P6 Exam Results Out Today

[withnail]

If you took the P.6 exam this year (Thai or Chinese) the results have been posted on-line. It's just a list of names of those who passed not the grades.

Here's the link P.6 Name List

I've been wanting to post about my experiences of preparing for and sitting the test but have been afraid of jinxing the results. Watch this space, when I have the time I will post more about it.

Well done to everyone else who passed the test.

Withnail

[garro]

Well done, I look forward to reading about your experience.

[kriswillems]

Congratulations!

I did one month of the P.6 preparation course (at that moment I was only studying Thai for 4 months). I decided not to do the test because on 5 months I could impossibly reach a level good enough to pass. I started studying Thai in Thailand in August last year. I know it's really hard and preparing the test is not that easy. Some people might say it's just a test and doing the test should not be a goal and doesn't completely prove your knowledge of Thai. But I think that anyone that can pass this test can be considered fluent in Thai and the average foreigner needs quiet a lot of motivation and work to pass the test.

I am also curious about your story as I want to do the test in December.

[meadish_sweetball]

Nice work! Looking forward to reading more about the details later.

[siamesekitty]

ยินดีด้วยค่ะ! เก่งจริงๆเลย

Scanned the list, wondering which one of them was you..

[wasabi]

Congratulations to all who passed.

[PeaceBlondie]

Congratulations, withnail. I'm jealous!

[Spiny]

If you took the P.6 exam this year (Thai or Chinese) the results have been posted on-line. It's just a list of names of those who passed not the grades.

Here's the link P.6 Name List

I've been wanting to post about my experiences of preparing for and sitting the test but have been afraid of jinxing the results. Watch this space, when I have the time I will post more about it.

Well done to everyone else who passed the test.

Withnail

I spent about 6 years learning how to read and write Thai (1 lesson per week) and although towards the end I was able to do okay in the old British Chamber of Commerce Thai Language examination papers 1st and 2nd year exams past paper simulations I was never confident enough to try for any formal Thai language qualification.

I applaud your efforts and would like to hear about your experiences in how long it took you and how much time you invested in studying for your P 6 Exam. Also what sort of questions were asked

[Golden Nugget]

Congrats. The overwhelming majority of the 239 that passed appear to be Japanese and Korean. Where are all the farangs?

[withnail]

Thanks everyone for the complements. I am indeed one of the few farangs on the list, not that I'm giving away which one Kitty. (You can PM me with your guess if you'd like:)). There were a few farangs in the huge exam room but certainly I would guess that the other 90% or more were asian. I forget the exact number of people who took the test but I seem to recall it was over 300.

The test followed a similar format to previous years: A written assignment (90 mins), multilpe choice reading comprehension (60 mins), dictation (30 minutes) and finally a verbal assessment at the end of the day.

I was a little thrown at first by the written assignment as I was used to being given a choice of titles e.g. Songraan, The King of Thailand, Provinces I Have Visited etc. I presumed a story about the King was likely to be one of the choices and so had one memorised. What I was presented with however was a list of 10 words of which I had to use all of in an essay of my choice. I forget what they all were but I wrote about global warming. I was happy with this part of the test, apart from one word I realised I had spelt without a maai eek I think I did pretty well.

The multiple choice was a series of short passages of various types, we were all given different questions so you couldn't copy. This was slightly easier to the most of the ones I had done in preparation for the test but nevertheless I knew I had probably got a few of these wrong and sometimes you're not sure.

The dictation I wasn't happy with as in practice I used to write as I listened and then go back to correct errors when I had finished. Even though they read the text twice I was still correcting my mistakes when they took the paper off of me as I had left this till the end. This again wasn't particularly hard but I don't think I've ever done this in practice without making at least one spelling error. I probably made 5 or 6 in the exam.

I had to wait around for a few hours for the speaking part, when my turn came I was given a passage to read about how people's lives are different. I read it to the examiner really quickly and, I think, pretty well. She asked me a couple of questions about it which I answered quite well I think apart from one. I had forgotten what the word อบรม meant and didn't give the answer she was looking for for one question. After that she asked one or two personal questions which was no problem and I was on my way.

Overall it would have been a pretty nice day had I not have only had about 2 hours sleep the night before. In my practice exams I got about 70% both times but my guess is that I scored slightly lower in the real one, hard to say. The pass mark I know is 50% which might sound low but as points are deducted for spelling it would be almost impossible to score 100%. Likewise if you weren't prepared for the test there are a couple of sections which would be extremely difficult.

