think topolino is even a word. And also, at one point I said 'era andato' when I meant 'e' andato', when I was speaking about my dad.

[Poad]

Originally Posted by russianROULETTE

Now I keep having these terrible 'in retrospect' moments, where I realise what stupid mistakes I've made. For example when it asked about family, I said I fight a bit with my mum because I don't like cleaning my room, then I said she thinks there might be 'un topolino' - when I meant 'un topo'. I don't think topolino is even a word.

Aha, well, 'topolino' actually means 'Mickey Mouse'! Thats pretty funny and only a minor mistake though, I wouldn't worry about it.

Also, did you find it totally unsettling whenever you looked around and saw totally Italian-looking people there? I swear, some of them looked like they just arrived from Italy just a couple of days ago. Quite hyperbolic of me, I know, but still... >_>

Also also, it was kinda interesting to note the guy/girl ratio there. It seemed like the vast majority of the students at my centre were girls. Was that the same with you?

And hmm, I wonder where all the other italian students are...

[russianROULETTE]

Originally Posted by Poad

Aha, well, 'topolino' actually means 'Mickey Mouse'! Thats pretty funny and only a minor mistake though, I wouldn't worry about it.

ooh, so THAT'S where i got it from. i thought i combined topo and tapettino, but yours definitely makes more sense because i remember talking about mickey mouse one lesson lol. oh well, i'll make up for that silly mistake with my favourite section - the writing.

Also, did you find it totally unsettling whenever you looked around and saw totally Italian-looking people there? I swear, some of them looked like they just arrived from Italy just a couple of days ago. Quite hyperbolic of me, I know, but still... >_>

haha, i didn't have that problem since there weren't really a huge amount of people in the library with us. but a lot of the students with italian backgrounds speak a dialect - one of my classmates has a larger vocabulary than me, but a lot of those words are wrong because in his dialect, they cut words halfway through. from what my italian teacher says, kids with italian backgrounds don't necessarily do better than other students, because they don't use that resource. my classmate is an example of this, as is my teacher's son, and another guy (in fact, the only other guy) that we talked to before the exam.

Also also, it was kinda interesting to note the guy/girl ratio there. It seemed like the vast majority of the students at my centre were girls. Was that the same with you?

definitely. out of the fourteen people i saw throughout the entire day, only two of them were guys (both with italian backgrounds). it's really interesting... i've noticed that at least in my group of friends, the guys gravitate more towards science, maths and social sciences than languages.

And hmm, I wonder where all the other italian students are...

yeah, this section of the forum seems to be dead a lot of the time. maybe this year has a smaller cohort?

[ilmikoil]

first time posting so idk if this will work.
anyway my exam was ok, though i dident interprited a question properly and answered it incorectly. though the examiner picked it up and then explained the question and corrected my self. im hoping that will not effect my mark to much

apart from that i got a change to add different tences i.e. present and imperfect subjunctive.

[ilmikoil]

my exam was at parra. i was also pritty nervous.
i got questions that were different to what i prepared for.
i.e. i talked about going to see films with friends, then he asked whats your favorite italian film, i replyed jonny stickino, then he stated asking questions about the actor in the actual movie jonny stickino

[UNZPME]

mine was at birong girls for arabic it was quit alright was nervous at the start but when i started talking it was all good

[russianROULETTE]

Originally Posted by ilmikoil

first time posting so idk if this will work.
anyway my exam was ok, though i dident interprited a question properly and answered it incorectly. though the examiner picked it up and then explained the question and corrected my self. im hoping that will not effect my mark to much

apart from that i got a change to add different tences i.e. present and imperfect subjunctive.

now that i think about it, i think i may have misinterpreted one of the questions she asked me... unfortunately all i can remember is the word 'consiglieresti', not the rest of the question or what i said. hopefully i said the right sort of thing, though...

i added a couple of subjunctives too. there were a few little buzz words that i got to say, (i.e. 'se tutto vada bene', 'ha un cuore d'oro', 'questo e il sogno do molti giovani oggi ma forse riesco a realizzarlo') so i was happy about that. now that i've stopped stressing about the mistakes i made, i'm actually quite happy with my performance

[Poad]

Originally Posted by ilmikoil

my exam was at parra. i was also pritty nervous.
i got questions that were different to what i prepared for.
i.e. i talked about going to see films with friends, then he asked whats your favorite italian film, i replyed jonny stickino, then he stated asking questions about the actor in the actual movie jonny stickino

Ooh, parra eh? What time?
Also yeah, those questions about Jonny Stickino/Roberto Begnini would'a been hard. o_o

[ilmikoil]

mine was at parra from 9:00 i was number 35 so it might have been 10 onwards when i did my exam. apart from what i mentioned earlier i think i did good cos i used variety of tences and structures. though now i have extension italian to do. does anyone else do extension italian?