Anvy : Thank you!
I think listening is one of the most difficult part, i didn't actually prepare for the exam, but what I did when I was in front of my sheet was this :
1. You read very quickly the questions, you spot the important words, i.e if they ask you to fill in a sentence " Martin starts school at ..... a.m", listen carefully until you hear words related to school, and even if you don't understand everything the person says, focus on words related to your subject, do not spend time on words you don't know or expressions you don't understand. The same goes for the reading, you need to focus only on important words, most of the text is actually irrelevant, only portions of the text will help you answer the questions.
2. Take your time! There is actually, usually, a lot of time between 2 blanks to fill. If you feel that the part where you had to listen carefully has passed without being able to catch the answer, don't waste time on this part, prepare yourself for the next blank!
3. You don't have to stretch your mind to answer the question, if you have to think too much to fill in the blank, you're probably doing it wrong. The most simple answer is usually the good one!
4. Do not let a mistake trouble you, some of my friends who took the test with me told me that they were lost from the start, and it messed up their test. You have to accept to let go when you can't get a good answer. There are 40 items, one mistake is not much!
That's for the listening, I didn't find it that hard to be honest, you just have to stay calm, listen carefully, not panic, and everything should go well. If you want, we could do a listening together via skype, so I can show you how I did everything!
My skype is "tachinu"
anyone can add me btw!
Yerbo : the same goes for you, add me and I'll be happy to help!!
Shoan : Reading was the easiest part for me. I never really paid attention to reading methods, I just practiced by reading books in English!
So if I remember well, you have 3 texts, with the last one being a little harder I think (got a text on Tolstoï lol, it was actually really interesting!).
This is how I proceed :
1. You read very quickly the questions, this is actually not mandatory I think, but it can help you spot the most important parts of the text during your first reading.
2. You read the text, quickly too, just to get an idea of the subject, and most importantly, how it is constructed. In my mind, I divided the text in sub-parts, you can easily see the topic change while reading, I, for example, had a text about a weaving machine, the text was constructed this way : brief historic, how the inventor got the idea, how he constructed the machine, how the machine worked, how it was used. When you get back to the questions, you know where to look to get the answer you need.
3. You start answering the questions. You read carefully the questions, one by one. You try to remember where you've seen the words, in the beginning of the text? in the end? in which part? Once you know where to look, you scoop the text to find the words of the questions (or synonyms). It shouldn't take you long to find what you need. I myself finished 15 minutes early, so I had time to check every answer, that's how I got a 9 I think, I knew I didn't do any mistake. I would recommend taking 5 minutes to check you answers, because a spelling mistake can make you lose one point, while you got the answer right. Furthermore, the last text is quite harder, so don't be afraid to let the last questions empty, and check the answers you got right.
Speaking on the other hand, I don't know if I can help you, I watch a lot of old movies in english, tv series, but I think that I speak quite well because of one thing : I think in English. When you think, you hear your voice, and I think it drastically improved my speaking. But then again, I've been in love with this language since I was in middle school, so I don't know if you can start thinking like that only a few months away from your exam. It's worth the try though
Hope i've been clear enough, do not hesitate to add me on skype, to ask me questions or just speak!
See you