Transition Year Certificate In Oral Communication

JSK 252

Has anybody done this or anything similar to this.

This is a basic overview of the examination:

1. A prepared talk on a transition year activity i.e Mini-Company, Work Experience, Community Work, Leisure Activity, Visit to a Place of Interest etc. Max 4 minutes (50 Marks)

For this part of the examination I talked about my work experience placement in the department of microbiology in UCC.

2. Read aloud a passage chosen by a candidate from a novel being currently being studied in class or from a novel of the candidate's own choice.
This should be of good literary standard. Max. 2 minutes (30 marks)

We had classes in communications once a week for an hour for around 10 weeks. We had to write our speech onto flash cards for the exam as obviously your not alowed bring the entire prepared speech into the exam room. Also, it was an external examiner that carried out the assesment.

I read an extract from To Kill A Mockingbird.

3. Questions and discussion on parts one and two of this examination.

Asked me questions about my work experience etc. which some how lead on to my intention to join Young Fine Gael when I go to College

Grades:

85%-100% honours certificate / 75%-84% merit certificate/ 65%-74% pass certificate

I did the exam on Monday of last week and got the results back on Tuesday of this week.

I got 90% which I was extremely delighted about. I got 45 out of 50 for the talk, 25 out of 30 for the reading, and 20 out of 20 for the discussion.

I will always rememeber when I went into the examination room and said "good morning Mrs. Bracken, How are you today?" ( We were told to say that) and she had this bell beside her which she thankfully didnt use. She looked extremely bored!

PurpleFistMixer

Yeah, I did it.
Made up a speech almost on the spot on my work experience... everyone else had theirs preprepared... I got bonus points for actually speaking the speech as opposed to reading it.

My reading extract was from "Hell's Half Acre" by Will Christopher Baer, a thrilling story about massive amounts of drug abuse, snuff films, kidney stealing and role playing games... whatever it was about the extract, the examiner didn't like it and said for me to notice punctuation more.
Serves me right for choosing a literary style very sparse on the punctuation...

Don't remember the talk at all... can't remember what I got, think it was about 89 anyway. Did better in the Irish Oral, bizarrely enough.

JSK 252

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

Yeah, I did it.
Made up a speech almost on the spot on my work experience... everyone else had theirs preprepared... I got bonus points for actually speaking the speech as opposed to reading it.

My reading extract was from "Hell's Half Acre" by Will Christopher Baer, a thrilling story about massive amounts of drug abuse, snuff films, kidney stealing and role playing games... whatever it was about the extract, the examiner didn't like it and said for me to notice punctuation more.
Serves me right for choosing a literary style very sparse on the punctuation...

Don't remember the talk at all... can't remember what I got, think it was about 89 anyway. Did better in the Irish Oral, bizarrely enough.

We wrote the main points of the speech on flash cards as obviously we couldnt bring the whole prepared speech into the exam as you would be tempted to read it from the page..lol

We had classes in the subject for an hour a week for 10 weeks.

PurpleFistMixer, can you remember the organisation that carried out the examination? just for curiosity. the name of ours was the Media and Music Examinination Board.

challengemaster

never.even.heard.about.this.

Jello

challengemaster wrote:

never.even.heard.about.this.

Same.

Piste

Ditto.

JSK 252

Piste wrote:

Ditto.

Not a lot of schools do this module.

PurpleFistMixer

JSK 252 wrote:

We wrote the main points of the speech on flash cards as obviously we couldnt bring the whole prepared speech into the exam as you would be tempted to read it from the page..lol

I think what people did was write their speech onto the flashcards. : p

JSK 252 wrote:

We had classes in the subject for an hour a week for 10 weeks.

We.. didn't have any classes as far as I'm aware, we were told about it by the English teachers, maybe they subtly taught us or something.

JSK 252 wrote:

PurpleFistMixer, can you remember the organisation that carried out the examination? just for curiosity. the name of ours was the Media and Music Examinination Board.

I believe that was it. I have the certificate around, but it would take long to find it, and I have to be at an airport in 5 hours.

JSK 252

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

I think what people did was write their speech onto the flashcards. : p

We.. didn't have any classes as far as I'm aware, we were told about it by the English teachers, maybe they subtly taught us or something.

I believe that was it. I have the certificate around, but it would take long to find it, and I have to be at an airport in 5 hours.

Where are you going?

Piste

Assuming she's now there or at least on her way she wont be online for the next fe days so I am the new PFM! She's gone to Poland.

philologos

I don't see the point in this. Why should you need to get a certificate in something you were taught to do as a child. I should hope that the majority of Transition Years would be able to articulate themselves.

