Just found out today that my oral commentary is in 2 days

[Enter Sandman]

Whoop-de-doo

I really don't remember the teacher telling us about this last week but she's convinced that she did (she seems to be the only though). Whether she did tell us, I'm going to have to do my recorded oral commentary this wednesday...not exactly something I'm looking forward to, but at least i'll be done with it *shrug*

Have you guys got any tips/suggestions/advice which might help me secure some good marks?

I suppose taking out a knife and threatening the teacher to keep on rewinding the tape until I get 30/30 would be slightly out of line?

[Guest forsakendarkness]

You should take a look at the English notes at the bottom of this forum mate

[~Lc~]

lol yea can't take a knife to the teacher I really can't help you with this as I got a well deserved 4 in my IOC because my teacher did not explain in ANY WAY what we're supposed to do for IOCs she just gave us texts and expected 7s from our first trials.. so obviously the highest grade in the class for IOC would be a 4

good luck dude!

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Try the Oral notes in the Eng Notes thread. I really can't help you either. I did brilliantly in all my practice orals (all 6s and 7s) and then come the real thing, fell completely apart because a) I stupidly chose to do all the easy extracts for my practice, leaving the hard ones for the real thing and b ) I think I kind of panicked at the sight of the tape recorder. I guess you should just try and stay calm.

[Enter Sandman]

Yeah I had a look at the notes, they were pretty helpful. I'm trying to stay as calm as I can, but the thought of the microphone and the fact that the examiners will actually be listening to this, kind of tells me that I should be even more panicked than I am right now. Then again, I've done it before for my tok presentation in front of a whole class and that went ok. Oh wait...I was probably re-assured by the fact that only my teacher would be lsitenign to the presentation, not the actual examiners...damn. Panic level restored to 99%

just out of curiosity, what did you get for your oral, HMS?

[Ruan Chun Xian]

A 5 over all for both orals apparently. I was soooo stupid. My teachers gave us a bunch of extracts, telling us the IOC would only come out of that collection. What did I do? I went and choose all the easy ones and the ones I liked to do for practice. Then when it came to the real oral, all the one I didn't like or were hard were left. I actually made some pretty stupid choices about English IA.

[Enter Sandman]

Ah that really sucks. I got a 22/30 for my presentation, what grade do you think that is?

Oh and and a more important question, the extract we get is..well, an extract isn't it - it's not the whole poem, well unless the poem is under 40 lines I guess. But if it isn't, are we just supposed to ignore the rest of of the poem completely? What I mean is, do the examiners expect us to have known the poem beforehand or not? I know all the poems which might come out and if, ideally I'm supposed to see the poem tomorrow for the first time, I'll obviously have to restrict my analyzing to certain limits.

If the examiners are ok with me knowing the poem from before - it should be ok for me to refer to the remaining parts of the poem as well (the ones not shown in the extract)? Just to talk about them briefly, not analyze anything.

[Bandev]

My IOC went really well, incomparison to HMS and LC. It was 3 weeks ago, I was totally wired before hand, everything was buzzing yet suprisingly I wasn't nervous. I got Whitman who I wanted. Before hand I had redone and analysed all the parts of poems and King Lear that we had done and I choose for my practise commentary the hardest part of Lear for which my teacher predicted a 24 or 25/30, and I definitely did better in the actual oral.

I suggest when you go into the room to prepare either be totally wired like I was or a little nervous it will give you some urgency in your preparation I suggest you read the passage really concentratign once with only underlining important things this really helped me for preparing my ideas. I suggest having a central thread - which is something you always come back to the crux of the passage. Then when you are doing it I think going line by line is an easy method for such an intense situation, and it will also work well with structure because writers tend to write in a structured manor anyway.

I found it really hard to fit everything in the time but other people didn't have enough. I ended up talking tiny bit too fast which I think in the end was a good thing because otherwise might not have sounded as convincing. It is okay to stop for a few seconds though because it can help you collect you thoughts, and in actual fact those few seconds actaully sound like moment in reality.

I hope yours feels as good as mine did.

[Ruan Chun Xian]

If the examiners are ok with me knowing the poem from before - it should be ok for me to refer to the remaining parts of the poem as well (the ones not shown in the extract)? Just to talk about them briefly, not analyze anything.

Yes, you should show that you know the poem as a whole, but talk mainly about the extract you got. You should mention the other parts only if they're relevent to your argument.

Keep in mind it's not an unseen so you're expected to know the whole poem anyway. Place the extract you got in context, where is it in the poem? Which part is missing - the beginning, the end, the poem is an extract in the middle... - things like that shows the examiner you know your whole poem.

Yeah, when you get too nervous or something...don't be afraid to stop and think for a little. You might get the urge or feel the compulsion to try and talk the whole time but really you can take a couple of second to just breath. Just make sure to look at your teacher in a way so that he/she doesn't think you're stuck and start asking you question you what you really want is a couple of seconds' rest.

[Enter Sandman]

Thanks for the advice, hope I go through mien nicely as well. Though this time I'm taking a very laid back attitude - I'm more or less prepared but if I'm too nervous or panicky I tend to blank out sometimes - something I nearly did in my tok oral. Therefore I keep telling myself that even if I screw up in this oral, I've got the other components to back me up - and anyway, I'm sure I can scrape at least somethign average even if I don't manage to prepare it properly during those 20 minutes...

