Effective Warm-Up Techniques for GCSE Oral Exams: How to Run the Rooms.

The dreaded oral exam. It is an exam like no other. There is no ‘safety in numbers’; students are not sat amongst their peers in an exam hall. There is little room for error; students cannot go back and change their answers at the end of the exam. And perhaps most crucially, there is little time for composure; students have two exam cards thrust upon them with only 12-15 minutes to read them and prepare themselves, before being ushered into a small space where they must speak continuously for 10+ minutes, whilst being recorded. With no breaks, on multiple topics, in a language which is usually not their own.

So how can we ensure that students feel confident going into this unnerving experience? The one change we have made in our schools which has made an enormous impact on student confidence is: The Holding Room.

It occurred to me several years ago just how big a task we were setting for our students. Not only are they having to deal with all of the above, they are expected to sit this exam immediately after leaving a lesson from a completely different subject.

Question: Would we ask our students to spend an hour revising for science and then throw them into a maths exam? Or whip them out of a netball match in PE to quickly sit an English exam? Of course not. So why would we expect them to come directly from a maths, English, science, DT or PE lesson, straight into their French, Spanish or German GCSE oral exam?

Answer: We shouldn’t.

Solution: The Holding Room.

The Holding Room serves multiple purposes.

1.     It is a safe space for GCSE language students to warm-up and get into ‘French/Spanish/German mode’ before their oral exam.

2.     It enables students to spend time with their peers directly before and after their oral exam to help build confidence, calm nerves and feel supported.

3.     It ensures that students are on time for their exam slot…and thus eliminates the last-minute run around school trying to locate missing MFL students and the inevitable delay in everyone else’s start times to catch up all the tardy students.

4.     It offers additional practice and relaxing time for students who need it.

So, what does this look like in practice?

The Holding Room

The holding room is for students to ‘warm-up’ before they go into the invigilated preparation room. Students can have exercise books, flash cards, resources with them and they can talk to each other, practise speaking aloud etc. The adult/invigilator in this room is purely for supervision. The adult will also tell students when it is their time to go to the Preparation Room.

The Preparation Room

The preparation room is where students are given the exam papers. Invigilators will use the candidate sheet provided by the HoD/teacher to ensure every student has the correct exam cards. Students have 12 minutes to prepare (15 minutes for those with extra time). 

The Exam Room

The exam room is where students complete the oral exam with their teacher. This part of the exam will be recorded and will be in the target language. Follow exam board guidance on how to facilitate the oral exam.

Exam timings

Arrival at The Holding Room: at least 30 mins before preparation room

Arrival at The Preparation Room: Set time: 15 mins before the Exam Room

Arrival at The Exam Room: Set time, with at least 5 minutes between students

Students arrive at The Holding Room at least 30 minutes before their timeslot for The Preparation Room. Students from all classes, and studying all languages, can be in the same Holding Room. Due to the timings of the exam there will always be at least two students from the same class in the Holding Room at the same time, allowing students to practise together. They can have access to flashcards, exercise books, any material which will help them to feel confident and prepared. Students can talk to each other. Students can arrive early if they feel particularly nervous, or need some additional time to practise. These are all strategies we put in place for ‘traditional’ written exams in the exam hall. In fact, in all other subjects we offer a 45-60 minute warm-up lesson with the class teacher prior to going into the exam room.

So, the proposal. How do we convince senior leaders that paying for an extra invigilator, taking up an additional valuable space or classroom in the school, and removing students from their other subject lessons at a crucial time in Y11 is the right thing to do?

1.     With such a small number of students out of their lessons at any one time, there is little disruption to other lessons, but the impact that this additional 30-40 minutes outside of lessons on the outcome of the oral exam is huge.

2.     This is likely the first ‘real’ GCSE exam that these students will sit in Y11. Don’t we want them to have the best experience possible so that the remainder of their exams feel less daunting?

3.     For an exam worth 25% of their overall grade and often 95% of the students’ anxieties, doesn’t it seem a little unbalanced to give students only 20-25 minutes out of lessons to complete the exam in its entirety?

And whilst we’re on the subject of giving these dreaded exams the amount of time they deserve…the mock exams should be set up in exactly the same way!

Teachers of MFL unite! #ViveLaRévolution

Written by Sophie Bowers @MissBowersMFL