Oral Exam Tips

OK, uhh…two weeks from now, I have to sit two language oral exams, German and French. This requires me going in to have conversations with the teachers, and I haven’t actually sat an exam of this sort before (previous years, we just recorded ourselves on tape). I was wondering if anyone’s got any tips of any kind, cause I’m REALLY nervous? Thank you very much! :smiley:

Read your stuff aloud to a mirror, then you’ll know how to look relaxed. And if you can get there, you’ll feel more relaxed as well.
Otherwise, just get a lot of sleep before the test so that you avoid being tired. And don’t stress :slight_smile:

Study and don’t stress, and listen carefully, don’t memorize if you already have the lines written. It was nothing but oral exams in my Japanese class and I spent too much time memorizing, that when my partner screwed up and we had to improv i screwed up royally. The theache will most likely be happy if you say something instead of stare blankly or go for your notes.

for oral foreign language tests the teachers prefer (from what I’ve learned) to see improvisation, command of vocabularly, good diction, and ability to communicate the language. They don’t really want certain phrases spit back at them, that defeats the purpose of reading the language. They also tend to be more forgiving for oral exams instead of writing type exercises. So just relax, stay calm, remember what you know, and don’t get anxious if you mess up a few words, sometimes the teacher would prefer you back up and correct what you said wrong than just plow on ahead trying to spit out as much as possible.

Staying relaxed is the best tip of all though. Go into it as if you were having an English exam.

Mmm… I remember the time when I wasn’t the class clown…

Sure was heck back then, doing something front of the class. Nervousness and people staring slowly up the nervous breakdown… And then I eased up and now I can do a presentation of, preferably something I know even a bit about, with small stress.

Well, one, try reading the presentation you’re making ALOUD, preferably to someone. Parents/siblings will gladly help out, it’s for your education’s sake, right?

Mirror may help in some cases. In mine, I ended up laughing at myself…

Okay, to the actual presentation. since it’s languages, try to memorize the main points. If you have the main point jot down in your memory, you can easily ‘mind-map’ things related to the main point. For example, you can lead point 1 (Ugh, bad example: World war I) to point 2 (World war II), and then in the middle, there are matters like why it happened, how it happened, could’ve they have prevented it and so forth.

If you have trouble looking at the audience, and constantly sift your head to your notes to prevent eye contact, don’t. It’ll make you seem like you exactly haven’t prepared for this one by constantly reading what you were supposed to talk about. Instead, look at the back of the class, at the walls. You can talk to walls without blushing or getting nervoused? Good! and another one: If there’s a chair to sit on, don’t. Instead, stand up and do like I said: The back wall is a MUCH better listener than the bored class in front of you. BEsides, it gives the image that you’re confident about yourself, by standing up and giving your speech. Besides, if you sit down, your voice doesn’t sound as lively/loud.

In the case of a total case of “DANGIFORGOTWHATTOTELLNEXT”-thermia, try to talk about the previous subject handled a bit closely; with examples and whatnot. A bit of humor or trivia would stir it up nicely. (“So, did you know that the Swedish once thought minks to be submarines?”) Works for me, but then again, people’re used to that from me. Dunno about you.

Anyways, good luck!

*Notice: I totally forgot it was languages, but I guess that’ll suffice for oral presentations in general? I’m sorry >_<