That's all I can be bothered to write for now, but I will come back and comment on my preparation for the test and my feelings about it as a whole. Needless to say though I'm glad to have passed and very grateful to those who have helped me over the years; everyone here in the Thai language forum and all the teachers at UTL (particularly Meadish for getting me started and answering some stupid questions for me, all of the other experts and native speakers here much more capable than myself and finally ครูพรวิมล who wasted every Saturday morning for some time getting me ready for the test).

Withnail

Edited January 31, 2008 by withnail

[siamesekitty]

well, with the results it certainly wasn't a waste!

[traveller5000]

เก่งจริงๆเลย

Typical thai response

yes, well done to the OP.

[Lithobid]

You give us all Proof! It can be done!

Thanks for the motivation for us beginners!

Congratulations

Lithobid

[withnail]

Thanks again and yes Lithobid it definitely can be done. My guess in fact is that most of the Asian students who sit the exam study specifically for the exam from day one and are in fact sitting it after only 8 months to a year of full time study. Quite doable really.

I'm very glad to have passed but I'm not sure I quite agree with the earlier comment about it showing fluency, I guess it depends on your take on the word fluent.

I do however think that it is a very valid exam and a great personal goal to set for yourself. I had heard about the exam a while back from research online and was put off taking it because it sounded both irrelevant and impossible. Don't believe anyone who tells you this, they probably have a negative experience of the system because they were trying to take the test too soon. The idea of the written sections of the test being some kind of seperate skill not appropriate for learners of Thai is complete nonsense which I had heard people complain about before. If you have ever read anything at a P6 level you will know that the level of formality is not the same as would be expected of an adult and therefore very practical and applicable to everyday life.

I often find myself being put into the category of advanced learner in this country because quite frankly the level of courses and materials available is limited. I would say more realistically though that the P6 exam is really one for intermediate level learners (using all the 4 skills). I have a good understanding of what this means in terms of people learning English although it isn't fair to draw too many similarities here because the two languages are so different.

Personally I didn't take a P6 preparation course as such but would highly recommend one if you are interested in the test. I had studied before at UTL (modules 5,6 and 3 advanced modules) but after leaving there to return to work studied only at the weekend (3hours every Saturday) with a teacher from the same school. She does teach the P6 course but if you took that you would have a lot more practice than I did.

Anyone who is familiar with the Union system will know it is basically geared toward preparing for this test after 6 months, as many of their students do. This is definitely possible but would be quite heavy going and certainly require a personal commitment to remembering all of the vocab thrown at you (not my greatest skill).

Many farangs who learn Thai criticise the Asian students at these schools because whilst they have learnt to read and write Thai quickly, often their conversational Thai is not great. Of course it isn't as it takes time to develop but I'm sure a large number of these students with the foundations they leave with go on to progress to higher levels than some of the farang 'experts'. I can certainly see why an Asian company would require their staff to pass the P6 test because although it doesn't show fluency it is an excellent start if you are going to have to speak, read and write polite Thai in a real working environment as opposed to the two word bar Thai minus literacy that many westerners feel is adequate.

I still have a long way to go and am open to suggestions as to where to go next but definitely encourage people to do the test (after proper training). If anyone has any other questions then by all means ask me, I'd be happy to help.

Withnail

p.s. although it seems that around 30% of the people who took the test didn't pass I have heard that 100% of the UTL students who took it did. My guess is that many people take the test because they feel they are ready but in fact haven't prepared.

Edited February 1, 2008 by withnail

[percy2]

Congratulations.

Where would be a good place to start to reach this level for someone with zero reading and writing ability?

Cheers

[pieterjh]

Congratulations.

Where would be a good place to start to reach this level for someone with zero reading and writing ability?

Cheers

Hi,

I also managed to pass the exam and I took lessons at UTL and Bunditwit (BLS) school. The system is the same. It took me about 8 months full-time and I started after I had lived in Thailand for 6 years already. Just start at level 3 and 4 (which will give you the basics) and after that some advanced learning at level 5 and 6 and also the special topic modules. I rounded off with 2.5 month of P6 preparation classes. I think these could do with a re-design as there is a lot of repetition in it. In the end it all worked out so I won't complain.

[withnail]

Well done pieterjh. When were you at UTL? I agree the whole thing can be tedious at times, but I think we can agree that sometimes tedious works.

[percy2]

Congratulations.

Where would be a good place to start to reach this level for someone with zero reading and writing ability?

Cheers

Hi,

I also managed to pass the exam and I took lessons at UTL and Bunditwit (BLS) school. The system is the same. It took me about 8 months full-time and I started after I had lived in Thailand for 6 years already. Just start at level 3 and 4 (which will give you the basics) and after that some advanced learning at level 5 and 6 and also the special topic modules. I rounded off with 2.5 month of P6 preparation classes. I think these could do with a re-design as there is a lot of repetition in it. In the end it all worked out so I won't complain.

