International exams: where to start preparing

For many people, a foreign-language exam is a major hurdle on the way to a dream: immigrating to another country or studying abroad. The stress can be so intense that you start thinking, ‘Maybe I should just stay where I belong,’ and lose sight of the path you chose.

How not to lose yourself in your own fears, get to the exam and pass it successfully? I offer you a series of posts on this burning topic.

To start cleaning the room, you need to turn on the light. Before you start being afraid, you need to take two steps:

STEP 1.

Understand what the exam is like.

Find out which exam you need to take for your goal. Google the website of the organization or university where it is accepted.

Specify:

✔️Dates.

✔️Dates when registration opens and closes. Some types of exams are held only a couple of times a year, and registration closes in a month and a half.

✔️Cost.

If you see that the information on the website is out of date, it is better to find out everything by phone.

Make it clear How the exam itself will be conducted. This is important for two reasons:

✔️The better you imagine the process, the less stressed you will be.

✔️Preparation will be more effective.

Please note for the following points:

✔️What parts does the exam consist of? Oh TEF and TCF Canada read the links.

✔️How the audition goes. If you are used to listening to recordings on headphones, but during the exam they play them through speakers, your perception will work differently. It will be more difficult, especially under stress.

✔️How the written part is organized. If you like to write by hand and the exam requires you to type on a computer, it may take longer. And vice versa.

This information can be found, for example, in the manual. It can usually be downloaded from the examiner's website or upon request when submitting an application.

And finally, on YouTube there is an opportunity to “peek”, how the oral part of the exam, which is usually the most feared, goes. These videos are not suitable for full preparation, but they reduce the level of anxiety quite well.

In the next article I will tell you about second important step.