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Home > Japanese > Continuers Course > How to Approach the Exam > Advice > Conversation examination

The conversation examination is worth 20 marks.

The examination consists of a conversation between the examiner and the student about the student's personal world, for example your life, family and friends, interests and aspirations. The examiner will not be your own teacher. The conversation should take approximately 10 minutes.

To prepare for the examination, look at the themes and topics from the syllabus and make up as many questions as you can about yourself and your world. Prepare information and a variety of sentences for each topic incorporating syllabus language structures. These will be useful for both speaking and writing skills. In all speaking tests it is important to use a variety of ideas and language structures. Make your conversation sound more natural by incorporating aizuchi, eg soo desu ne and strategies such as repeating information to gain clarification. Practise recording answers onto a tape and listen carefully to how you sound. Speak confidently and clearly. A steady pace is best - there is no need to hurry.

Try to anticipate possible questions that may come up in the examination. The NSW HSC Online site has some useful sample questions and guided conversations. You can listen to the questions and respond, and also view the script for the questions.

The best way to improve your speaking skills is to speak Japanese aloud. Practise with your family (even if they don't understand they'll be impressed!), classmates and teacher. Daily practice in expressing yourself in Japanese is a great way to study.

The examiner(s) will take the following factors into account when judging your performance:

• capacity to maintain a conversation (comprehension communication strategies)
• relevance and depth of treatment of information, opinions, comment
• clarity of expression (pronunciation, intonation, stress)
• accuracy of vocabulary and sentence structures
• variety and appropriateness of vocabulary and sentence structures.