u/eeksie-peeksie

UPDATE: I PASSED! Exam was at 10 am, email notification received at 4:15 pm.

I’m happy to report that I am DONE with the exam. What a relief!!!!! I’ve been living and breathing French for the past week. The assessor told me that since we’re towards the end of the week, I may not hear back until next week. I’ll get an email from Delta either way (not from Alta). I also tried to get her to tell me if I passed (polite decline, lol, but worth a try)

I will be surprised if I don’t pass. I completely understood the assessor, who spoke very clearly and at a slowish pace. My speech was fluid without a lot of stopping and starting. I made only minor grammatical errors, some of which I self-corrected

The exam was exactly as they tell you in the PDF. I took everyone’s advice and elaborated all my answers. Basically, I just kept talking until she indicated that that was enough. All told, my exam took 20 minutes

Make sure you know basic airplane words and procedures. If you fly regularly, that’s all you need to know. If you aren’t familiar with the process, watch some YT videos that follow someone from check-in to the end of an international trip (arrivals)

Also make sure you practice reading aloud, recording yourself and then playing it back to hear how you sound. This helps not just with the reading (which is the easiest part of the test), but also with your conversation/situational questions. You’ll find you’re much more fluid in your head, thinking your answers than actually saying them.

Editing to add another tip: Before my test, I decided that I the focus of my exam was going to be CONNECTING WITH THE PASSENGER as a person. Not checking off vocab, worrying about pronunciation, or hitting certain grammatical structures. I don’t know if this helped my score (because there are some grammatical structures I probably would’ve used if I’d been focused on trying to hit them), but it DID help me to stay relaxed and present, in the moment

I also recommend that you completely switch your brain to your target language (TL) starting two days before your exam unless you are a native or you live somewhere that uses the TL. It’s really hard to just “jump in” and have a full-on convo if it’s been months or years since you’ve spoken it

My test didn’t have any crazy terminology like they put on the ALTA vocab sheet (e.g. circuit breaker, jettison). Just basic airplane and everyday-life words

For reference, I am not a native speaker. I’ve never taken the European exams, but I’d guess my level is B2???? Idk. I can talk about anything, basically, but I often have to use circumlocution (e.g. saying “putting the words on the screen” instead of saying “closed captioning”)

If I get the chance, I’ll put my study materials together into a guide. They ended up being the perfect preparation for the test

Good luck everybody! Hope this helps someone!

1. They say I'll need to interpret a "short message" from the captain. Can anyone tell me roughly how long your required interpretations were? (Three sentences? Five?)

2. I applied for both LOD and regular, and I scheduled my exam out two weeks so I can study. Now I'm worried that this is slowing my potential invite to Event Day. Does that slow down the process? Should I try to move my exam sooner?