Final+English+Oral+Exam

Some time near the end of your 13th class you will have completed your written exams. Then you will have a short spurt of work to finalize your preparation for the two language orals.

**The English exam is like this:** You go into a supervised room with a teacher and you sit alone. On your desk is numbered blank school paper, an English-English and a German-English dictionary. You will be given a text on one of the themes you have studied in your course. It will be just over 400 words long. You will also be given three questions to answer and you will be asked if you understand those questions before the examiner leaves the room. The first question will concern the **content** of the text. The second question will invite you to **analyse** the text. The third question will ask for a **deeper understanding of the area to which the text is connected**. You have exactly 30 minutes to prepare the answers to these three questions.

Then you will be taken to the examination room which is usually the 12th class room. In the room there will be a long table at which will sit Mr Hall, who will ask almost all the questions or all of the questions, the Chief examiner and a colleague from a local Grammar school. You and your glass of water will sit at a desk opposite to Mr Hall. One of the people from outside will write the minutes of the exam. ** The exam will last at least 20 minutes and maybe 30 minutes **. **In the first half of the exam, you are on your own**. You answer the three questions and the examiner will not normally interrupt except perhaps to tell you to move on to the next question.

The second half of the exam will involve **a conversation started by the examiner on one of the themes from the opposite half of your course to that of the text you had**. How much of you there is will depend on how good you are. The less the examiner needs to cross question you - the more likely you are to be doing well. It means you are carrying the conversation with your knowledge.

When the examiner tells you the time is up you hand all of your papers to the external examiners and leave the room and are taken to a secure place. Groups of three people all get the same text (for purposes of comparison) and so there cannot be any contact between those three.

About one hour after the group of three have finished, you will be called into the Chief Administrator's office and told your result.

We always try but cannot guarantee to put English and Russian on different days.