Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

BAnna’s TAC 2014 Spaß-Lobo-IndRussian

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
236 messages over 30 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 29 30 Next >>
BAnna
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4409 days ago

409 posts - 616 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish
Studies: Russian, Turkish

 
 Message 225 of 236
20 December 2014 at 1:08am | IP Logged 
I just got the results of my C2 exam today, and to my great shock, did much better than expected and passed three parts:

Reading- 77/100

Listening 71/100

Speaking 68/100

Of course I failed the writing part (no surprise there). The test is offered twice per year, so I have to make up my mind if I want to try it again in April or wait until October of next year.

I see there's a C2 discussion going on currently as to whether a tutor is necessary or not, I'll have to find some time to read that. I think I'll move German to "speaks" now. LOL.
3 persons have voted this message useful



AlOlaf
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4935 days ago

491 posts - 617 votes 
Speaks: English*, GermanC2
Studies: Danish

 
 Message 226 of 236
20 December 2014 at 2:44am | IP Logged 
I had a feeling you did better than you thought you did. Kicked my ass in reading, too.
1 person has voted this message useful



BAnna
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4409 days ago

409 posts - 616 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish
Studies: Russian, Turkish

 
 Message 227 of 236
20 December 2014 at 5:18pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for the good wishes AlOlaf. BTW, your hamster story was hilarious and wonderful.
Happy Holidays.

1 person has voted this message useful



patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4320 days ago

1546 posts - 3200 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 228 of 236
20 December 2014 at 8:11pm | IP Logged 
Congratulations on your great results in the C2 test. I hope I can get to your standard in the next couple of years.
1 person has voted this message useful



Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 4796 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 229 of 236
20 December 2014 at 11:16pm | IP Logged 
Congratulations, such results are admirable, no matter the writing. :-)

Thanks for a thorough information on the exam, it might come very useful in distant
future (or to someone else sooner than that) :-)

1 person has voted this message useful



AlOlaf
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4935 days ago

491 posts - 617 votes 
Speaks: English*, GermanC2
Studies: Danish

 
 Message 230 of 236
22 December 2014 at 6:40am | IP Logged 
BAnna, I hope you don't mind me taking up so much space in your log, but I wanted to tell you about my experience taking the C2 exam in 2012 at the Goethe Institute in Frankfurt am Main, where I had gone for an intensive German course. To start with, I failed the reading section. When I came to what I thought was the end of the test, I realized that I had overlooked the last two pages. With less than five minutes left, there was no way I could finish. Later in the day, they told me what I already knew, that I had failed. I felt like an idiot. I tried to brush it off and reminded myself that I hadn't planned on taking the exam in the first place, but inside I was deeply disappointed in myself.

The next day my instructor told me that it had been decided that I should be allowed to retake the reading section. They said that what I had turned in was correct and that they thought I was capable of passing. Ordinarily I would have had to wait until I got back to the states, but they said that, since the closest C2 test location was 450 miles from where I live and since they had a second version of the reading part of the exam handy, they would give me the opportunity to retake it immediately.

I was elated. I wasn't going to overlook any pages this time. No, this time I spent way too long struggling with what seemed to me to be an extremely demanding section involving placing a series of paragraphs in sequential order, only to find that it was the next section where I was supposed to do that, and that the paragraphs I had been trying to connect were, in fact, totally unrelated. Determined to avoid time mismanagement, I hadn't read the instructions closely enough. I experienced a type of panic I'd never felt before and feverishly corrected my mistakes, but the time I lost doing that forced me to fly through the rest of the test at breakneck speed, hoping I was getting at least some of it right.

In the end, I passed, but just barely. My scores:

Reading      63/100

Listening    74/100

Writing       71/100

Speaking    85/100


I feel like a cheater. If they'd have given you the break they gave me, you'd have your certificate. Your accomplishments are nothing short of inspirational.

3 persons have voted this message useful



BAnna
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4409 days ago

409 posts - 616 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish
Studies: Russian, Turkish

 
 Message 231 of 236
22 December 2014 at 6:39pm | IP Logged 
@patrickwillen & cavesa. Thanks for the good wishes. Persistence pays off. I'm thinking anyone can get there as long as they keep plugging along no matter what: lots of time and effort pay off. My study methods are probably not very efficient but because I keep coming back by doing stuff I like, it means I didn't give up.

@AlOlaf: take as much space on this log as you like (Heaven knows I haven't been adding much here lately). Really interesting story you shared. Test conditions are very stressful, that's for sure. But writing is definitely my weakest area since I basically never do it. Even with the parts I passed, I feel somewhat like an imposter because that perfectionistic voice that pops up with "Meh-you're really only C2 if you get 90 and above"...silly, I know.

Still trying to figure out what to do next. I wasn't going to do TAC at all, then decided to do an independent multilanguage one, but now I'm thinking I should just intensely concentrate on writing in German. The Goethe Institut offers an online writing course, maybe that would be a better use of my time and money than doing the convo course I was thinking of. And do I retake the test in April or October? Decisions, decisions...

Edited by BAnna on 22 December 2014 at 7:16pm

1 person has voted this message useful



patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4320 days ago

1546 posts - 3200 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 232 of 236
22 December 2014 at 9:05pm | IP Logged 
BAnna wrote:

Still trying to figure out what to do next. I wasn't going to do TAC at all, then decided to do an independent multilanguage one, but now I'm thinking I should just intensely concentrate on writing in German. The Goethe Institut offers an online writing course, maybe that would be a better use of my time and money than doing the convo course I was thinking of. And do I retake the test in April or October? Decisions, decisions...


Or you could hire a tutor work with your writing. I am lucky my wife will just read text I write and correct it - it's not really work for someone who is fluent.

My big goal is to build up my vocabulary so I can finally read die Zeit and listen to Deutschlandfunk easily. I want to be able to work into a German language bookstore and easily read one of the latest contemporary novels. I am almost there (1-2 years at best guess). I have a sense that once I am there the rest of my output skills will get much easier because I won't have to continue to struggle with the input side of things. So my aim at the moment is to roughly double my passive vocabulary from about 7000-8000 words to closer to 14000. I think I can do this with more focussed reading, plus generating lots Anki sentence cards. That's the theory anyway.

If I were you I would take the test in October, but I am a bit of a slacker who never really liked exams.

Edited by patrickwilken on 22 December 2014 at 9:08pm



1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 236 messages over 30 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.3555 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.