I’ve done all of the Prince2 Practicum Example Exam exercises so that I could review the material that I had learned from the book and on-line. But I don’t think that it was enough to get me prepared for the actual exam.
Before going into the test, I set aside a week or two to read through the book, do some practice questions and practice speaking. This allowed me to get better at the spoken part of the exam without actually having to put in the practice. During this time, I wanted to make sure that I was totally familiar with the material and would be able to confidently take the actual exam.
The book and the Prince Practicum example exam provided me with a good foundation, but there were still things that I needed to practice to make sure that I was completely comfortable with the language and conversational skills. Here are some things that I did before the actual exam.
Practice your pronunciation of the letters. There are several spelling exercises that I did and I was unable to really understand what the instructor was saying unless I was speaking to them in English. This includes grammar and sentence constructions. Make sure that you have a good pronunciation of all of the letters and that you are comfortable with the meanings.
Practice reading out loud. I’ve always found that it’s good to read the books aloud because when you read them in written form, you aren’t really practicing the written English, but the listening and speaking skills. You will come up with mistakes that you aren’t even aware of because you’re not paying attention to the nuances of the material.
Go back and study the concepts from the phonics guide. Many of the vocabulary and sentence examples are based on the same kinds of words that we use in daily conversations. In order to be able to communicate with people, you need to know how to pronounce those words.
Practice reading passages out loud. Reading out loud is a great way to practice the oral skills and it also is a good way to develop your listening and reading skills. Being able to read out loud with someone else to try to improve your reading comprehension is a really good way to get over the speech anxiety and even improve your speaking skills.
Practice listening out loud. Using an audiotape recorder is a good way to practice listening without the conversation. When you listen out loud, you get more practice with a variety of situations in which you may need to hear something from someone else.
Practice reading out loud. This is a good way to practice reading out loud, which is a necessary skill for the exam.
Finally, I practiced reading passages out loud. I find that when I practice this, it’s not as easy because I’m not truly practicing the written English. However, I can still use this method to help my listening and reading skills, since I have lots of material to work with.
If you have any doubt about reading from a written text, take a real test, not a practice test. If you have any doubts about reading a written passage aloud, try to speak aloud.
