Few things seem to cause as much angst in a Polish teenager’s life like the matura: a series of compulsory written and oral exit exams. Required of all students are two exams from Polish: a written and a spoken test. Students must pass the written before they are allowed to take the oral exam.The written matura consists of four essay questions read aloud at precisely 9:00 a.m. on the same day in high schools throughout Poland.
This year the questions included the interpretation of a Wis?awa Szymborska poem, and a question, “Od Adam i Ewy…” (From Adam and Eve), about the loss of one’s home and one’s place in society as illustrated through literature. Another question began, “If you want to know a person, look at his shadow…”
The second day brings the chosen exams, with most people picking history, with math coming a close second. (Ironically enough, most of the students who chose math were girls — probably something like 80%.) This year there were about six people taking the matura in geography and one girl chose biology. No one chose English, and for good reason: it’s adifficult exam, concentrating mainly on the irregularities and exceptions of English grammar.
Once the students’ pain is over, it’s time for the teachers to get their dose: grading all those exams according to strict criteria.
Then comes the spoken exams — when my pain begins.
The spoken English matura consists of three parts.
- There’s a text students must read and be prepared to discuss. Topics include smoking, living in the city, my dream holiday — nothing too taxing, in other words. Usually the exam begins here, with the examiners asking one or two questions about the details of the text and then inviting the victim to “share his/her thoughts” about the topic. Free talking, in other words. This is where the truly good students show they’re truly good, and the less-than-great students struggle.
- There are eight grammar questions. They cover everything from tenses to specific grammatical constructions.
- There five situations. The situations themselves are described in Polish, but of course students are required to respond in English.
Students are given the situations and text beforehand; the grammar they see for the first time when they sit down for the exam, though they know possible topics.
Grammar | ||
| ‘Samuel didn’t come here last night’. She said __________. | Reported speech — gossiping, in other words. The key is in changing tenses and selected words. The correct answer: She said that Samuel hadn’t come/gone there the night before. | |
| If I were the President of the country, I __________ . | Conditional, namely the second conditional. Impossible condition (If + past simple), imaginary result (would + verb). If I were president of the country, I would give all teachers a substantial raise. | |
| They enjoy (go) __________ on exotic holiday, but they wouldn’t like (live) __________ outside the USA. | Verb patters — or when to use “to” and when to use “-ing.” It’s basically a question of memorization. They enjoy going on holiday, but wouldn’t like to live outside the USA. | |
| Robert (read) __________ a book about English grammar when David (leave) __________ last night. | Verb tenses. Since Polish has three verb tenses and English, twelve, it makes senses that students have a bit of trouble keeping all of them straight. Robert was reading a book about English grammar when David left last night. | |
Situations | ||
| Buy a one-way train ticket from Warsaw to Pairs. How would you ask about a return ticket? | The situations are fairly straightforward, and even a little boring. Usually one of them is fairly involved, requiring interaction with one of the examiners, but the rest are often a matter of one or two sentences. | |
| You returned very late from a friend’s house. Apologize to your parents and explain that the bus driver had to repair the bus. | ||
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