Showing posts with label exams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exams. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 October 2008

Toinen Koe




via kaupunkiliikenne.net: No, not a tram where you take exams (although the red pub tram does sell beer!)

If you have wondering why there has been a bit less hölynpöly recently then you probably need to get a life and get out more often... however one of us has been revising for his level two FFF (Finnish for foreigners) koe (test) which took place this afternoon. I get the results tomorrow, but I have a feeling it will not be as good as the last one. Just hoping to pass. Ho-hum.

Minun täytyy oppiskella joka päivä oppia lisää suomea, mutta minun ei tarvitse tehdä kotitehtevät tänä viikonloppuna.

Anyway level three starts next Monday, so back to reverse consonant gradation, and who knows what else then. 

But this week I also have to deal with a bit of Finnish bureaucracy and officially register my presence since it has been three months now; so through a great piece of 'Finnish logic' as an EU citizen I don't need permission, but I am supposed to register, with supporting documentation and details to show why I am here, which sounds suspiciously similar to the list of things required for non-EU citizens to get permission ... and being Finland this is done at the police station. Lovely. Now I understand those 'police state' jokes...

Thursday, 25 September 2008

Arvosteluasteikko - Grades



Here's a nice picture to calm you down from the thought of exams...

It will come as no surprise to anyone if I say I don't really like exams. I mean who does? Equally I have never really thought I was any good at languages, as a stunning CSE grade 2 at French backs up. (For those of you who are to young, or as old as me but not from UK, a CSE grade 1 was equivalent to a C grade 'O' Level (a pass) back in the days before GCSEs... so a 2 is not very good).  And when it comes to Finnish language tests my only previous experience (in London a few years ago) was less than a happy one.

So I am now the proud owner of a todistus (certificate) showing I achieved Grade 4 at Level 1 'Finnish for Foreigners' and completed 52 lesson modules worth 4 ECTS credits, at Helsingin Seudun Kesäyliopisto ... err, hang on, was that a Grade 4?

It did take me at least 30 loooong seconds to realize that the Finnish grade system goes from 0 (fail) to 5 (excellent) so a 4 is kiitettävä or very good; Wow! And as the papers were given out in order, I must have got the third highest mark out of our twenty odd group of ulkomaalaiset. 
Then we got our papers back and saw my actual mark was 92%... flippin' heck, what do you need for excellent!?

Still, only one down and three more to go before Christmas, and I had done half of this before, but maybe I'm not so bad at languages after all. Minä sanon 'ehkä...'!