Lawyer&Mom wrote:We would love to live vicariously through your journey! Feel free to leave updates! Best of luck!
Thanks Lawyer&Mom. I'm going to try to avoid the forum but I can't rule it out that I won't be back in 2022 before meeting my objectives. The reason is I really want to focus on getting the task done, or at least having a red hot go at completing it. I fear that getting on here will distract me and this is a year I want very little in the way of distractions as I'll need all the energy and time I have given I've several other things on my plate as well.
BeaP wrote:PeterMollenburg wrote:I won't be back around these parts until my mission is complete. I've got the tools, I know what I need to do, many an excellent forum member has provided me with ample instruction and advice, now I need to put it all into practise until I get what I came for
...Bye
I'm wishing you all the stamina in the world. I'm preparing for the DELE C2 after 15 years of self-study, so I know how hard it is. I've decided to do all the mock tests that are available in the galaxy, and I try to keep track of my scores. I also note down my reflections on the different tasks: time management, little tricks, things to watch out for. I've subscribed to the
El País (the Spanish equivalent of
Le Monde), analyse articles (vocabulary, linking words and structures) and try to reproduce them both orally and in a written form. And I'm planning to go through at least one C1-C2 grammar with exercises. I hope your preparation goes according to your plans, and you'll be back with news of success.
Hey BeaP,
Your comments make me realise I'm still underprepared and may remain so in 2022. 15 years! Yikes! Maybe I need to prepare for several more years? This is where I get frustrated, which I mentioned recently on another thread. How is it that Person ABC, Organisation XYZ (including the Alliance Française) state that to get to C2 all you need to do is easy peasy lemon squeezy x amount of hard study hours and you're there! Okay, maybe not that simple, but it's certainly not several years as I have done. Then there's yourself, there's others, there's my previous experience. That end of the scale makes me think that I will not pass, as it's a ridiculously difficult task, but I will try anyway. Even teachers at the AF said to me after failing C2, oh even we (native speakers) only have C1. Wtf? FSI numbers people? I just don't get it! Anyway, I wish you all the sucess with the DELE exam BeaP and hope I am just as successful!
rdearman wrote:PeterMollenburg wrote: I will try to weather storm and proceed with the French objective - C1 and C2. I feel like I'm sick to death of attempting to pass C-level exams despite only ever sitting one, for which I had less than ideal preparation but still gave it a good go a couple years back. I hope to change this in 2022.
Why?
Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you'll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, 'Is this necessary?' -- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Very nice quote. Thanks rdearman.
iguanamon wrote:While PM may be sick and tired of preparing to sit a French C level exam, he seems to have a need to do so. Unlike me, for PM sitting the test in a physical location won't set him back too much financially. Having a deadline tends to concentrate the mind for some people in a way that is meaningful for them. Whether or not PM ever uses the piece of paper for anything outside of self-satisfaction is immaterial.
He is familiar with the testing process. He knows what to do and how to do it to make it happen. He has the materials to hand. It's just a matter of making it happen. At this stage in learning, it's more about consolidating the knowledge already learned, making thought and expression be as TL as possible... and polishing that thought and expression to be as natural as possible as a second language-speaker outside of a TL country. It's not so easy, but it can be done. It has been done. He will do it. I have no doubt.
Seems like a pretty decent summary there, iguanamon. Not sure it's about consolidating only, though for me, as I've still a lot to learn...
I am really starting to have doubts and believe that I'm much less of the way down that path towards C1 and C2 than I suspect(ed). Still, if I'm wrong, that's not so bad, it just means I've got a fire under my backside and I need to put in all the effort I can to 'catch up'. Again I'm currently doubtful of passing, even by November, but it's amazing what six months of
consistent learning and focused study can potentially do. Time will tell.
reineke wrote:PM, I wish you the best but this is business as usual. How about speaking/conversing with educated adults? 50 hours of mock exam tutoring? You sat for a C-level exam only once. That was over two years ago. Book the next C-1 exam and prepare for it.
Thanks reineke. However, I don't believe It's business as usual, even though that is an absolute fair assumption. My 3 hour plan is business as usual, the routine is business as usual, so yep, you're absolutely correct. However, sticking to my plan it is not business as usual. I have only stuck to one plan in French - in the beginning I stuck to my large amount of French beginner courses for a good while indeed. After that I've done nothing but chop and change plans and when not chopping and changins I've been stopping and starting plans or even switching languages.
Yes I've watched plenty of series but I've not got beyond a few episodes of Buffy while referring to the transcripts. Thus, plenty of listening skills can still be developped. I've not read continually a good deal of books. I read a bit, I stop for a long while, I read a bit, I stop for another long while. Advanced courses? I'd be lucky to have completed two. Even the resource I love to say I love, that I utilise for intensive reading,
bien-dire magazine, I've not got beyond perhaps a few weeks at a time of use. Writing I do for a few weeks at best and stop again. It's all the same pattern.
This time around I intend to stick to my plan, while gradually increasing the difficulty level and adjusting the plan where necessary - not when bored, nor when busy or distracted.
I will do creative writing, then get input from iTalki paid teachers, then do exam writing and train myself with their input to write much better exam style essays. I'll get through Buffy then another series and another and another. I'll actually make it through the Grammaire Progressive series including the advanced and perfectionnement levels. I'll continue with bien-dire 20 minutes for every study hour to acquire more and more advanced vocabulary that hopefully becomes active. And I'll read more than ever.
A few watches of Luca's intermediate plateau youtube videos have told me that I've just not stuck to my plans for long enough. I don't need him to tell me that, plenty of others have attempted to get me out of course land years back. I left course land but didn't apply myself for long enough to see results.
I will book for the C1 exam. I intend to sit it in May... just went off to check the website. Only one date in 2022 in Melbourne advertised. In years gone by it's usually March or May then again in November. This time around it's only late October 2022. Hmmm... I was planning for C1 in May then C2 in November. That throws a spanner in the works, maybe they will announce another date yet. Based on that it will be C1 in October then C2 the following year asap (depending on dates in 2023) OR just C2 in October 2022 OR C1
and C2 in October 2022. Either way I will be sitting sth in 2022 as soon as the earliest exam is.