(This is a long, rambling version of the test experience. A shorter one is in my kimchilandiaries)
Done with the test and I'm fairly confident that I will fail. hahaha...
I didn't really study well, and there were a lot of excuses. It will be a miracle if I do pass. But wait, passing mark is 60. Do I have hope? LOL
My hubs was quite kind enough to give me a ride, and save me the trouble of going via public transportation. We left for Daejeon at around 10:15, 15 minutes later from what we planned. We got to the area without a problem at
around 11:30.
I checked my name on the list and ate our packed food in spacious parking lot. My usual driving-out food are boiled eggs and bread. Hopefully, I'll be able to pick up the habit of adding some fruits next time. I used to add some peeled and chopped apples before but it wasn't that popular. It's just a bit tricky with fruits like apple coz it can easily be oxidized. If it's something else, I'll have to bring a knife to peel it or if it's something else that doesn't need peeling, I will still need to peel for myself. hahaha.. Picky-eater me. My best fruit of choice will be bananas!
Well, today was a bit special coz I managed to bake pandesal earlier this morning. (It's getting better.) I also packed a few banana muffins that I baked yesterday. The pandesal, muffins, and egg was our lunch, along with the misutkaro drink and iced water from the thermal bottle. It was pretty filling, enough to last me until the test ended.
I went up to the testing room a few minutes after 12 only to find the the room is very small for the 53 test-takers. And it was also pretty noisy. I'm not very used to this kind of noise anymore. Flashback to my high school days.
12:30 The test proctors showed up and started to quiet the folks down. I know it's a test so I got my old copy of Reader's Digest to read while waiting silently. I don't understand why other people just can't quiet down and contain themselves. It's a test after all.
Luckily, I was not seated far in the back so I can hear the proctors better amidst the noise. It would be totally dismal if I wasn't coz I'd have to hear them well to be able to better guess what they're saying.
The proctors gave the general information on the test, as well as the instructions on writing the name and other details on the answer sheet. We were also told put our bags at the back of the room, turn off the mobiles and put a sticker on them before they were collected and put on small plastic trays. We were told that we'll get them back after the speaking test.
1:00 Signal to start. I skipped most on the first page which was sad coz it was the vocabulary page. It should have been easy.
1:30 I hurriedly went back to the skipped numbers with the remaining ten minutes on the clock. With still a minute or two, I finished off the last item that I only guessed the answer. It wasn't such a bad test if only I understood everything. hahaha..
One question that stuck me funny went like this:
Which one is wrong? An guy who is called sabunim by a younger lady or a 30-year-old single lady who is called ajumma. Seriously? Now, as I ask my son, he says the latter is correct. Why? His reasoning goes like this, "so will I call a 70-year old unmarried lady agassi?"
1:40 Part 1 done. A round of excited chatter erupted again while the proctor wrote the test question for the written part on the board after handing out the answer sheets.
The answer sheet has around 5 lines of boxes for the characters, small text boxes below those, which from what I can guess, are the guidelines in writing and checking the answer. If only I can understand any of it.
All done in five minutes. I managed to write 2.5 lines. Wasted precious miutes writing over my penciled answer. It seems that pencils are not a regular for test-taking in Korea. They provided a permanent small-tipped marker for the machine-checked part but I had to use a smaller-tipped one for the writing part.
Papers were collected and another round of chatter and "be quiet please." Someone asked if they can go to the rest room and was given ten minutes. I also stepped out because of the noise at first but decided to check out the rest room in the end.
Then, we were told to stay put in the room, and behave so we can all start and finish the remaining part of the test. That, I can only totally agree. We were given another set of papers, I'm guessing for the speaking test. I say "guessing" coz by then, I had read enough Korean for the day and my head just can't manage to try to make heads or tails on what's written there.
2:00 We started in batches of four. As luck would have it, I was on the second batch. Yes! I get to go home early. Thank you. I just have to be able to muster out a few more spoken Korean and I'm done.
Four people were called out, each pair is sent to a room where two proctors wait. One was the same guy from our room. My speaking test buddy was a Cambodian lady who looks younger and darker than me. I actually thought she was a "kabayan" at first. We sat and waited just outside of the testing room. I managed to chat a bit and practice my limited spoken Korean. All within the 5-minute-limit of my ability. We'll maybe 7-minutes now? :)
The minute I sat and saw the pictures on the paper, I knew I was doomed! There were two photos: pork and shrimp. Both of which I do not eat, knows practically nothing much about and you expect me to talk about it? Incomprehensible. I managed to say that anyway, I think.
The rest, I can only hazard a guess if I made sense with my answers. I can imagine what points they have to write on the speaking rubrics paper that I handed them.
The whole actual speaking test lasted at least about five minutes, I think. I had no concrete watch on hand coz our phones were handed back to us after that.
I turned it on and hurriedly went out to look for my hubs so we can go home and eat with our son. It won't be that soon coz the drive home still took almost two hours.
2:30 We set to home.
4:25 We got home.
