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2023 HSC chat (7 Viewers)

carrotsss

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I agree with most of Masaken's comments. Speaking exams for Beginners and Continuers language courses are intended to assess students according to their ability to discuss a range of topics in the form of a conversation with their examiner for 5 minutes and 10 minutes respectively. The exams usually begin with simple questions that allow for the conversation to be initiated and developed, after which the examiner can change the focus of the conversation to allow the student to speak about different topics.

If a student demonstrates a high level of fluency in the target language (where the standards that are considered high are lower in Beginners courses than those in Continuers courses), it is normal for the examiner to ask both follow-up questions and new questions that change the focus of the conversation in order to provide the student with the opportunity to maintain this standard for the remainder of the exam. On the other hand, if a student is unable to provide sophisticated responses, then the examiner will not be able to develop and change the focus of the conversation as intended (doing so would be pointless anyway if the student cannot further develop their answers) and will instead opt for simpler questions.

In terms of personal experience, while I obviously did not have any issues during my speaking exam since I am a native speaker, I can definitely understand if other students may have struggled a bit to answer questions of the same difficulty. This is therefore a reminder of the importance of ensuring that language students (this applies to all levels, not just Beginners and Continuers) maximise their preparations for their speaking exams.

This notion of subjectivity does not apply to Extension language courses, where all students have a choice of answering one of two questions in monologue form.
how did u get away with doing the subject as a native speaker i thought that wasn't allowed
 

SadCeliac

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NOT A LEGALLY BINDING FORM

im scared one day ill accidentally set my DOB to 2000 on an actual official form because its such a habit from literally every website 💀
When you have to sign up for those random ass mobile games and you set your age to like 99 💀
 

synthesisFR

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how did u get away with doing the subject as a native speaker i thought that wasn't allowed
That’s not true because the Japanese ppl r literally doing Japanese
But they said their not allowed to take extension I think
 

carrotsss

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That’s not true because the Japanese ppl r literally doing Japanese
But they said their not allowed to take extension I think
one of my friends told me that she had to sign some form to say she hadn't spoken it at home or something
 

jimmysmith560

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how did u get away with doing the subject as a native speaker i thought that wasn't allowed
I am not entirely sure how exactly NESA assesses these eligibility criteria and how strict they are with native speakers. I do know that they are definitely strict when assessing eligibility criteria for Beginners courses. However, you will definitely find a combination of native speakers and students who have a background in their respective languages that easily extends beyond NESA's requirements taking Continuers and Extension courses (and levels beyond Extension in the case of some languages).
 

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