Hi!! So sorry for barging into your ask box like this, but Iāve been following your blog for a while now and I was wondering if you had any tips specifically for people about to sit a Norwegian exam? Iāll be taking NorskprĆøven C1 next month and I am honestly crapping my pants rn. I donāt know how Iām supposed to practice since there seems to be so few resources online, and the test is so expensive I canāt bear the thought of having to take it againā¦ Iām seriously considering signing up for the regular NorskprĆøven in addition to C1 just in case I happen to actually be at A2 or somethingšš
Hi there! Omg never apologise for coming into my ask box with questions about Norwegian š
As for tips: I don't know too much about NorskprĆøven C1 as I've not taken it and it's very new, so there's limited resources about it (as you've obviously discovered). But it seems to me that some of the sections are similar to the Bergenstest (lmk if you want the past papers), so here are some things I found helpful/things my tutors advised me to do (it's long, so I'm sorry about that):
1) First things first, make sure you're familiar with the marking scheme (which can be found here under retningslinjer og veiledninger - vurdering). This is exam technique 101 - make sure you know what they're looking for. It doesn't matter how good you are; if you don't give the examiners what they want or expect, you will lose marks that you don't need to lose.
2) Listen to things all the time, every day. Radio, podcasts, TV shows, the news. And parrot things. Parrot common phrases, parrot phrases you like and think will be useful, parrot new words, parrot intonation and stress patterns. This is gonna improve your speaking like you will not believe - that muscle memory is gonna be so key to sounding fluent.
3) Make flashcard decks (I use the free rip-off version of the Anki app) for different topics and write new and useful words down along with sample sentences. Please learn from my mistake and don't just throw the words on their own into a flashcard deck because you'll end up with words that you can kinda recognise but can't actually use yourself. Write down the full sentence.
3a) I say new and useful words and not just new words because words you think you know may not actually be in your active vocabulary and will elude you when you actually need to use them. So be sure to practise them.
4) If you have the means: talk to as many different people as possible about a variety of common topics (the housing market, immigration, personal economy, the education system, friluftsliv, healthy lifestyles, public transport etc). Discuss and debate things. If you're asked to give an opinion and defend it, it's a hell of a lot easier if you have some kind of opinions to start with (no joke 90% of the time when I was doing practice essays/speaking I would be like "wow I literally do not have an opinion on this topic and wouldn't know how to express it if I did". So I listened to podcasts and read articles and just borrowed other people's opinions).
5) Read every day. If you don't already, I highly recommend forskning.no for articles (or even better, their sister site forskersonen.no - that's where you'll find opinions and debates) because the C1 test is basically academic-level. Practise skim-reading, practise reading thoroughly without looking up vocabulary, and then make sure you look up vocabulary you think will be useful.
6) Write essays. Write them timed without a dictionary and make a note of the words you wanted to use but didn't know. Look up those words. Find sample sentences with those words. Write them out. (Also idk if NorskprĆøven is on a computer or handwritten but if it's handwritten please make sure you do your practice essays by hand).
Not sure what to write about? Find anything on forskersonen.no with 'debatt' written across it or watch Debatten for inspiration (I can also send you a list with a tonne of essay ideas or Bergenstest past papers if you want. Obviously it's a different exam, but the writing section sounds basically the same) and make your own yes/no essay question to answer based on that.
6a) In regards to essay structure, this is the structure I saw on a Bergenstest C1 example and one that my tutor recommended to me:
Paragraph one: introduce the topic. Do not include your opinion here; simply state facts (when I say facts, I don't mean statistics! Wishy-washy statements like "many people think" and "it's often reported that" are fine. No one expects you to be able to pull exact numbers out of your ass).
Paragraphs two+: start by introducing your opinion, then go on to explain why you think that. Include as many paragraphs as you like, but remember your essay has to be 300-400 words. It's a good idea to include counter-arguments to your own opinion and then explain why you don't think they're valid. Use your own discretion when dividing things up into paragraphs: are you gonna have one paragraph for each point, which will include counter-arguments regarding that point? Or are you gonna put counter-arguments and your counter-counter-arguments in a separate paragraph?
