Last Thursday, I got a message from Dara: she got her B in oral interaction!… she is still waiting for the results of her written expression and reading comprehension exams though… I guess she will hear about them tomorrow or Tuesday…

Congratulations Dara!

Yesterday I heard from Nelson who went for his oral interaction test on Friday morning… usually stuff like this does not bother him too much yet he told me that he got so nervous during the interview!… Well… he is not different from the others… I do no know anyone who does not panic a little when sitting in that small interview room!… The whole process looks so much like a job interview, no wonder why candidates do not feel comfortable…

I chose an easy quizz today… those are common expressions in which we associate  adjectives and nouns when we want to establish comparisons. I did it in only a few minutes and I got 50/50… I did not know one but, knowing all the others, I just associated the last noun left!… I believe you should do pretty well also!

Apparently we will have a sunny week with above normal temperatures… Great!

I just want to enjoy this type of scenery a bit longer…

Are you ready to play?… Then click here!

Good Luck!

Congratulations Amelia!

Then, earlier today, I got a message from Dick in Toronto who got his C in both written expression and oral interaction…  He is now the proud owner of  CCC levels, consequently he should get the job position he applied for in Ottawa…

Congratulations Dick!

I now realize that my students’ rate of success at those absurd tests is very high!… Some would say that I am a real expert at coaching them… am I? I think so… yet I know how much effort and work my trainees put in their preparation and I tend to give them most of the credit for their success!…

In spite of the good news that come in on a regular basis, I am still quite disturbed with what I see and what I hear… The SLE testing process is certainly not improving!… The more the so-called panel of experts at the PPC brings change, deeper into confusion and irregularities they get in… It would not be that serious if their decisions were not affecting so many people’s future… who cares if some individuals are incompetent, as long as it stays among themselves?… If it were the case, I would not be so loud… actually I would probably take it with a grain a salt and I would make fun of this ridiculous process… Yet, here, we are talking about a system that is affecting thousands of people across Canada… therefore I cannot just sit here and observe without saying something.

Dick did not mention about the written test he took last week, therefore I cannot tell if he had the same one Corey had had in Montreal a few days earlier… but Dara sent me a message saying that here, in Ottawa, she had the same tests as before… meaning that the reading comprehension exam was way too easy and the written expression one was way too difficult: the exact same comments I had had from Melody, Candice, Edna and Krystal… and she took her tests yesterday!… Therefore the tests Corey took in Montreal almost two weeks ago were totally different from the ones that have been around for a couple months (written expression) and for years (reading comprehension).

Last week, one of my students came across some information concerning the reading comprehension test… apparently, it will be changed in April 2010… this is no news since this rumor has been circulating for almost a year now…

Yet, before implementing the new version, the PPC is running some kind of pilot project… they are inviting civil servants to volunteer and take the new test… if they ever get a higher level, they will be granted this new level… but if they get a lower level than the one they already have, they will not be penalized and they will maintain their current level… It makes sense!… I have no problems at all with pilot projects as long as they do not affect people’s future…

What happened in Montreal 10 days ago?… Why did the candidates take two tests that were absolutely not the ones that are given right now in the National Capital?… Corey told me that there were around 50 people being tested that day: all candidates for job positions within the PSC… in other words, none of them were civil servants… Would it be that the PPC used these people to test their new exams?… I thought about it and, unfortunately, I could not come up with another explanation… According to Corey, no one managed to finish the reading comprehension test in 90 minutes… and many did not even go beyond questions 40 or 45… since the cut off mark for the C level is 50, what does it tell you?… Many people there will be eliminated from the hiring process based on the fact that they failed this test!… Is it fair?…  On the other hand, is it fair that they took a very easy written expression version of the exam while many others here struggle and sweat to get their levels?… Are all these people the scapegoats of the PPC?…

It does not take a doctor in linguistics to state that this testing process is invalid… unless everyone is taking the same tests, the results do not reflect anything except the true incompetence of a bunch of  idiots who have no clue whatsoever about how to design tests that are assessing language abilities…

Anyways… before I get angrier, I will wrap up this post…  because, if there is one thing I cannot stand, it is unfairness… and this whole process is utterly wrong and unfair!…

“Taire ce qu’il ne faut pas dire et savoir supporter l’injustice, voilà des choses difficiles”

Chilon

Yesterday Amelia went for her oral interaction test… it went very well since she was led in the fourth part of the interview… therefore she can sleep until she gets her result: the required B is guaranteed!… Yet there were some logistic problems at Slater yesterday morning… six examiners had called in sick!… Not the kind of news candidates (who were already under stress) needed… because of that, Amelia had to wait… finally she took the test over the phone with a male assessor in Montreal…

Krystal was a bit down yesterday… she received an email saying that she had gone through the entire hiring process successfully and her name had been placed in a pool of candidates that would expire at the end of October 2010!… She asked for more information and she was told that they had not filled in the position she had applied for and she would hear from it in a few weeks… Those generic emails are pointless because they never inform the candidates accurately… Mais, c’est le gouvernement du Canada!!! Live with it or look somewhere else for a job I guess…

French grammar terminology evolved quite a bit in the last few years and most parents are thrown off by it when they are trying to help their kids do their homework (though there are courses intended to have them get familiar with this new charabia)… was it necessary to rename everything? I do not think so… it will be interesting to see if this change occurred only in Quebec… I took the test and I got a perfect score: I had to learn the new terminology yet I have to admit I never use it… I work with adults and I will not waste time explaining the difference between now and then… all those components kept the same functions in a sentence anyways…

I will be in Montreal this weekend and hopefully weather will improve!

