203 exam results
So. I failed.
I received a phone call last week to let me know that I didn’t pass my 203 BSL exam, which was the conversation on Food & Drink.
I was completely shocked when I found out, as I’d practiced as much as I could, wasn’t nervous or anxious about the exam before hand and felt over all that the conversation went really well. Obviously I was mistaken.
My exam results came back to show that I lost a lot of marks for lack of facial expression and BSL order, which I thought were some of my strongest assets!
Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining, or so they say! My tutor has decided to appeal the decision about my grade after watching the video again. I believe one other person in my class is in a similar situation, again someone who I did not expect to fail the exam!
Fingers crossed the appeal decision is a pass and then I can get back to worrying about my 202 result!
Also want to congratulate those of my classmates who did pass the exam and wish the best of luck to those who are going to re-take. Let’s hope I don’t have to join them though!
Lally.
2 Comments
Hi, i have read your blog with interest, and hope you get your final result soon and that it is your favour. Would you mind sharing any tips you have for receptive skills, and your narrative, I am due to sit my exams soon, and feel so nervous, I find the receptive dvds so fast and only manage to get about 3 questions right, and that is on a good day. Also the narrative, I seem to put too much detail in, and when I have a mock exam, I go to pieces, not sure how to work the subject title in. I would very much appreciate any help you can offer. Many Thanks Beth
Hey Beth, sorry I haven’t gotten around to writing a blog post explaining these things for you.
I found with the receptive the best thing to do is try not to spend time thinking about the signs you didn’t understand and focus on what you do, you’ll quickly understand the context of the question and be able to guess what the signs you missed were.
Also, concentrate on improving your finger spelling as there are always names you need to understand and remember.
With regards to the BSL flow and getting your topic title in, put it at the beginning, it doesn’t matter if the story is not 100% on topic after that, for example in my exam I basically said “went on holiday to India last yet with my best friend, I have never been before and I was very excited. We met at the airport and flew from Gatwick to Goa”
so far my story didn’t contain anything on topic but I got 2 finger spellings in early.
“the airport was very crowded when we arrived and I thought I lost my best friend but she just went to get a trolley. The weather in India was beautiful, so we went on a trip to see a waterfall. When we got there we saw lots of wild monkeys near by. The waterfall was huge.”
by now I’d also included two non-manual feature signs for beautiful weather and huge waterfall and I’d also used a placement sign.
“we had a guide at the waterfall who we followed to the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. When I looked around I couldn’t find my friend, she had vanished”
there I used my multichannel sign for disappeared/vanished
“I searched everywhere for my friend and retraced our steps but she was no where, I told the guide I couldn’t find her”
this was my first role shift
“and we looked together until we found her. Eventually we found her and I asked where she had been, we were very worried! She told me she was taking photos of the monkeys and when she turned back we were out of sight”
another role shift there
“we swam in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall together and then we went back to our hotel, exhausted. When we got home to England, our families laughed at our story”.
And that was about it, I did my best to use plenty of expressive faces, and tried to forget it was an exam, you should be allowed plenty of time to compose yourself if you do feel nervous, and make sure you practise lots so you can throw in extra vocabulary when you feel a bit lost for words.
It’s also a good idea to base your story on something that really happened, as it’s much easier to recall a story than it is to make one up, this should also help you get your flow right
I hope all that makes some sense and helps you in your exams! Best of luck.
Lally