Lesson 102 (Intermediate 4 Lesson 8): Intermediate 4 Test

Test week. Wow, is this only Lesson 8? This is insane, it is twice the usual speed. Normally each level has 2 terms of 8 lessons each.

Next week, we have lesson at the new timing, joining another class. Not sure if the meeting ID will change. Also, I hope I receive the materials this week because I don’t have any materials for the upcoming chapters. I realised that the teacher did not mark or return the homework I sent the previous week just before class. She did mark the one I did this past week, though. (I also discovered while revising that I forgot to save one of the worksheets that she marked, and so the file is now gone…)

What I think is worth mentioning about the test:

Listening

We started with this and I was the last one to join because somehow I messed up, and the first time I tried to join, I got the message that the meeting ID was invalid. I think I might have somehow pressed backspace or something, because I selected the meeting from the history in the dropdown, so it is not as though I typed it.

Like the last test (Intermediate 2), it was not once through all questions, and then a second time, but we heard each question twice before moving on to the next.

I thought the speed of speech was generally okay. But still, I strugged at portions. There were a few I were uncertain about. I also did not have time to read any of the more wordy options later on in advance before the test started.

My printer had no more red ink so the printed test paper… well, I had some issues looking at the image for listening, which the first two questions had. Fortunately, the teacher (as usual) did screen share that page, so I had that to refer to.

Oral

The oral component was given on the second page. In the past, we have never been shown the oral questions in advance.

It is somewhat similar to before, the first section was on reading some sentences (with the notable part bolded), and then some questions to talk about and requirement to use the grammar we learnt.

I noticed the teacher skipped asking me one question, which was about my experiences in Korea. Maybe she remembered that I haven’t been there in years. (More than 10 years, actually.)

I did probably as well (badly) I usually do. I think this time the reading of the sentences was easier and I was okay with it. They were also short, so those were fine.

It was a bit scary to me that she repeated what I said.

Writing

The topic this time was not one of the writing activities, but it was also based on something that was in the textbook: To write about your important life events. I really struggled to cough out 300 words (the limit is 300–400) in around 30 minutes. I actually think that I did not meet the word limit; the paper does have a word count, and while I exceeded the line for the 300 word mark, due to the blank spaces, I do not think I might have met the word limit. I did make sure to squeeze in the required grammar.

Stats

• Students: 5 out of 5