Has anyone taken the TRKI/TORFL Russian language exam?

[Dylan95]

Has anyone taken the TRKI/TORFL Russian language exam? Or have any advice?

[Jim]

Gareth Popkins has an interesting site and has blogged about his own studies for the TRKI 3 here. There’s also an interview with someone who passed the TRKI 4 here.

[Dylan95]

Gareth Popkins has an interesting site and has blogged about his own studies for the TRKI 3 here. There’s also an interview with someone who passed the TRKI 4 here.

This is great! Thank you!

[MamaPata]

I don't remember if he's taken the official exam, but on the forum Neofight78 has written a bit about his preparations on his log here.

[tarvos]

I also prepared for the 4, but never sat it

[whatiftheblog]

Gareth Popkins has an interesting site and has blogged about his own studies for the TRKI 3 here. There’s also an interview with someone who passed the TRKI 4 here.

Mmmkay, um... whoah.

Am I allowed to intervene here in "Баба Яга против" mode? Just going by the first practice test I found online (compiled by my alma mater, curiously enough - http://english.spbu.ru/images/TLCdoc/TRKI-4.pdf), I have many #feels: I take emotional offense at the mere existence of the word "говорение", for instance, and a lot of the questions/phrases make little to no sense (who would ever use "можно услышать" in "Можно услышать, ... Петербург — один из красивейших городов мира.."???).

I wouldn't be able to guess my way through half of page 37 (nor the top of page 41 - what in the world...?), and that's considering I 1) graduated high school with As in both Russian lang & lit at a гумантирная гимназия, including an A+ on my graduation essay on the poems of Zhivago; 2) hold a specialist degree with distinction from St Petersburg State, having submitted, conservatively, 1,000+ single-spaced pages of written academic work over the five (interminable) years it took to complete.

Fellow natives, am I being needlessly critical or does this also seem excessively weird to you?

ETA: Sorry, АмериканскийДурак, I realize my post isn't particularly helpful... I guess it would only go to show that, as is the case with many of these tests, you're effectively being tested on the test itself, not on your actual language skills...

[Dylan95]

Gareth Popkins has an interesting site and has blogged about his own studies for the TRKI 3 here. There’s also an interview with someone who passed the TRKI 4 here.

Mmmkay, um... whoah.

Am I allowed to intervene here in "Баба Яга против" mode? Just going by the first practice test I found online (compiled by my alma mater, curiously enough - http://english.spbu.ru/images/TLCdoc/TRKI-4.pdf), I have many #feels: I take emotional offense at the mere existence of the word "говорение", for instance, and a lot of the questions/phrases make little to no sense (who would ever use "можно услышать" in "Можно услышать, ... Петербург — один из красивейших городов мира.."???).

I wouldn't be able to guess my way through half of page 37 (nor the top of page 41 - what in the world...?), and that's considering I 1) graduated high school with As in both Russian lang & lit at a гумантирная гимназия, including an A+ on my graduation essay on the poems of Zhivago; 2) hold a specialist degree with distinction from St Petersburg State, having submitted, conservatively, 1,000+ single-spaced pages of written academic work over the five (interminable) years it took to complete.

Fellow natives, am I being needlessly critical or does this also seem excessively weird to you?

ETA: Sorry, АмериканскийДурак, I realize my post isn't particularly helpful... I guess it would only go to show that, as is the case with many of these tests, you're effectively being tested on the test itself, not on your actual language skills...

This is important to know!

[mokibao]

It's probably worth mentioning that the TORFL/TKRI is one of the few exams that can be completely taken online. Covid probably accelerated the transition. This is discussed in this blog post:

https://www.malingenie.com/russian-c2-test-online/
http://pskovuniversity.com/en/trki/

This particular website seems to offer it in a relatively painless way (disclaimer - haven't tried it, no idea what they're worth): https://russianschoolrussificate.com/torfl-exams/