So careful readers will notice that I missed last week in my posting schedule. Apologies, I was gone and without a careful understanding of the mechanics of delaying a post I made a mistake.
So let's start over.
What is new in current events is that I have signed up for the B2 exam at the end of May this year, or eight weeks from yesterday. There are 5 sections: reading, writing, speaking, listening and grammar. I already passed the reading last time, but it was not enough to make up for the problems I had with the other sections. Also as a recap, in the practice exam I have passed the listening portion consistently, not perfect but good enough. So two down, three to go.
The last section which is the interview. This is impossible for me to replicate by myself but I am working with a tutor to help prepare. However, I will have to leave it to their hands on how to prepare for this aspect. Also I have gotten So that leaves us with categories left, writing and grammar.
True some preparation can be done by writing a general purpose essay and then work on ways to adapt it to the given topics. However with only 160-180 words this is a neat trick to get so specific that I am trying to memorize sentences and then trying to adapt. Essentially this is 10-12 sentences. To make the text flow I do not see it as worth the time to go down that path.
However I can look at some of the ways to improve my writing quickly. I have a book of practice exams, which has three previous exams or a total of 12 different topics. I think I can write in 30 minutes enough to hit 180 words, then post online on a language checking forum. I will then post the link to my tutor and together we can curate the corrections to make sure I understand what is helpful and what is not. Then I will take the corrections and work them into my flashcard pack.
So 30 minutes to write, plus 5 minutes to post, plus 15 minutes to do a correction of my own in English (that is how these sorts of things work) plus 30 minutes to review plus another 20 to make flashcards, or a total of 1 hour and 40 minutes per text. This is not going to be all done in the same day, but likely broken up over a few days.
So for tomorrow I will write a text, post it and correct. Then we will see if the first part of the estimate is correct.
So let's start over.
What is new in current events is that I have signed up for the B2 exam at the end of May this year, or eight weeks from yesterday. There are 5 sections: reading, writing, speaking, listening and grammar. I already passed the reading last time, but it was not enough to make up for the problems I had with the other sections. Also as a recap, in the practice exam I have passed the listening portion consistently, not perfect but good enough. So two down, three to go.
The last section which is the interview. This is impossible for me to replicate by myself but I am working with a tutor to help prepare. However, I will have to leave it to their hands on how to prepare for this aspect. Also I have gotten So that leaves us with categories left, writing and grammar.
True some preparation can be done by writing a general purpose essay and then work on ways to adapt it to the given topics. However with only 160-180 words this is a neat trick to get so specific that I am trying to memorize sentences and then trying to adapt. Essentially this is 10-12 sentences. To make the text flow I do not see it as worth the time to go down that path.
However I can look at some of the ways to improve my writing quickly. I have a book of practice exams, which has three previous exams or a total of 12 different topics. I think I can write in 30 minutes enough to hit 180 words, then post online on a language checking forum. I will then post the link to my tutor and together we can curate the corrections to make sure I understand what is helpful and what is not. Then I will take the corrections and work them into my flashcard pack.
So 30 minutes to write, plus 5 minutes to post, plus 15 minutes to do a correction of my own in English (that is how these sorts of things work) plus 30 minutes to review plus another 20 to make flashcards, or a total of 1 hour and 40 minutes per text. This is not going to be all done in the same day, but likely broken up over a few days.
So for tomorrow I will write a text, post it and correct. Then we will see if the first part of the estimate is correct.
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