My DELE exam was divided between two days. The first day was the speaking test. I jumped on the bus and made it ten minutes early, only to be told there was a backlog of candidates, hence I'd start half an hour late. Great, I thought, rolling my eyes.
I spotted a message on my phone which made me smile: "Chiquitilla que tengas mucha suerte." (Little one, good luck.)
Once I finally entered the first room to read and prepare, I was surprised that teachers walked in and out while I was writing my notes. I suppose it would've been best to study in a place with movement and noise, as absolute quiet wasn't considered here at the university.
When my twenty minutes were up, I was shuttled to another room to do the actual test. The examiner spoke very clearly. But when it was time to read Task three, surprisingly she and the observers chatted while I was trying to concentrate on the text! Clearly candidates are expected to have nerves of steel during the tests.
The next day was an early start, as it consisted of the reading, writing, and listening tests. Just
in case, I brought earplugs and extra paper, pencils and pens, but
the latter were not needed; everything was provided. Very official.
We started on-time. The reading section was first. It was fairly
easy, because I'd prepared at home with the DELE book “El
Cronómetro”. But the audio test was a fiasco. Listening is one
of my weakest skills, and the C1 DELE really tests you. I was
experienced with the format, but the quality of the audio was the
worst I'd heard in my life. The first part consisted of a conference
speech about Peruvian food. The quality of the microphone that had
recorded the talk was terrible. The third task, however, was
unbelievably bad. It sounded like someone talking through a bad
telephone line, with paper over their mouth. During the break, one of
the candidates complained to the supervisor.
After the quick 30-minute pause, we
headed back in to do the written test. It was easy and I had time afterwards to check and re-check my writing. When we
finished, the director of the language department came in and
informed us that we could listen to the third part of the listening
test again, to try and improve our results. I wasn't pleased to hear
this. I'd already been sitting and writing an exam for four hours.
However, we took a chance. Turned out to be useless, as having
another try didn't change any of my answers; the audio was still
horrible. The supervisor informed us that the university would send a
complaint to the Instituto Cervantes, but as to whether there'd be
any result, he seemed doubtful.
I exited in a slump. I felt so-so about
the reading, writing, and speaking parts, but the listening part did
not give me high hopes. It will take a few months to receive the
results. As I look back, I wish I'd pushed myself to study more during the summer. I also wished I didn't work so much speaking English, in order to have time to prepare for the exam. But, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. I learned many valuable lessons during my preparation and during the actual test. Next time, I'll do better.
