I was proud that I wasn’t at all nervous (though I had planned on saying ‘Estoy bien pero un poco nerviosa’ if the teacher asked ‘Que Tal’!) before the viva till my brother ruthlessly pointed out that it was because not much depended on the outcome. Sadly, he is right (as younger brothers so rarely are!). So apart from going through the notes once and rehearsing a few questions, I didn’t do much by way of preparation.
When I reached the classroom at 10am, a handful of students were sitting poring over their notes. The good news was that the 9am batch wasn’t still done with their viva. Oh no! I had plans to go to the VJTI exhibition after this. I had deliberately not brought any notes with me – in stark contrast to my student days when I could be seen going through the notes till the last possible moments. Experience has taught me that the last-minute studying doesn’t make any difference to what I remember or don’t during the exam. So I sat reading a James Patterson novel (yes, I have rejoined the library this month) in a corner of the classroom till a student who sometimes sat next to me during classes came to me and asked me to help her practice for the viva.
So for the next 15 minutes or so we went through the whole drill – Como te llamas (what is your name), que haces (what do you do), donde vives (where do you stay), como es tu casa (how is your home), que hora es (what time is it), que dia es hoy (what day is today), cual es la fecha hoy (what date is today), cuando es tu cumpleanos (when is your birthday), cual es tu numero de telefono (what is your telephone number), como es tu amiga (how is your friend), a ti que te gusta (what do you like), cuantos anos tienes (how old are you) etc. Then we made each other recite 1 to 20 numbers, names of months and days of weeks, names of 5 foods, garments, fruits, vegetables, colors, objects and places in a city. It was good fun!
We were almost done with the revision when we heard some discussion at the back of the classroom. A student who had just finished his viva had been cornered by the rest of the gang and grilled about what he was asked. He had rattled off a few questions when the teacher walked in from another classroom where she was conducting the viva and threatened to cut the marks of everyone for this. For a moment, I wondered if I am back in my Engineering college :)
I was restless as the clock began inching towards 10:30. Just then the teacher walked in again carrying a bunch of papers. These were our written papers from last weekend. She handed mine with a ‘Muy Bien’ – I scored 72.5 out of 80. But I didn’t get much chance to inspect it at that that time because the teacher asked if anyone was ready for their oral and I put up my hand – not because of any over-confidence but simply because I was in hurry to get it done.
When we were seated in the other classroom, the teacher asked me to choose one sheet out of the two that she had and describe the places in it. I think I did okay on that front. She asked me what I was wearing, what do I do, how old I am, what kind of a house do I live in and so on. I think the whole thing lasted for 10 minutes at best. Then she asked me if I was done viewing the paper. When I said no so she asked me to take a look and I headed for one of the benches on the left.
Upon close inspection I wasn’t surprised at my mistakes – I had figured them out while practicing for viva. I had lost 2-3 marks in the audio section, as expected. I would not have lost 3 marks if I had remembered that ‘hay’ goes with ‘un/una’, and not ‘esta’. One mark was lost because I was too dense to figure out that ‘a veces’ means ‘at times’ and not ‘siempre’. I couldn’t understand why one of the answers was marked wrong though – it asked to fill ‘esta’ or ‘es’ when talking about a shop that was new in the locality. Since the shop was ‘new’ now and wasn’t going to be new forever, I had put in ‘esta’ but that answer was marked as wrong.
Anyways, the teacher was busy with viva so I decided not to disturb her with my query. One mark wasn’t going to make or break my career. Besides I was getting late already so I handed her the paper (we were not allowed to keep it with us but I guess I should have taken a photo of the score-sheet) and walked out the classroom.
As mentioned before, I am not going to attend the sessions beginning in March (Saturday 7pm-9pm and Sunday 9am-11am for 2.5 months at least is not my cuppa tea!). That means if I am serious about giving DELE A1 in the second half of 2015, I will have to find a way to prepare on my own.
