ready for tomorrow's exam

We have been warned that for tomorrow's Swedish exam we will need to write a paragraph about ourselves, describing a typical day in our lives, using standard phrases denoting time of day, and varying our language. This evening I composed the following paragraph, and got archinonlive to check it for me and point out the obvious problems with it.

På morgen ringer klockan halv sju, men jag stiger inte upp direkt. Först gör jag "sit-ups"--fysisk aktivitet är bra! Klockan sju äter jag frukost och läser e-post. Efter frukost forskar jag geologi i två timmar. Sedan går jag till universitet, jag har svenska lektion mellan kvart över tio och kvart i tolv.

Efter skolan, klockan halv ett, träffar jag min pojkvän, David, och vi äter lunch hemma: grönsaksoppa med bröd och ost. Efter lunch forskar jag geologi och läser e-post en gång till.

Vi äter middag klockan halv sex. På eftermiddagan vi har en folkdanskurs mellan kvart över sju och kvart i nio. Efteråt läser jag till David i en svensk barnbok. På kvällen vi går och lägger oss vid kvart i elva.


( the translation, if you want it )

Now I'd best do my yoga and get to sleep--it is considerably later than the above stated bedtime from an ideal day--filling in the application for an extended visitor's visa took longer than I anticipated (such things always do).

I love being a student--it is so good for my ego.

So today was the exam for my Swedish for Beginner's 1:a class. This course meets for slightly less than half the term (only 8 class sessions!), 1:b starts tomorrow and goes till the end of the semester.

Section A of the exam required us to write the correct question word into the blanks in a bunch of sentences (and a list of question words was provided). Easily done.

Section B required that we re-arrange given words into sentences, putting the underlined word first. Easily done.

Section C provided a list of verbs and required that we insert them into the blanks in the below sentences, and warned that there would be one left over verb. Mostly easily done--two verbs I didn't recognize (and checking my list of hand-written verbs that we copied from the sheet our teacher showed us shows that they aren't on that list, so it will take some digging reading through the other handouts to see if I can find them). However, the third unused verb (heter = to be named) clearly didn't belong in any of the sentences, so I put those two into the two remaining sentences and will need to rely on luck for that section being all correct, or being two wrong.

Section D required us to read a short essay about a student and describing his day and then answer questions based upon the reading. The questions were phrased in such a way as to make it necessary to use the same phrasing as was used in the essay most of the time, though occasionally I was able to craft a sentence that answered the question correctly without copying the answer verbatim.

Section E required that we write a short essay on ourselves or describing our typical day. I'd put some work into practicing writing out the essay I wrote yesterday and tried to learn the spelling of problem words. As luck would have it every word for which I was concerned about my ability to spell it correctly appeared in a sentence somewhere else on the exam, so I was able to write out my full essay without fear of spelling errors (anyone who knows what my spelling is like in English can be impressed at that point). The assignment required us to write at least 60 words and reminded us to count them before turning it in. Therefore I wrote out my essay and then counted my words. 120. Overachiever? Perhaps.

I was the first person in the room (which was quite full, since all four groups had the exam at the same time) to finish my exam and leave. The exam was scheduled to begin at 16:30, at 16:35 they still hadn't given me my paper (and I didn't take my phone back out to look at the time when they did). I was done at 17:02. Yup, less than 30 minutes of entertainment--I actually love that sort of exam--it is fun to fill in the blanks and match words and answer questions for which the answer is clearly written above. I really do miss being an undergrad--school is so easy for me! But then again, I love doing research, too. I guess this is why I've been a student for most of my life. The sort of intelligence I was given happens to be exactly the sort that does well with the way our classes are taught and tested.

Edited to add: because I enjoy doing this sort of exam I've never been troubled with test-taking anxiety as some people are. Heck, for this class there is even less as I don't need the credit, I am only wanting the education.