So what do tests really assess...?

Yesterday we had our entrance exams to figure out what level of French we’ve obtained (and thus what language block we will be in). The test was set for 8:30 in the morning, just great, considering we were all still jet-lagged and unable to sleep regular hours. In any case, I arrived, having briefly looked over my plastic sheet of French Grammar reminders, and found that, alas, anyone with a last name past S actually had to wait a good two hours before our test began (more people than they’d anticipated, hence two start times). Oy. Not that I would have had much of a chance to “sleep in” had I known. I’d woken up at 4 am after going to bed around midnight and was unable to fall back asleep, tired as I was. As it was I had two hours to kill, sitting with two others with last names past S. Read up a bit on world news in french... talked about our respective schools (one of the girls was one of the three Bryn Mawr girls)... bitched about the weather. All in all, very negative and uninspiring conversation for that early in the morning. Not my cup of tea.

In any case, the test finally got underway, with a half-hour listening portion that had us answer three multiple choice questions (spoken to us via tape) after listening to increasingly hard little blurbs or conversations (also by tape). Reminded me of Mde. Selvin’s third year french. And how much I sucked at those kind of tests b/c I’d get caught up on one question and it’d already be on to the next. The second part of the test was a bit of an improvement, being a written portion that gave us an awesome picture of a shorts-and-t-shirt santa claus, holding his hat and standing atop a cliff over-looking the mediterranean, with a mischevious smile on his face. We were supposed to answer questions along the line of “What do you think is happening here?” “What do you think happened just before this?” “What do you think will happen?” I think I had too much fun on this part, because the difficulty was not in answering the questions, but in trying to show off my french while trying to construct witty and rather complicated sentences about how he’d run away from his wife and the cold and decided to ditch christmas for a holiday in Nice, the whole thing ending with his wife catching him on the beach with another woman (I used more than one sentence to describe all that, don’t worry). I figured, hey, if my french screws up a bit (which it undoutable does, as I misplace/misuse the tiny connecting words and mix up gender and forget what tense I’m using), at least perhaps I can woo them with some humor...?

After the Santa Claus escapades, I had barely a quarter of the time left to do the 15 tricky subjunctive/etc sentence completion clauses, details that I could barely remember from back in the Mde. Selvin days (really, my grammer has gone down since her heavy handed rule), as well as a mini-essay on what I think of the gov’t mandated vacations now implemented in France. I was, as usual, the last to finish, and left feeling a bit down, as I felt I hadn’t done as well as perhaps I should have. For once in my life, I wished they’d actually had an oral section, one-on-one, where I could actually talk to someone and prove my capacity in that way. Ah well.

Scores were to be posted next day, 5 pm. Which is in about 15 minutes, but I just checked and they were already up. I’m in the second to highest language group, of 13. So I guess I didn’t do terribly. There are four main language groups and I’m at the top of the third (all the main groups are divided into four additional groups, save for the very top group, which already has so few students that they don’t bother). Part of me felt just a tad jealous that I didn’t make it into that top group (you know, that competitive streak, always striving). And then I noticed that their first language block began at 8:30 am, whereas mine wasn’t until 10:30. So I felt a bit better and rather relieved. With the copious events (theater, music, bars, clubs, etc.) that I’m hoping to attend during the evenings all through the semester, it’s just as well I won’t have to wake up the next morning for an 8:30 class.

Another 3 students from our group made it into that language level, though one is, according to her file/Mme Zehr, “so good” she’s going to take all her classes at the regular Political Science University, along with Ariana. Part of me felt good that I was on her level, or her on mine, and part of me was a bit annoyed that all Mme. Zehr talked about was how advanced she was, how she’d be taking classes full time at the university, etc. etc. etc. and she simply assumed all of us were little babies in comparison. Alex is the other LC student in the group (the third is another of the Bryn Mawr girls), and I think he might have just finished up his first class in the 300 level?? So obviously the written test is only a small portion of everyone’s full capacity, as it doesn’t seem to think there’s a difference between Alex and the girl who’s taken french since 2nd grade.