As I walked out the college, I felt a little bit sad that I won’t be coming back next Sunday. It had been a pain to get up early on Sunday but it had also been fun to be back in the classroom. Sure, it is a tiny step in the goal that had been sitting on the to-do list since eons but it is a step. And I hope it is one of the many that will foll
Hasta La Vista!
When I reached the classroom at 10am, a handful of students were sitting poring over their notes. The good news was that the 9am batch wasn’t still done with their viva. Oh no! I had plans to go to the VJTI exhibition after this. I had deliberately not brought any notes with me – in stark contrast to my student days when I could be seen going through the notes till the last possible moments. Experience has taught me that the last-minute studying doesn’t make any difference to what I remember or don’t during the exam. So I sat reading a James Patterson novel (yes, I have rejoined the library this month) in a corner of the classroom till a student who sometimes sat next to me during classes came to me and asked me to help her practice for the viva.
So for the next 15 minutes or so we went through the whole drill – Como te llamas (what is your name), que haces (what do you do), donde vives (where do you stay), como es tu casa (how is your home), que hora es (what time is it), que dia es hoy (what day is today), cual es la fecha hoy (what date is today), cuando es tu cumpleanos (when is your birthday), cual es tu numero de telefono (what is your telephone number), como es tu amiga (how is your friend), a ti que te gusta (what do you like), cuantos anos tienes (how old are you) etc. Then we made each other recite 1 to 20 numbers, names of months and days of weeks, names of 5 foods, garments, fruits, vegetables, colors, objects and places in a city. It was good fun!
We were almost done with the revision when we heard some discussion at the back of the classroom. A student who had just finished his viva had been cornered by the rest of the gang and grilled about what he was asked. He had rattled off a few questions when the teacher walked in from another classroom where she was conducting the viva and threatened to cut the marks of everyone for this. For a moment, I wondered if I am back in my Engineering college :)
I was restless as the clock began inching towards 10:30. Just then the teacher walked in again carrying a bunch of papers. These were our written papers from last weekend. She handed mine with a ‘Muy Bien’ – I scored 72.5 out of 80. But I didn’t get much chance to inspect it at that that time because the teacher asked if anyone was ready for their oral and I put up my hand – not because of any over-confidence but simply because I was in hurry to get it done.
When we were seated in the other classroom, the teacher asked me to choose one sheet out of the two that she had and describe the places in it. I think I did okay on that front. She asked me what I was wearing, what do I do, how old I am, what kind of a house do I live in and so on. I think the whole thing lasted for 10 minutes at best. Then she asked me if I was done viewing the paper. When I said no so she asked me to take a look and I headed for one of the benches on the left.
Upon close inspection I wasn’t surprised at my mistakes – I had figured them out while practicing for viva. I had lost 2-3 marks in the audio section, as expected. I would not have lost 3 marks if I had remembered that ‘hay’ goes with ‘un/una’, and not ‘esta’. One mark was lost because I was too dense to figure out that ‘a veces’ means ‘at times’ and not ‘siempre’. I couldn’t understand why one of the answers was marked wrong though – it asked to fill ‘esta’ or ‘es’ when talking about a shop that was new in the locality. Since the shop was ‘new’ now and wasn’t going to be new forever, I had put in ‘esta’ but that answer was marked as wrong.
Anyways, the teacher was busy with viva so I decided not to disturb her with my query. One mark wasn’t going to make or break my career. Besides I was getting late already so I handed her the paper (we were not allowed to keep it with us but I guess I should have taken a photo of the score-sheet) and walked out the classroom.
As mentioned before, I am not going to attend the sessions beginning in March (Saturday 7pm-9pm and Sunday 9am-11am for 2.5 months at least is not my cuppa tea!). That means if I am serious about giving DELE A1 in the second half of 2015, I will have to find a way to prepare on my own.
As I walked out the college, I felt a little bit sad that I won’t be coming back next Sunday. It had been a pain to get up early on Sunday but it had also been fun to be back in the classroom. Sure, it is a tiny step in the goal that had been sitting on the to-do list since eons but it is a step. And I hope it is one of the many that will foll
Hasta La Vista!
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