And the Winner is…

… Paula, who successfully passed her big Danish exam and is able to have proper conversations in Danish!

Now that you know the grading system in Denmark, I can tell you about both the grades I got at the written and reading exam (that I’ve known for more than a week) and my performance at the oral exam, which took place on Tuesday. My grades are: 10 for writing, 7 for reading and 10 for oral, giving an average of 9.25, as the oral grade counts twice: both for being able to express yourself (speaking) but also to understand what others are saying (listening).

I can say that I am very pleased with my written and especially oral grade. I was hoping for at least 7 in both of them and I was more than content that I got more. However, the reading result totally disappointed me, especially since I always thought that it would be the test I would get the highest grade in. If you don’t want to read my whining about it, then you’d better stop reading here.

The reading exam has a total of 37 points you can collect from answering various questions. I had 31 points and with 32 I would have got a 10. So this was the first thing that was frustrating. Next, I had two questions with a wrong answer that I am particularly unhappy with. They cost me 4 points and probably the grade 12 and the only reason why they were not correct was… well not that I had the wrong answer, but it seems it was a bit too short. So it’s not like I wasn’t able to read the text and figure out what I was supposed to say, just that, as I knew we shouldn’t write too much, I went for a short answer… that was too short. To be honest, I think this kind of stupid mistakes which lead to such a drastic change in the grade would annoy anyone and not just me… But I had some time to think it through, get used to it and accept that this how… things go.

So now what? Nu er det tid til at snakke dansk! (It is the time to speak Danish!)

And now, to lighten up, here’s a comic about Scandinavia and The World: