Niektórzy mówią, że na egzaminie z języka angielskiego znajomość jego zagadnień to nie wszystko. Silna trema może w jednej chwili zniweczyć kilka tygodni ciężkiej pracy poprzedzającej test. By uniknąć takich nieprzyjemnych sytuacji, warto pamiętać choć część poniższych rad.

When you have already sat by the desk, and a committee of teachers are explaining to you what you should do and what is that you must not do, and if you find it very boring, it is then a time for you to pray or hold your favourite teddy bear tight in your hand. You may also check if your lucky pen that has been in your possession for a few successfully passed exams is still writing. Perhaps this advice is not very scientific, but it serves its purposes. A good mood and friendly attitude towards life is no less important than what you know about English. After the superstition-time, the moment of truth comes: you are handed in a test sheet. Your first reaction will probably be something like "I don't know anything", pronounced with a kind of shock and terror in your voice, but if you start skipping through it you will find that some things are not that difficult. You may even find an exercise that you will be able to do if you have a go. But it may happen that not everything will be a plain sailing. Do not despair, though; you've got plenty of time as such an exam may last even a few hours!

If your prayers were heard in Heaven, your exam may have a form of a multiple choice test. The advantage of it is that it is possible to pass it even when the English of a fortunate student is not up to the required standards. All you need is a streak of good luck - and then you just cross out the answers you think look nice. It was scientifically proven that such a test may be passed even by a monkey, if only it has enough time for trying. Unfortunately you haven't got it.

While doing such a test, if you are not sure which answer is correct, it is very often better not to choose the easiest one (that which is similar to the Polish structure). It is usually a sort of a red herring, introduced to confuse you, and lead you astray. There are even some people who strongly believe that if they choose the most complicated and awkward answer, they will achieve the required goal. Sometimes they do this; more often however their theory has to be revised in confrontation with reality and that usually means a bad mark on the paper.

The committee may sometimes get the idea to make you more creative, and replace the multiple choice test with one in which you will have to invent the answers by yourself. That indicates that the National Lottery strategy can no longer be used, and you will have to rely entirely on your knowledge, and rule out the possibility of choosing the answers at random.

A lot of tests have been on the market for so long that the students have had enough time to get accustomed to them. It is perhaps not that they are all the same, but they are definitely of the same type. In some sense they have something in common with the films starring "Sly" Stalone as the main character - if you have seen one of them, you have seen them all. Though the English language is rich with words and phrases that may shock at first, the number of those 'catches' is limited. It is a common opinion that they were invented and designed to show non-native speakers that their English is still imperfect. Surprisingly, some native-speakers of English come to the same conclusion after reading those tests!

Cribbing is definitely not welcome. Though students in Pakistan have recently gone on strike to legalise it, in a more civilised world it is still regarded to be a dishonest way of collecting answers that violates copyrights of the student whose test you are re-writing. If that argument doesn't appeal to you, think of the consequences - you simply may be shown the door. But above all, you cannot be sure if the answers at which you are taking a peep are correct. Think of how peeved you must get when you discover that the other student has suggested to you the wrong answer.

Last but not least, please take a piece of advice that is so obvious to many students that they simply forget about it during exams, and it reads as follows: checking the written test for the second and the third time may radically improve the quality of it. It is quite common that while reading your brainchild you will discover some mistakes that are apparent even to you, not to mention the committee. A very patient observant may even discover something more: there was a student who found out that she had missed two pages of an exam paper. Luckily, she was quick enough to make up for the lost time.

Remember that we do not say what can be done instead of studying, but apart from it. The sad truth is that nothing can replace regular learning or, in some cases, cramming, possibly backed up by hard work and/or a gift for languages. If those requirements are met, nothing will stop you from gaining a good mark.

(Anglorama, 2/97)

• teddy bear - miś pluszowy
• possession - posiadanie
• superstition - przesąd
• to hand in - wręczyć
• to skip through - przeglądać (tekst)
• to have a go - spróbować
• multiple choice test - test wyboru
• streak of luck - łut szczęścia
• to lead sb astray - zwieść kogoś na manowce
• National Lottery - angielski Toto-Lotek
• to rule out - wykluczyć
• cribbing - ściąganie
• to appeal - przemawiać (do czyjegoś rozumu)
• to take a peep - spojrzeć
• peeved - wkurzony
• brainchild - to, co narodziło się w czyjeś głowie
• cramming - wkuwanie

Wyświetleń: 1910