In exceptional cases, the FLC Director may grant you admission to the oral examination even if you have failed to receive a passing score in your written examination. To be granted such conditional admission, you must meet all the following requirements:
- You must be in the last semester of your study,
- C1 Examination in Academic English is the only pending examination you must pass to fulfil all the degree requirements of your study programme,
- It is your third attempt at passing the exam,
- You have demonstrated progress in learning, i.e. the score you received in each successive attempt was higher, never lower or the same,
- You received a minimum of 40 marks in your last attempt to pass the exam,
- You have used and successfully completed all the hours of language instruction provided for in the study programme at your Faculty.
Admission to a resit before the Examination Board may be granted to students who are in the last semester of their study and who scored a minimum of 40 marks in the written examination but failed to obtain the required passing score of 10 marks in the oral examination taken on a regular basis. The concerned students must also satisfy all the six requirements listed above.
To obtain the approval of the FLC Director allowing you to take the oral examination despite your failing result in the written part, you must file a relevant application. Sample application can be found in ‘Documents’ section of this website. The application must be submitted to room 419/WUT Main Building no later than within four working days after the release of the examination results and it must necessarily include the following:
- A copy of your Student Grade Report or Transcript of records showing that you have successfully completed all the hours of language instruction.
- A certificate issued by the Dean’s Office confirming that C1 examination in Academic English is the only pending examination you need to pass to meet the degree requirements of your study programme.
- To pass such examination, your score in the oral examination must be high enough to make your aggregate score for the written and oral parts equate to the required minimum of 60 marks.
- The highest possible grade you may be awarded in your C1 Examination in Academic English when the oral part is taken on conditional admission is a grade of “3.0” (three or satisfactory). You are allowed only one attempt to pass the oral examination in a given examination period. If you fail to achieve the required minimum of 60 marks, you will have to re-take the whole examination, i.e. the written and oral parts (if you failed to score 50 marks in the written examination) or the oral part taken in the normal manner (if you have already passed the written examination with a score of minimum 50 marks). In the event it is the second or third time you have sought conditional admission to the oral examination, you must submit your request with all the required documents (see above) again.
Procedures for the oral examination taken before the Examination Board
Part 1 – questions from the Examiner following the scenario for the oral exam taken on a regular basis. Time limit: – 1.5 minutes (3 minutes if the exam is taken by two candidates)
Part 2 – an academic presentation, prepared by a student at home prior to the examination. Time limit: 7 to 10 minutes (per one candidate) and 2 to 3 additional minutes for questions from the members of the Examination Board.
Guidelines for the academic presentation:
- The presentation may make use of PowerPoint slides or be presented orally with no use of visual aids. In either case it should take between 7 and 10 minutes.
- The presentation should concern topics related to the student’s field of study and be prepared in accordance with academic style and use general academic vocabulary understandable to persons who do not study at a given faculty.
- The student must send his or her presentation, structured in points and prepared in English to the Examination Board (sjokegz@sjo.pw.edu.pl). The presentation should be sent as an email attachment no later than one day before the date of the examination held before the Examination Board.
- The student may use index cards during his or her presentation but is not allowed to read out the presentation from detailed notes. The presentation must be delivered completely from memory.
- The Examination Board members may ask the student to clarify the meaning of some words or to paraphrase some terms used in his or her presentation.
- The Examination Board members may ask the student some additional questions (2 to 3 minutes).
- The presentation should involve at all times the student’s own work. Any student who makes the impression to the contrary, or demonstrates lack of understanding of the content of his or her presentation, will be awarded a failing grade of “2.0”.
- A student who chooses to produce a multimedia presentation should stick to the following guidelines:
- The presentation must be prepared in MS PowerPoint.
- The student must bring his or her own PC and ensure that it is fully compatible with the equipment available in the examination room (e.g. a projector) or bring the presentation saved on a USB memory stick or external hard disk (e.g. a pendrive).
- If you need loudspeakers to deliver your presentation, make sure you have informed the Examination Board of the fact well in advance.
- Any text on the slides should be short and condensed, preferably containing headwords only. Text should not be formulated in complete sentences for the student to read them out from the screen.
Oral presentation assessment criteria:
The oral presentation constitutes an integral part of the examination and is subject to the same assessment criteria as the oral examinations taken on a regular basis.
The student may be awarded a maximum of 5 marks for each of the following:
- The ability to construct longer utterances
- Pronunciation
- Grammar and vocabulary
- Overall impression
The standard format of the examination involves two candidates and two examiners (FLC English teachers). The examination may also be attended by an observer who is not a member of the Examination Board (one person representing FLC Management and/or – in exceptional cases – the Faculty Dean or his or her representative).