Hello, I wasn't a member of the old forum but came across this new community a while back. I studied Russian for one year in University as part of my Masters course which I finished in September. I have booked my place to sit the ТРКИ-1 exam in London in June 2016. I have already looked through a couple of sample tests and some parts of the exam I think I could already ace.
I'm currently using a number of different methods and I'm trying to get as much reading under my belt as possible. Currently working my way through the Harry Potter series and enjoying them more than I did in English! I am also working my way through some grammar books and turning some of the exercises into Anki cloze deletion flashcards. I talk with Russian friends most days and occasionally hire a tutor through italki.
More interestingly I picked up a couple of London's free weekly Russian newspapers, which I will have a read of today. I also bought a book to start after I have worked my way through the rest of the Harry Potter series.
Will update this log time to time to keep myself accountable, plus share anything I think that is interesting.
Track to ТРКИ-1
- Ed1991
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Track to ТРКИ-1
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- neofight78
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Re: Track to ТРКИ-1
Best of luck with your Russian studies! I sat TRKI-1 in London last year, it's well organised and the staff are helpful. Of course it's tricky to judge just from your post, but it sounds to me like it's maybe worth considering going for TRKI-2 instead. Have you had an assessment of your level from a professional teacher who knows the test well?
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- Ed1991
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Re: Track to ТРКИ-1
neofight78 wrote:Best of luck with your Russian studies! I sat ТРКИ-1 in London last year, it's well organised and the staff are helpful. Of course it's tricky to judge just from your post, but it sounds to me like it's maybe worth considering going for TRKI-2 instead. Have you had an assessment of your level from a professional teacher who knows the test well?
Thanks. I have considered it. But as the test costs a fair whack to take I feel that I should play it safe. It appears to me that there is a significant jump between the two levels. I will probably run through a couple of sections of a mock ТРКИ-2 test and see exactly how far off I am. I saw your log and saw your doing the ТРКИ-2 in Novosibirsk. How would you say the two levels compare? Good luck with the test if you haven't already taken it.
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- neofight78
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Re: Track to ТРКИ-1
Yeah, it's not cheap. Especially if you don't live in London and have to pay transport and hotel costs on top. BTW I stayed in student halls, it's a lot cheaper than a hotel and it's only down the road.
It's worth working with an experienced teacher who can help you suss out your level and what you might need to work on. I understand wanting to play it safe, but on the other hand if you need to stretch yourself to hit your goal, that's where the real benefit of doing an exam comes in.
There is a big gap between the two levels, it took me just over a year to go from a strong B1 to a weak B2, and I put quite a lot of effort in. I'm not suggesting you should try to go from B1 to B2 by the summer, it just seems to me if you are already regularly chatting with friends and can read books your level may well be somewhat nearer B2 than B1.
It's worth working with an experienced teacher who can help you suss out your level and what you might need to work on. I understand wanting to play it safe, but on the other hand if you need to stretch yourself to hit your goal, that's where the real benefit of doing an exam comes in.
There is a big gap between the two levels, it took me just over a year to go from a strong B1 to a weak B2, and I put quite a lot of effort in. I'm not suggesting you should try to go from B1 to B2 by the summer, it just seems to me if you are already regularly chatting with friends and can read books your level may well be somewhat nearer B2 than B1.
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- Montmorency
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Re: Track to ТРКИ-1
Goodness, I didn't realise there were free Russian newspapers in London! (and it's not like I live a thousand miles from there either).
(Russian isn't on my hit-list, but interesting to know such things exist. Wonder what else similar is out there).
(Russian isn't on my hit-list, but interesting to know such things exist. Wonder what else similar is out there).
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- Ed1991
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Re: Track to ТРКИ-1
Montmorency wrote:Goodness, I didn't realise there were free Russian newspapers in London! (and it's not like I live a thousand miles from there either).
(Russian isn't on my hit-list, but interesting to know such things exist. Wonder what else similar is out there).
There are actually four free Russian newspapers in London; Англия, Пульс UK, The Business Курьер and Коммерсантъ UK. I know there are free papers for other languages and you can normally find them outside certain train stations (there might be a Spanish one not entirely sure). You can also buy foreign papers at certain newsagent in central London and it's possible to find papers in the majority of major languages. If you ever in London you should check it out.
I would also recommend you check out the Folyes on Tottenham Court Road. Has the most amazing languages section and it's possible to purchase literature in a huge range of different languages. Tends to be a little expensive though.
Last edited by Ed1991 on Tue Oct 27, 2015 5:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- Ed1991
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Re: Track to ТРКИ-1
neofight78 wrote:There is a big gap between the two levels, it took me just over a year to go from a strong B1 to a weak B2, and I put quite a lot of effort in. I'm not suggesting you should try to go from B1 to B2 by the summer, it just seems to me if you are already regularly chatting with friends and can read books your level may well be somewhat nearer B2 than B1.
Thanks for you feedback. Had a look through a couple of B2 papers I found online. The reading section wasn't too challenging but I don't fancy the written or grammar sections much. Haven't been able to find any examples of the audio section, which I have on CD for the B1 level. Congratulations on passing the B2 test, it's a very impressive achievement!
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- tarvos
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Re: Track to ТРКИ-1
This type of test expects much from the student, the Russians are demanding. I did not sit this test, but I did mock ones for the fourth level and they were massively hard (although I would have passed).
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- Ed1991
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Re: Track to ТРКИ-1
I know lots of people hate Anki but I have to say it has made my learning much more efficient. My cloze deletion grammar deck has just reached around 1000 cards and my vocabulary deck has reached about 4,000 words (with a few hundred words waiting to be added). Still a lot of work to do on the grammar deck but cloze deletion done right certainly appears to help.
Been reading the second of the Harry Potter books and should have it finished in a couple of days. Going to take a break from the series for a while as Harry and the crew are already starting to bore me. Bought Бойцовский клуб from a book shop in central London and have found the audiobook online to listen along too. From browsing a few pages the book appears surprisingly accessible.
Played around with some Ukrainian, but nothing remotely serious.
Been reading the second of the Harry Potter books and should have it finished in a couple of days. Going to take a break from the series for a while as Harry and the crew are already starting to bore me. Bought Бойцовский клуб from a book shop in central London and have found the audiobook online to listen along too. From browsing a few pages the book appears surprisingly accessible.
Played around with some Ukrainian, but nothing remotely serious.
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- Ed1991
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Re: Track to ТРКИ-1
In London you can find everything...
Not much new. But I now have been officially awarded a Masters Degree in Russian Studies!
Have been ploughing on with the stuff as before being working through my grammar books. Now have a pretty hefty Anki grammar deck now and it certainly has been a big help. A Russian friend of mine noted how my writing had improved.
Also been playing around with Subs2srs, and have successfully managed to create a cards from a couple of movies. Finding both English and Russian subtitles is often a bit of a struggle and then making sure these match up, just complicates the problem further. My deck currently has flashcards from О чём говорят мужчины, брат and Питер ФМ. Though I used a good program which allows you to rip YouTube subs into SRT format which I'm definitely going to try and exploit going forward.
О чём говорят мужчины is on YouTube and I quite enjoyed it when I watched it recently. No English subs on the YouTube version however.
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