Final paragraph: conclusion. Sum up what you've said in a nice concise way.
You can also use paragraphs 2+ to discuss advantages and disadvantages and then conclude with your opinion in the final paragraph, HOWEVER, it very specifically asks you to give your opinion and DEFEND IT, which is why I suggest you do it the way I've outlined above.
7) After you've written your essays, give it a day and then go back and correct your mistakes. It won't be long before you become very conscious of the dumb grammatical mistakes you make and stop making them (or at least know what to watch out for when proofreading during the exam). If you have friends willing to help you, ask them to read it and see what they think.
8) Personally, I found the interview report (looks like there's a similar section on NorskprĆøven C1, although it's a conversation rather than an interview) to be the most difficult part. You can practise by listening to podcasts and taking notes (not for the whole thing, but just the first 5-10 minutes or so). Remember you don't have to write every part of the conversation; just the main points (obviously it's good to get as much information as possible, but don't panic if you miss some details)
9) Practise your strategies! For the reading section: are you gonna take notes and make your summary as you go along? Are you gonna read the whole text first thoroughly and then make notes? For the listening section: are you just gonna listen the first time round and only make notes the second time, or are you gonna take notes the first time and check/add to them the second time? Try things out and see what works for you.
10) This sounds really dumb but practice relaxing and refocusing. You don't want to end up panicking in the exam, because our memory is garbage when we panic. When you start to get panicky, try saying shit to yourself like "that kind of thinking is not helpful. Let's focus on what I can do right now". Come across a word you don't know? "Let's move on for now; the context might help me work it out later." Didn't catch what the speaker was saying? "I don't need to write every detail; just listen to everything else and write what I can." No idea what to write in your essay? "They're marking my language, not my opinions. It's not important if my opinion is garbage as long as I can defend it." And of course the very general ones: "I've got this. I've practised this. I don't have to know every single word. I'm capable of working around what I don't know. It's understandable and normal that I'm nervous; it doesn't mean I can't do it. I am in control."
1) Please, for the love of God, remember to take water and snacks with you. I forgot water and felt like I was about to die by the end of the day.
2) Remember that the examiners want to see what you CAN do, not what you can't. Don't panic if you forget words (I forgot some really fucking basic ones in my speaking exam, like Ć„ organisere / Ć„ integrere) and still got C1 because I just rephrased what I wanted to say and said something else. People do that all the time even when they're native speakers. Just use your filler words.
3) For the writing section: plan your essay first. I recommend writing columns tilted AGREE and DISAGREE and just getting as many ideas as you can down, then work out how to put them into the structure I talked about above. And remember: a shorter, more concise essay with appropriate vocabulary is better than a lengthy essay with fancy words used inappropriately. Yes, you need to showcase a good range of grammatical structures and vocabulary, but that vocabulary should absolutely be used in the right context.
4) USE EVERY SINGLE MINUTE YOU HAVE TO CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK YOUR WORK. DO NOT LEAVE THE EXAM EARLY. I "finished" the exam about 45 minutes before the time was up. I spent that time checking, double-checking and triple-checking. And then ONE MINUTE before we had to hand our papers in, I saw I'd made a mistake. It could well have been the difference between B2 and C1. So no matter how early you finish, no matter how done you think you are, keep checking things. You never know when that "oh FUCK that is NOT the word I meant to use at all!" moment is going to happen, and if it happens 5 minutes before the exam time is up, you're gonna still want to be in that exam room where you can do something about it.
5) Trust your gut. At this level you should've had enough exposure to the language to just kinda know some things instinctively, even if you've not learned it formally and you're not 100% sure (prepositions, I'm looking at you).
Okay, I think that's all I've got for now. I know it's long, but I hope some of it was useful to you! Best of luck - please let me know how it goes :)
