How to prepare for an oral exam in English, Spanish, German or French

Oral exams can often be intimidating for all language students, because they require fast and accurate recollection of learned material, while also requiring the student to engage in public speaking in an unfamiliar language. For this reason, it is important for language learners to adequately prepare for any oral exam and study common phrases.

With that being said, preparation for an oral exam can also be more complex than a written exam, because of the nature of the examination process itself. While a written exam will have questions set in advance, with a correct answer, an oral exam tends to be more dynamic, with the examiner choosing questions as the student progresses. The answers, meanwhile, are less concrete and may ask for a subjective response, such as an opinion.

Three people sitting across from each other learning how to prepare for an oral exam

Nevertheless, there are certain steps that can be taken to help out. Here, we provide our own advice on how to prepare for an oral exam, ensure you perform to the best of your ability and ultimately pass. Don't forget to scroll down for useful phrases you can use in your English, Spanish, French or German oral exam.

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Understanding the exam

The very first step of the preparation process should entail making sure you fully understand the exam itself, including the procedures, what aspects of the language are being tested and precisely which material you need to be familiar with. We recommend the following.

Preparation and revision

Once you have a clear idea of exactly how the exam works and what is going to be expected from you, you can start work on actually revising and preparing for it. Each student is likely to have different preferences for precisely how they revise information, but whatever the method(s) you opt for, we suggest you:

The night before the exam

It is common for students to become somewhat nervous on the night before any exam, but there are things you can do to try to limit the stress and make the whole experience a little easier. The following steps should help you to navigate the tricky night before the big day:

On the day of the exam

You will almost certainly feel rather jittery on the morning of your exam, but again there are certain steps that can be taken to minimize this and help you give the best possible performance. On the day of the exam, before beginning the test, make sure you: