Preparing Students For Gcse Exams.

Considering the linguistic and grammar elements a student is expected to have managed at the end of the academic year, a one year Italian GCSE course might well be viewed as an intensive course by all standards. An Italian GCSE graduate is generally expected to have developed a good knowledge of such grammar elements such as most past tenses, conditional, all subjunctive tenses and the hypothetical mood, prepositions simple and compound, most often direct, indirect and combined object pronouns, and more. All this adds to the predictable language and grammar basics that the course inevitably includes at its early stage, and which include such elements as articles, nouns, adjectives, their varying in gender and number, verbs, the present, present perfect and future indicative, etc. Some of the advanced grammar elements in the above long list are included in grades of the European Language Learning Scheme as high as B2. For good or ill, however, very often, the GCSE examining boards` philosophy is to assess the student`s preparation with an eye of regard for specific grammar and language elements per se rather than their placement in an extended context of colloquial Italian and their use in it in absolutely natural and realistic circumstances (the latter is an approach that is adopted mostly in A level courses). The result of such approach is a highly monitored examining process: throughout the written and oral parts of the exam, the student is guided through specific and often prearranged steps each one of which is aimed at verifying his knowledge on specific linguistic elements. There is less freedom of handling the exam left to the student than it might seem at first sight. Such an approach to the organisation of a language course and exam requires an extremely detailed and targeted step-by-step preparation, in order for the student to achieve high efficiency and marks. The teacher or tutor then, is required to always remember to structure and organise his preparation course in strict relation to the exam`s format and program, in a way that the student is essentially being prepared for the exam, its environment, rules and structure, right from the beginning of the course and in parallel to his learning the language itself. Having years of experience preparing students for GCSE and A level exams, I have developed the ability to help my pupils be ready to face in the best possible ways the challenges of that specific examining format, developing a sound knowledge of the language that generally supersedes the mere requirements of a GCSE exam, and obtain excellence in marks. My GCSE preparation program, approach and method is largely based, among others, on the following teaching and proficiency verification activities and material:

-(Early stage of academic year) Targeted grammar exercises focussed mostly on the linguistic and grammar aspects GCSE examining boards are assessing according to their published program. Targeted language and grammar exercises based on sentence building organised around themes and essay and conversation elements frequently present in past GCSE exams or generally typical of a GCSE exam`s structure and content. -Audio material and related exercises, listening comprehension units from past GCSE exams. Many language GCSE examining boards tend to avoid becoming too demanding in the listening comprehension section of the exam (hence, the audio recordings often are based on slowly and clearly spoken speeches or dialogues). The challenge for the student in this part of the exams is avoiding being tricked by ambiguous remarks in the audio recording or ambiguous questions in the written questionnaire. Consequently much of the work and preparation for this part of the exam has to be aimed at establishing a clear understanding of the language itself rather than elements such as accent, linguistic flections and pace, etc. -Whenever the examining board includes them in the exam`s program, role taking and role making sessions, extensive colloquial Italian sessions (based on chosen social situations, related set phrases and vocabulary), and role making/taking sessions based on past oral exams` material; -Extensive mock exam sessions, and targeted training on past exams material (both written and audio transcri pts).