Anatomy of a Thai Language Proficiency Exam

For those of you who want the gory details…

Saturday November 28 I flew down to Bangkok to take the สอบวัดความสามารถในการใช้ภาษาไทยสำหรับชาวต่างประเทศ or in English, the Thai Language Proficiency Exam for Foreigners. This exam is offered once a year, and I decided to take it now instead of waiting another whole year and having it hang over my head that whole time. I was able to stay with another missionary who was going to take the exam also, which was a great help. So what was it like?

Dress code. For women, a solid dark-colored skirt, and a nice shirt not made of t-shirt material. I hear that Thai university students cannot enter the exam room for midterms or finals unless their uniform is perfect. The exam tested all four language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), and each section of the exam was interesting and difficult in its own way…

Reading – 48 questions in 50 minutes. By question #17 or 18, there was nearly a page per question. I definitely didn’t finish this section. Oh, and question #3 went something like this: “Bill is applying for a job as a postman. If he weighs 82 kilograms, and he drives a 110cc motorbike that can only carry 130 kilograms, how much mail can Bill carry?” Seriously? I thought this was a reading test, not a math test.

Listening – the next section consisted of playing a CD to test our listening skills. Thai people read information or had a conversation, then we were asked a question about what we had just heard. Some of the questions lasted almost two minutes. We didn’t know what the question would be. One particularly long question talked about a store that sold all kinds of cloth (“this kind of cloth, and this kind, this other kind, and then this one…”). Finally, the question was, “Which cloth was NOT mentioned in the story?” Sure, like I could remember that. Then a few questions later, a lady started talking all about Thai fruit – these fruits are grown in the North, these other fruits are grown in the South, and these fruits have these health benefits, etc. – so I was sitting there trying to remember the fruits and everything this lady said. The question: “What is this story about?” …… FRUIT. All this in addition to the fact that the people on the CD were speaking rather quickly.

Writing – One part of the exam I felt sooomewhat confident in. We had to describe a graph by writing at least 10 lines, and then agree or disagree with a statement by writing 20 lines. Our statement was, “If adults take care of children too strictly, then the children will have no confidence and will worry too much. If adults take care of children by spoiling them, then the children will have no self-control.”

Speaking – an interview with two Thai ladies. One lady had a lispy accent and spoke really quickly. I had a hard time understanding her. Others who have taken the test and my friend who took a special test-prep course said to prepare to talk about my favorite Thai custom or festival. … So I did this. But the main interview question was about public transportation. The whole interview didn’t exactly follow what I was expecting, so I felt caught off-guard and stumbled around a bunch.

At least it’s over. Thanks for praying for me! It’s good to have the exam out of sight for awhile. Even though the first two sections were scantron, and the interview score should have been completed by the time I walked away, I will not receive my official scores for at least two or three months. Until then, I will try to forget all about it. Then I’ll open the envelope, look at my scores, and try to forget all about it again! Ha. If all exams in Thailand are like this, I now understand why my students study like CRAZY for their midterms and finals!