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Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

 

Part II Oral Examination (Tripos 2024)

The following notes have been agreed by the Faculty Board for the guidance of candidates and examiners. The oral examinations for Part II of the Modern and Medieval Languages Tripos and History and Modern Languages Tripos for Tripos 2024 will be held on 2nd and 3rd October 2023, in the Raised Faculty Building, Sidgwick Site. Candidates will be advised of the exact date for each language and will be sent the relevant timetables and exact venue in September 2023.

Candidates must make sure that they return to Cambridge in ample time before the exam dates.

All students have to take an oral exam for Part II, which must be in the same language as one or both of their Part II language papers. The language of the examination shall be one of the languages offered at Part IA or Part IB. N.B. paper Pg. 3 constitutes a language offered at Part IB for these purposes.

Marks for the exam

At Part II each scheduled paper accounts for 100 marks. The written language papers each account for 70 marks, and the oral exam for 60. Together, the language components of the exam account for 200 marks in your final Part II result.

The marks awarded for the Part II orals will remain confidential until they are incorporated into the final Part II result.

A mark of special excellence in the oral examination may be placed next to your name when the Part II class-list is published in June.

Preparation

No supervisions or mock exams should be held for Part II Orals.

Examiners’ Reports: As with written papers, previous years’ PII Oral Examiners’ Reports are kept for your reference on the Part II Orals Moodle page. Candidates are encouraged to read past examiners’ reports for their own languages as well as the annual general reports compiled by the Senior Examiner.

The Oral Exam

The exam takes the form of a presentation of your Year Abroad Project lasting normally 5 minutes, and a discussion about the Year Abroad Project between you and two examiners, lasting normally 10 minutes. If you had special permission not to do the Year Abroad and therefore did not complete a Year Abroad Project, you will need to agree a suitable subject area with your Director of Studies. The subject area must be given in English.

Please arrive at the examination waiting room 5 minutes in advance of your allotted time and you will be directed to your examination room. Please note that the examination will be recorded. The recordings will be treated in the same way as written examination scripts and in accordance with the Faculty’s data retention policy.

Examiners will greet you and you will be asked to state your name and the topic of your examination in the foreign language at the beginning of the recording.

The oral exam is not simply a test of practical oral fluency. Your presentation will serve as a starting point for interaction with the examiners. We want to assess how well you can discuss matters of intellectual substance and interest in a foreign language.

Please note that the examiners will not necessarily be experts in the field of your chosen topic. It is part of your task to present your findings bearing this in mind. Be prepared to discuss your topic in a broader context.

Equal weight will be given in the marking of the oral examination to quality of language and quality of content and presentation.

You will have investigated and reflected upon your chosen topic in advance of the examination in order to write the Year Abroad Project, therefore specific knowledge of some aspect(s) of the topic is expected.

You should have ideas and observations ready, with evidence or arguments to substantiate them.

The subject area of the Year Abroad Project will not necessarily be related to the culture and/or the language in which the oral exam is offered.

You will be expected to give a presentation of normally five minutes. You should not read or memorize a prepared script, but be ready to talk in an informed manner about aspects of your Year Abroad Project. You must be able to respond spontaneously to a range of questions and comments in discussion, listening carefully to the questions and comments of the examiners.

You should avoid being too informal and impressionistic, and should use a register of the spoken language that is appropriate to the subject matter. Grammatical accuracy will be expected throughout.

Any reasonable interpretation of the topic is acceptable. You should aim to be factually accurate, and credit will be given for the successful development of arguments in justification of the point of view you adopt.

All geographical varieties of the language being examined are welcome in the Oral exam. You will not be disadvantaged for using, or not using, a particular variety.

Brief notes may be used as a memory aid in the examination, but must not be allowed to impede the natural flow of the discussion. You may consult your notes to remind you of a point you intend to raise, but at no point should you read text directly from your notes as this will be penalized.

The above point also applies to discussion of Translation Projects: it is acceptable for you to refer to your notes to remind yourselves of a particular word or phrase, but you should not read out whole sentences or passages, either from the source text or from their English translation. You should bear in mind that the purpose of the Oral exam is not to assess the quality of your translation in detail, but rather to evaluate your level of awareness and your analysis of the translation issues raised by the source text.

You may, if you wish, provide an image or a single A4 sheet of non-textual data for your examiners to consult during the presentation, however there is no obligation to do so and you should not feel that you will be disadvantaged by not doing so.

Please note the importance of punctual attendance for your oral examination, which is a compulsory and integral part of Part II of the Tripos. Only in quite exceptional circumstances (e.g. illness, religious festivals) can any rearrangement be considered. Please refer to the Examination Regulations for the Part II Oral examination