I am afraid I will not see another day like this one before next year!…

To check your knowledge of this new terminology, click here …

Bonne chance!

Congratulations Krystal!

Now, let’s talk about the last changes in the SLE tests… Sometimes I believe I am now obsessive compulsive with those… well… probably not that bad, but still… I do feel that there is something utterly wrong… something I just cannot grasp… Is it because I am missing something here?… Or is it simply because there is nothing to understand?… I tend to vote for the latter…

You probably remember me writing that the written expression test had been modified in September… prior to that, although not easy, the test was quite balanced… people who needed a B usually got it (and even a higher level in some cases) and those who needed a C also got it, if not an exemption. Then, in September, there were drastic modifications made to that exam… I had enough students who took the test during this period to state that it was the most difficult version of it… ever! All of them barely made it… and they all confirmed that it was very difficult and totally different from the test samples they had been practicing with on Campus Direct (which only features four samples of  the 2007 80 question version of the written expression test… then considered the most difficult version of all!)…

Of course, having been informed of those changes early in September, I made sure that everyone who would have to take the written test would know and I pushed them even harder… This month I only had to prepare people for their oral interaction exams, except for Corey who took both his reading comprehension and written expression tests last Saturday… Therefore he was the first one to take the tests in October.

As soon as he went back home after his long day at CRA in Montreal, he gave me a call to update me… I have to say that I was stunned and I did not know what either think or say!

He told me that the first test he had taken that morning was the most difficult one and he had not been able to answer more than 59 questions. I thought he was talking about the written expression exam which, according to everyone, was a real nightmare… BUT NO! He was referring to the reading comprehension test… I could not believe it: I told him he was probably mistaking and he was talking about the written expression one… well… it was indeed the test that had been the easy one for years until now: reading comprehension!… I know there were discussions about changing this test too yet it had not materialized… apparently now it is reality though! He said that most people could hardly answer 40 or 45 answers… given that candidates to the level C need 50 correct answers, I guess many will be eliminated from that hiring process…

Then he told me that he had wrapped up the written expression test in 45 minutes, but he had chosen to stay and review his answers while everyone else had decided to leave… WHAT??? On top of it he said that, in paragraph C of the long questions, the differences in each version of the sentences were underlined… of course, it had saved him lots of time since he had not had to compare each one and look for those differences!…

All I can say is: «tant mieux pour lui!»… since he does need a C, taking an easier version of the written expression test was a bonus. I can hardly wait for hearing from Dick in Toronto who went for that test this morning… Dara will also be taking the two tests in Ottawa next Tuesday… it will be interesting to see if they had or will have the same tests that Corey had last week.

Later last weekend, I did have a chat with Krystal… I asked her if, in the version of the written expression test she had taken in late September, the differences were underlined… her answer was no of course!… Then she wrote: “It is so unfair!!! If I had taken the test a few days later, I would have had a C!!!”… and she was so right!

The so-called panel of experts at the PPC can make any changes they want, yet they should not modify the difficulty level of the tests… because it only invalidates them!… What will they need to open their eyes to reality and realize that they are experts of nothing when it comes to language skills assessment?… When will the Bureau de la vérificatrice générale make an audit of this non sense process?… Not only are we talking about a waste of tax payers’ money on something that is totally useless and invalid, but where are the candidates’ right to fairness and equity?… According to me, that right is violated big time!… and something will have to be done sooner or later… yet… I am not banking on it!… These people live in their own world and they are totally disconnected from reality… Anyone else could not sleep at night… but I am sure they do, convinced that they are the experts and they know what they are doing! It is pathetic, is it not?…

“L’aberration est de se croire objet unique et de faire de sa petitesse infinitésimale une puissance que jamais l’univers ne pourra reconnaître”

Yves Thériault

Thursday morning, Kate’s results came in and she got her C in oral interaction… she was afraid she had not done well enough because of her examiner’s coolness… well, as I said previously, this factor is rarely relevant… though I do understand candidates’ worries…

Congratulations Kate!

Krystal’s results did not come in before the weekend…  therefore we will have to wait… Corey spent his whole day at CRA in Montreal taking his reading comprehension and written expression tests (plus the security clearance process)… he called me as soon as he got out: as usual, he is like any other of my students, he does not really know how he did… it could go either way! All we can do is hope for the best… and he was told the results will not come in before four or six weeks!…

What about testing your knowledge of the collective agreements jargon?… I got a perfect score on this test, but I guess it is only due to all those hours spent working with Campus Direct test samples which are always filled with Human Resources texts!… Try this one out and let me know how you did…

If today was a miserable day, last weekend was just terrific!

Here is a view of the Ottawa River taken from the Parliement Hill…

To take the test, click here…

Good Luck!