Postby Amandine » Wed May 18, 2022 6:13 am
Well, I have officially done the DELF. C’est fini, it has expired, it is an ex-exam etc etc As mentioned, I work at Parliament House which has mandatory covid tests to come into the building on sitting days, which today is. A bit of excitement when the nice nurse lady asked me come back and do a second one. Happily, it was because the first one didn’t work not because it was positive but I had 15 seconds of imagining myself going straight home into isolation not to do the exam.
First encouraging thing when I went to the Alliance Francaise was I saw the people I did the Delf preparation course with so I knew I was actually there at the right time and day at least. Phew.
Listening, reading and writing were done all together in about a 2hr period. Loyal readers will know I managed to misspell my own name on the cover of the mock exam, I am pleased to report I cleared this hurdle without a similar problem.
Some eager beavers had brought two or three pens but were instructed to put them away – ONE PEN only. (If your pen stopped working they had their own stash). As someone who definitely cheated by writing maths equations on my eraser during exams at high school, I think this is probably a prudent rule.
Sitting spots were pre-allocated, I was in the front row in the middle which I was actually happy with because I wasn’t tempted to get distracted by other people seeming to finish before me or whatever.
Listening – talking to people after, everyone found this harder than expected. There were even questions on the first recording, the easiest one, I was a little unsure about which never really happened before. On the other hand, I wasn’t completely guessing some in the second and third recordings like I was during the mock so that’s better. It was probably OK overall.
Reading – definitely my best skill but I’m a little concerned I messed up a bit on the first section which is always the same type of thing – you are going somewhere on holiday or to study or whatever, have a list of criteria and have to mark four options based on if they do or do fit the criteria. Speaking to people after they seemed to think there was a thing where it wasn’t just sports they should have but organised sports. I don’t remember the exact wording so can’t be sure but if so I did not take the difference between the two into account. So perhaps lost points there. Also something about “Faciliter” cultural excursions. One of them was out in the forest but for cultural things the blurb specifically said you could ask at the tourist office in the village 10 km away for these. So my first question was is “faciliter” the same as ‘facilitate’ in English or is a faux ami? And either way, if they don’t have such cultural things themselves but helpfully tell you where you can specifically find them, is that faciliter or not? Personally I think, in the English sense, if someone asked me if we had cultural events and I said no, but if you go to X specific place you can get what you need it is fair to say I have ‘facilitated’ you doing that event. Eventually I thought this was a bit like in the mock exam when I turned myself in knots overthinking how calme an endroit actually had to be to qualify as an ‘endroit calme” and really I should just go with my gut which was: Yes. Speaking with people afterwards however, everything seemed to think No and that ‘faciliter’ required them to actively organise it. Well, frankly I have no bloody idea!
I basically always get full marks on the reading sections but it is definitely possible I drop marks with this one. Oh well. I will be quite annoyed if that happens but it wouldn’t change my assessment of my reading skills I am quite sure are definitely B1, at least. I’m reading a history of L'Académie française right now, what more do they want from me!
Writing – this is where I got lucky. The question was an email from a friend who had the opportunity to go to Montreal for 2 years for work but wasn’t sure and wanted your advice. I have specifically practiced from model answers for this sort of scenario so had a lot of good grammar structures to roll right out. Everyone agreed it was sooo much better to do this than having to write a newspaper article or whatever the other options are. I’m sure I made a lot of mistakes also, but given this is the most daunting one for me I’m very satisfied with it. Hooray.
Then we had a 40 minute break before my speaking part. Sat with a bunch of people from the prep class in the AF cafe and debriefed. Some of group got a bottle of red but I sadly had to decline as I had to go straight back to work.
Speaking – first thing was myself and another student went into a room and chose our subjects for the third part. There are a dozen or so pieces of paper face down, you choose two and then choose which of the two you want two do. I chose one on the topic of the negative effects of reality TV on children. Then we did the 10 minute preparation for this part. Then we went into our separate rooms with the examinateurs. At this point, once it starts you just feel carried along and honestly it’s all really a blur. I know I would’ve made a lot of mistakes but I also recall getting in some good vocab. With the third one, I had my notes but honestly once I started I forgot they were even there and freestyled which is VERY BAD because you’re supposed to structure the argument logically with firstly, secondly, par rapport, in conclusion etc. They love their coherent structures. I know all of this but I really think I neglected to do these because like I said once I got started my brain just emptied of everything except just talk, talk, talk. So I think there were strong and weak points about my performance in this one which frankly … I’ll live with. It’s a hard thing to do!
So there you go. A mixed bag! An exam is a snapshot of a moment in time where you are doing uncommon things in an uncommon circumstance so while I will be definitely be disappointed if I underperform by the time French bureaucracy grinds its way to sending out the results I will have watched another however many hours of French TV and enjoyed another 10 books which is really the point.
Going forward, I definitely want to improve my speaking. I have been doing some Pimsleur recently and to my surprise the app is very good and I’ve been enjoying it. I’ve never gotten past the first unit before with the American man vaguely chatting up the foreign woman but on level 14 you get to say things like “I divorced my husband and left California because of money troubles” – much more interesting.
24 x