[Guest ~Pauly~]

Whoop-de-doo

I really don't remember the teacher telling us about this last week but she's convinced that she did (she seems to be the only though). Whether she did tell us, I'm going to have to do my recorded oral commentary this wednesday...not exactly something I'm looking forward to, but at least i'll be done with it *shrug*

Have you guys got any tips/suggestions/advice which might help me secure some good marks?

I suppose taking out a knife and threatening the teacher to keep on rewinding the tape until I get 30/30 would be slightly out of line?

A really good thing to do is listen to podcasts and watch TV in whatever language you are doing

Also, our teacher gave us months worth of notice and a lot of in-class practise, I don't see any reason why your teacher didn't give you more warning....

[Bandev]

A really good thing to do is listen to podcasts and watch TV in whatever language you are doing

Also, our teacher gave us months worth of notice and a lot of in-class practise, I don't see any reason why your teacher didn't give you more warning....

Enter Sandman is doing his A1 oral commentary not a language B/A2/ab initio oral, so I would assume that doesn't really do much for him.

Also another thing to remember to do is contextualise the passage at the beginning with poetry that could be describing the overall gist of the whole poem if it is just an extract from a poem or otherwise place it within the anthology overall if it is one whole poem.

Another thing I would completely ignore the guiding questions, they might end up confusing you.

For poetry analysis I have an acronym, SPEC SLIM

Subject

Purpose

Emotional Response

Craftsmanship (Style)

Stucture

Language

Imagery

Movement (Rhythm, Rhyme)

It might help if you know a few metres such as an iamb, trochees, paeon, dactyl etc. because they sound intelligent and help describe the rhythm

Edited August 29, 2007 by Bandev

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Another thing I would completely ignore the guiding questions, they might end up confusing you.

Ummm...sweetheart, you're supposed to answer the guiding question!! You shouldn't stick to it rigidly and should elaborate beyond the guiding question, but you're supposed to in some way or other answer it...not ignore it outright

Metre is ace!! It took some prompting from my teacher for me to remember to include iambic pentameter into my oral - I was doing Shakespeare.

And ahhh I remember SPEC SLIM. Used to use it back in IGCSE.

[Guest ambr0sia]

Wow.

Youse got me fearful with all these metres and iambics.

We've hardly discussed Shakespeare and this year we've

got the 'English Teacher From Hell'.

...seriously. this is the english professor

who spent too much time watching the lord

of the rings in his parents basement. we

can't relate and...

and...

...he tastes funny.

That is all I've got to say.

[Bandev]

They actually don't expect you to know much more than iambs, but it is useful to know the others.

Ummm...sweetheart' date=' you're supposed to answer the guiding question!! You shouldn't stick to it rigidly and should elaborate beyond the guiding question, but you're supposed to in some way or other answer it...not ignore it outright[/quote']

My teacher told us to only look at them if you are really lost. I didn't even read them so I don't know if I answered the questions.

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Well I suppose if you talk about all the things you should talk about you'll end up answering the guiding question anyway becuase it's supposed to cover the really really obvious stuff you should talk about, but still it is useful to look at it to make sure you're going in the right direction.

[Enter Sandman]

I did my oral on wednesday, and thankfully it went pretty great I got the same as my presentation oral, 22/30 and I could have probably done better but who gives a damn, I'm just relieved I'm done with it....besides, if it isn't downgraded it means I get a 6 overall - pretty good considering how bloody strict our teacher has become suddenly.

But...I also ended up doing something incredibly dumb. After the teacher had said, "We have reached the end of the oral blah blah blah", I didn't realise that she hadn;t stopped recording, and promptly, like a dimwit, blurted out "I missed a quote"!!

Yes I had missed a quote I had been meaning to use for one of my arguments, but I have no freaking idea what made me say that when it was still recording...luckily when we played it again to check it sounded very faint and the only word I could make out was "missed". And although I got the highest for the oral, about 3-4 others got the same mark so mine might not be sent at all...

Erm, if it does get sent though, the chances of the examiner hearing that part and suddenly bumping down my grade are pretty slim, right? As I said, it's very faint - and it was after the teacher had declared the end of the oral in any case, the examiner isn't supposed to take anything else into account.

[Survivor Rob]

Gratz on the good grade! When i did my IOC i was pretty nervous with the whole microphone and everything, the teacher also made me nervous because they hadnt used the machine before and thought they had taped over someone elses.............But it was good in the end

The examiner wont mark you down, you just wont have got the mark that the quote might have got you but to be honest ONE quote isnt going to affect your score, unless you only used a few quotes in total.

Plus with the oral stated to be over from your teacher, the examiner wont pay any attention. Its like writing too many words on the EE, the marker wont assess anything after the word limit.

[Enter Sandman]

Thanks. And yeah I thought the examiner might not pay attention to it as well - if my oral is sent that is. It feels great to be finished with everything for english ...now it's just me and the exam.

Ok, that last thought faded the "great" feeling a bit...

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Erm...all orals are sent, I think.

But then I might be wrong. All orals are usually sent at my school because we're always such small classes.