Thanks for that.

After 16 years its about time I got my act together!

Cheers

[percy2]

For anybody else here are the websites

http://www.utl-school.com/english/home.php

http://www.blsthaischool.com/

Cheers

[Desertexile]

Well done!

How do you guys think the 2 schools above compare to the Chula program?

Thanks

[meadish_sweetball]

I think you would be very lucky to get a reply from somebody who has tried both, so you are likely to end up with opinions from one side or the other.

My hunch is that both would be very beneficial for a person who is ready to dedicate his time fully to studying, which is what it is all about in the end.

The Union based schools have an excellent track record. Chulalongkorn University in general has an excellent reputation as well - there are other threads in the forum with opinions on the Chula course.

[meadish_sweetball]

I think you would be very lucky to get a reply from somebody who has tried both, so you are likely to end up with opinions from one side or the other.

My hunch is that both would be very beneficial for a person who is ready to dedicate his time fully to studying, which is what it is all about in the end.

The Union based schools have an excellent track record. Chulalongkorn University in general has an excellent reputation as well - there are other threads in the forum with opinions on the Chula course.

[pieterjh]

Well done pieterjh. When were you at UTL? I agree the whole thing can be tedious at times, but I think we can agree that sometimes tedious works.

Hi Withnail,

I did my modules 2 - 6 at UTL from October 2006 to May 2007. After that, from July 2007 onwards, I moved to BLS school, where a few of the teachers at UTL started their own new school following the same books and system and the classes are smaller. Also a few of my classmates moved from UTL to BLS. I had a few breaks between classes and found that somehow the learning stuck. After coming back from a month or two away, I was back up to speed in about a week.

Today I also got the letter from the examination committee with my points. Two more weeks and we can collect the certificate I also like their request for feedback. I have the impression the examination committee is trying to keep improving the examination and try new things (like the 10 words to be used in writing the story). It would be good if the teachers would try to get a bit of moderniation in their method too.

With regard to comparing the above schools to Chula, sorry I don't know. I do know however that for me the above system works better than the AUA system which I found a complete waste of time. Still now that I have succeeded to this point I might go back to AUA and take some more 'listening classes'

[LookSaMoon]

ยินดีด้วยนะคะ

[withnail]

pieterjh I think our times at UTL must have overlapped slightly, I definitely remember starting just after the time that some of the teachers left. I too got my results on Monday. 76% I got which I am very happy with, especially as I wasn't feeling my best on the day and thought I had messed some of it up. I honestly would have been happy with a 50% pass. What's odd is that I seemed to have done better on the sections I thought I had messed up.

I too thought that the feedback form was good and to be honest have been very impressed with the whole process. It really wasn't anything like I had been led to believe from the negative things I had heard online such as this negative view of the P6 exam To be fair to the poster and Stickman though this seems to have been written a few years back. True the test isn't necessary but it certainly doesn't feel to me to have been a waste of time.

Edited February 5, 2008 by withnail

[jhs]

I got my results in the mail the other day and it looks like I passed (number 175), although as I lost my student card, I probably won't bother getting the actual certificate (what's the point?).

Perhaps my preparation will be instructive.

I've gone to a Thai language school (Somchart on Sukumwit 11) off-and-on for a few years. I like it because they allowed me to just shoot the bull and not apply myself. As I came to Thailand for business opportunity, I did the language school thing purely as a leisure activity. However I decided to take the test when I heard about it to challenge myself.

So, in the three or four months leading up to the test, we did buckle down and focus on dictation and vocabulary. I can't say I studied per se, but I did a little cramming about a week before the test. I was hoping that my strong conversational skills would carry me over the mark. My self-taught vocabulary is somewhat large, although spotty and with poor spelling. However, my strategy did work: I did the best on the oral component and also pretty well on the composition. I liked how you could write about anything as long as you incorporated the words they listed. (I considered doing an acrostic but I doubt they would have given me credit.)

In the end, it was enough to skate by, although for something like the mor-3 I would definitely have to actually study.

[withnail]

Well done jhs. Pretty sure there isn't a M. 3 exam, I'd love to know about it if there is.

[garro]

I was just thinking. How would you go about sitting this exam as an external student? Who would you apply to in order to sit the exam?

[withnail]

PM sent garro. I went to pick up my certificate on Friday. Not the fanciest of certificates definitely, what is interesting though is that is still refers to itself as a certificate for teachers wishing to teach in private schools. My guess is that they haven't changed what is on the certificate for years. It also doesn't have my grade on it but does have my date of birth. Why? I have no idea.

[garro]

Congrats again withnail and thanks for the PM. The certificate will look good in your CV anyway.