JSK 252

Jakkass wrote:

I don't see the point in this. Why should you need to get a certificate in something you were taught to do as a child. I should hope that the majority of Transition Years would be able to articulate themselves.

Because unfortunately Jakkass, we now live in a society where people cant even speak proper english ( if people disagree then fair enough) and the idea of this course was to encourage us to speak properly and competently.

You commented briefly on that you were taught to do that when you were a child. Some kids cant speak proper english and unfortunately there is little back up in the governmental system to remedy this problem and to give the child an opportunity to improve their english. Some parents are waiting maybe 6 to 12 months to see a speech therapist and during that waiting time the childs problem is only deteriorating. So not every child can speak proper english.

Can you tell me that you dont know a single person who doesnt speak slang and pronounces every single word correctly?

philologos

Everyone uses colloquial language in some form or another, most likely even those who are examining this thing. Also in addition to that, if this is merely to check for disadvantaged people who can't speak English properly, why abuse the system and get the certificate yourself? As for pronounciation, it differs between regions. What may be considered Hiberno-English, mightn't be considered British English in pronounciation, or American English and British English even more so. I'm just wondering why one such as yourself would consider doing it?

JSK 252

Jakkass wrote:

Everyone uses colloquial language in some form or another, most likely even those who are examining this thing. Also in addition to that, if this is merely to check for disadvantaged people who can't speak English properly, why abuse the system and get the certificate yourself? As for pronounciation, it differs between regions. What may be considered Hiberno-English, mightn't be considered British English in pronounciation, or American English and British English even more so. I'm just wondering why one such as yourself would consider doing it?

Firstly it is a compulsory component of transition year in my school.

Secondly, the exam certificate is recognised throughout Ireland as a standard of assessing a persons oral and verbal ability which my teachers in my school have confirmed.

Thirdly, it can be included in your C.V and in most cases employers are interested in how a person can communicate effificently as more times than not, you will be dealing with people in your working life. (Obviously the cert doesnt give a full assesment of a persons verbal ability but it does give a good indication.)

Are you just highlighting that disadvantaged people cant speak english properly? Thats a very stereotypical statment if I have ever saw one. All members of society have english pronounciation problems.

The central aim of the module was to teach us the fundemental principles of the importance of communication in our lives and to reinforce this importance as sometimes it is long forgotten how important it is.

Piste

I pronounce loads of word wrong and am too stuck in my was to change them. So I just try not to say Epitome, Panache or Prerequisite ever. The worst is Ibuprofen, I work in a pharmacy so that's kinda hard to get outta saying :P

philologos

JSK 252 wrote:

Thirdly, it can be included in your C.V and in most cases employers are interested in how a person can communicate effificently as more times than not, you will be dealing with people in your working life. (Obviously the cert doesnt give a full assesment of a persons verbal ability but it does give a good indication.)

If I was an employer, I wouldn't put much value on a test that assesses a Transition Year's ability to do any of the things you have noted above. That's what a job interview is for, to see if people have the relevant skills to take on the job. Surely one would be able to examine one's communication skills in a job interview. One could also speak perfect English, and not be able to deal with people efficently due to attitude problems etc.

JSK 252 wrote:

Are you just highlighting that disadvantaged people cant speak english properly? Thats a very stereotypical statment if I have ever saw one. All members of society have english pronounciation problems.

How does English get spoken correctly, if all members of society have problems with it? This statement truly baffles me.

JSK 252

Jakkass wrote:

If I was an employer, I wouldn't put much value on a test that assesses a Transition Year's ability to do any of the things you have noted above. That's what a job interview is for, to see if people have the relevant skills to take on the job. Surely one would be able to examine one's communication skills in a job interview. One could also speak perfect English, and not be able to deal with people efficently due to attitude problems etc.

How does English get spoken correctly, if all members of society have problems with it? This statement truly baffles me.

That was a "communication" error on my part which I hold up my hands to. I meant to say that people from different backgrounds have communication problems. Im sorry.:)

With regards job interview, that was one of the main reasons why the module was implemented. To improve peoples competency and proficiency in the english language and the examination itself was designed to mirror the same credentials which are required to excel in a job interview situation. Obviously a job interview and a communications exam are two different things but they all boil down to COMMUNICATION and expressing your ideas in a coherent manner.

The exam also was designed to give us a little insider into the oral examinations procedure for the leaving certificate and If you believe that the exam is a waste of time then thats your opinion and you are entitled to have your views valued.

JSK 252

Piste wrote:

I pronounce loads of word wrong and am too stuck in my was to change them. So I just try not to say Epitome, Panache or Prerequisite ever. The worst is Ibuprofen, I work in a pharmacy so that's kinda hard to get outta saying :P

Some of those words can be difficult to say! lol.