I passed :(

And so we sat our Turkish exams today. 

In all there were 5 exams: read a short story and answer the questions, dictation, composition, a 30 question grammar test, and listening to a short story and answer the questions.

Apparently the speaking tests don't start until level 3 which is a shame I think as that's what I need most practice in and is my number one priority.

Unfortunately the exam process made a mockery of the concept of education but is consistent with other schools in Turkey - both public and private.

For my students getting an education doesn't result in them getting an education. Instead they learn to give standard prescribed answers and thus don't actually learn anything. Ultimately I don't think it's their fault as no-one is asking them to think.

To site a few examples from today:

1. The reader of the dictation and short story emphasised the parts which held the answers to the questions. In addition she repeated them a number of times and paused until we had written down the answer. Some words were even translated into English for us when people asked.

2. She left the room on 2 or 3 occasions which enabled a wholesale discussion of the answers, checking of word meanings, and time to look back into our exercise books and other resources. In fact, one student openly had his class workbook on his desk and was looking things up.

3. The marking was excessively generous.

The final result was that everyone passed (50% requirement). Personally I think they would have passed without the shenanigans. The lowest mark was 68% and the highest 96%. Approximately 90% of the marks were in the 88-96% range.

Whilst everyone was of course happy to have passed I was a little disappointed to finish the course without any clear indication of how well I knew the material. 

In the end it was like the English language school I worked at here - the students, in essence, bought a certificate of completion.

That being said there were some positives. I did learn a lot - from the teacher, students, and from the huge amount of studying that I did. 

Our teacher actually wanted us to learn which was a bonus. Although he didn't speak English, which meant a few questions went unanswered, he was as helpful as he could be. Also he was the co-author of our texts so had an abundance of experience and knowledge to pull from.

I decided to take on level 2 in the end. Mainly to keep myself occupied amongst other things. I'm not so good at filling in spare time so it's good to be busy. As I've said in early posts I don't have any free days which over the colder months is a good thing.

I do however need to switch the balance between work and play (learning Turkish being on the play side) so that I am getting more money in as currently my earnings cover only about 30% of my outgoings.

So with this in mind I'm changing from 5 days study to 3 days study giving more time for work. This is also good on the learning front as the 5 days per week was as the course title suggested - intensive.

Next week our class will split into two groups. About half are continuing with the fast passed class with the rest switching to the normal class.

I might need to learn some Russian as the split means I get to be with the Ukrainian, Russian and Bela-Russian girls >.<