September | 2021 | Take The Slice

I love spider plants! They’re so beautiful and can grow sooooo big.

I had one in Spain that, over the course of a year, grew very big and had 2 babies~

Anyway, I digress.

Today I’m going to repot my two spider babies that I got here in England 🙂 They were quite small and they came in these tiny tiny pots~

You can see here they’ve really outgrown their pots! Look at those roots! OMG!

Gently press the sides of the plantpot to loosen the soil, carefully flip it upside down until it is released from its tiny cage.

In a bigger pot, fill the bottom with some soil, then place the original pot into the new pot.

We’re trying to make it easier for the plant to feel comfortable and encourage it to explore 🙂

Now fill up the sides, press down to get rid of any air pockets, then remove the original pot et voilà!

Now place the plant into the hole we’ve made

add some soil around the sides so it’s snug 😀

Give them a good drink!!

See you next time we need to pot on! 😀

I have done my fair share of speaking exams and now I’m exam specialist I’ve done my fair share of marking speaking exams! I feel I’m in a place to give tips not only to learners of English but to anyone doing a speaking exam in a langauge which isn’t their own.

So I’ve been studying foreign languages for over half of my life. I’ve been though GCSE and A-level speaking exams, University speaking exams (Chinese and Japanese), and NOW I’m an English teacher who conducts speaking exams…. However, no matter how many exams you’ve done, you’re bound to get nervous, I do!

Tip 1! – Preparation!

Make sure you know exactly what your speaking exam will look like.

How long will it be?

What do the tasks look like? (monologue/describe a picture/conversation with a partner/ conversation with the examiner)
What topics are going to be covered (daily life/free time/environment etc..)
Think about the grammar and vocabulary you could use to “show off” to the examiner

Tip 2! – Try not to memorise!

I know at GCSE you are asked to give a pre-prepared speech. Usually people write out the entire script and then try to memorise it before the exam and attempt to reel it off in the exam…with all that pressure! Omg…

I used to do this, but I get nervous during the exams…so nervous that I accidentally forget my speech and then I am totally thrown off, I start thinking “what I just said comes after what I’ve got in my head now and omgggg I should be talking right now!” and then get myself into a right panic.

HOWEVER! I have now come up with a better way of doing it. Instead of trying to remember the whole thing and attempt to reel it off like there’s no tomorrow, what I do is I make bullet points of things I want to include.

Here are my notes I made for a speaking exam I had back in 2015

In this speaking exam I had to prepare 2 presentations…but only give one. We didn’t know which one it would be until the examiner tells us during the exam.

I made some notes on my 3 wishes and then I could think of these things I could say within those points.
For my favourite character I could use comparative and superlatives! I could compare him to another character, or why some people doing like him and why I do…try to be conscious of the grammar you’d like to use.

Tip 3! – Record yourself!

Creepy as it may sound. Or weird as it may look, it helps! Honestly!

If you know you have a speaking exam coming up why not just whip out that voice recorder/camera and record yourself speaking in your target language?

It doesn’t have to be about the topic of your exam, it could just be about anything! Like…what you did that day, what movie you recently saw, what you did at Christmas or what you want to do next weekend.

This really helped me when I was taking A-level exams, because the exam was free and you could lead the conversation or discussion in any direction. By recording yourself speaking you can practice using what you already know and if you don’t know a linker (such as: however, anyway, also etc.), or a specific word you may need if you’re talking about one of your prepared topics you can easily look it up and write it down on a post-it note and remind yourself for the next time.

A lot of the time you don’t know what you need know until you want to say it! ….unfortunately for me that was during a speaking exam AHAHAHA

I often pretend I’m doing a live broadcast and just talk for ages..not fluently(!) but at least I now have a list of words I can use whenever I need to. The more you use these little words, the easier it is to remember them during your exam! Over time the list of words you can’t remember will shrink!

Tip 4! – Prepare some questions!

Write down some question you think you might be asked on a few slips of paper.

Turn the upside down or fold them in half and then mix them up.

Then randomly select one and ask yourself the question.

Don’t prepare an answer in advance, this helps you prepare for those sneaky questions the examiner might ask.

You can write things such as “What is your name?” “Where do you live?” “What did you eat for breakfast this morning?” “Why are you studying (insert target language here)?” “What do you want to do in (insert country of target language here)?” Or for those tricky A Level topics “What is your opinion on global warming?” “Is globalisation a problem?”

It’s nice to get a friend or someone from your family to ask you the questions. However if your family are as linguistically challenged as mine, you’re better off asking yourself these questions ahaha.

You can also record some questions and play those to yourself so you can hear the question instead of reading it.

Get a fellow classmate to send you voice notes on whatsapp and you can reply too in a voice message! Do whatever works 🙂

Tip 5! – Try not to worry about mistakes!

You’re bound to make mistakes. Even native speakers make mistakes when they’re under pressure… unless they’re super human…. A lot of the time the examiner is assessing your ability to respond to their questions quickly and as accurately as possible.

They want to know that you’ve understood what you’re being asked and are able to respond appropriately. For example
“How did you get to Japan?”
“I walked”
Is not a very appropriate answer ahaha. However it shows you understood what was being asked, you just didn’t answer it appropriately ^^;

If you can’t remember a specific form of a verb…don’t freak yourself out trying to work it out, yes have a go, but don’t panic if you don’t get it.

If you can’t remember a word..have go at explaining it!
I remember I forgot the word for Sea in Japanese….do I said “big water where you can swim…fish live…” and the examiner gave me the word I needed…ahaha!

It happens in real life too! If you can’t remember the word but you’re able to describe it…go for it!! Just try to give a better description than ‘big water’
Personal note: the teacher appreciated my attempt at trying to convey “Sea” she awarded me extra marks . It does work!

Tip 6! – Relaaaaaaaaaaaaaax!

I know it is insanely difficult to relax during a ~~legal interrogation~~ speaking exam …but once those first 2 minutes are over with… you’re practically done! You’ll feel so great when you’ve finished and you’ll never have to do it again!! Or until your next speaking exam ahaha~