Hi! Anyone studying for the ACTFL OPI?

Japanese Language
#9

Cool! I looked into the OPIc, too, but I decided my life doesn’t make for a good test by the algorithm… I looked at the background survey questions and was like… :

I’m not employed. I have very little work experience, and certainly nothing I’d like to talk about at length. I’m not in school and it’s been more than 5 years since I last took a single class.
I don’t regularly participate in sports or true hobbies… basically it made me feel like my life is incredibly dull from the outside even though I know I have lots of interests and lead a happy and fulfilling and (I think, interesting) life… I’d like to be able to actually GUIDE the conversation toward topics I sincerely enjoy talking about when possible, rather than responding to an arbitrary prompt from a robot who can’t truly keep up with the hints I’m dropping for further conversation and who knows SO little about me because I apparently don’t fit very well into the initial boxes (who knew?)…

If I answer the initial “tell me a little bit about yourself”-type question well, I’m sure I’ll have a great conversation with lots for the proctor to pick up on that I can talk about at length… hopefully leading me to a better score just by virtue of being a better conversationalist. But who knows…

One thing I also didn’t like much about the OPIc is that they ask you to assess your own skill from the outset… to put yourself in the novice, intermediate, advanced, superior, or distinguished category. Then the prompt can ask you questions based on your supposed level… but I’d MUCH rather have the tester make their initial “hypothesis” and then ask questions accordingly and then do the level checks and probes to see whether THEY were correct. I feel like I don’t want to assume I’m intermediate and hem myself into a largely intermediate test when maybe I’m low advanced (doubt it, but still… let the professionals decide). And since it’s all remote anyway, I didn’t particularly see why it would be worth the $10 difference to NOT take the original OPI, but maybe I’m missing something.

What appeals to you about the OPIc specifically?

#10

I think just ease of being able to do it from home - I am juggling a lot of responsibilities right now and don’t want to deal with doing an in-person or having to travel long distances to a testing facility. Plus I feel like some of the subjective/bias is removed when you are interacting with the computer version? Those who do the evaluation afterwards still have some bias, but there is less in the actual back and forth I think.

Evaluating yourself isn’t that big of a deal. You have to do that in order to pick a level to test at for JLPT, and it is the same as other tests as well, you have to guess at least in general where your skills are at.

Good luck!

#11

That’s part of what I was saying. They are all remote right now. I’m not leaving my house to test. It will be proctored by video cam and then administered by phone.

Thanks for the luck. I need it. I’ve been doing sorta mock OPI with one of my italki tutors for the past couple weeks… I feel the test will be very difficult for me… especially the roleplay…

Less than two weeks left before my test date!

#12

The live video feed is the problem for me right now. Rural internet through a cell phone hotspot is all I have, and lately I suspect the local towers have been under duress because net has slowed down significantly to where even a Skype call is painful at times.
I need to schedule mine here soon as a benchmark. I had trouble with the booking website freezing on me in perpetual load, so I need to go back and try again!

#13

I just finished my OPI about half an hour ago so I thought I’d type out my thoughts while still fresh. Let me know if you have any questions about it, @otterhead!

It both went better than expected and worse than expected. The conversation portions felt natural and unforced, especially considering how many iTalki conversation lessons I’ve taken. It felt a lot like that but with a bit more pressure to remember the actual words I wanted to use instead of circumlocuting (though I obviously did a fair bit of that, too).

When I was practicing with my iTalki tutors for the OPI, though, the role play was definitely the roughest part and that remained true of the test. It was the final portion and it was just so hard for me to think of the right words to explain the situation. I was prompted to act as if “You’re living in Japan and you have contracted a moving company to move your things to your new apartment and set up your furniture for you. However, when you arrive at the apartment you realize that they have left your furniture boxed and you need to speak to the manager to make sure that your contract is honored and you get the assembly service you paid for.” I really struggled… as I would if I were actually living in Japan (though at least I’d use dictionaries to look up the words I don’t know before confronting this situation…). I fumbled a lot and kind of just said the same few things over and over again…

But… I’m still hoping I achieved at least the intermediate-high status. I certainly think I was able to speak in full sentences the entire time, even if they weren’t great sentences.
The results should be available within 20 days from now and I’ll check back in then, but let me know if you have any questions in the meantime… I can’t think what else to say but I could definitely be more detailed if you have a question.

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#14

I just realized that I think the tester asked me almost exclusively “Advanced” level questions:

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Maybe I was responding better for the majority than I thought I’d do… but I still think I might have sunk myself back down to Intermediate-level with the awful role play…

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#15

I got my results within 24 hours and I’m super happy to say I got “Advanced Low.” I’m super happy with that!! I’ll be back with more on that later.

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#16

Your posts are awesome news! Grats on the Advanced Low! I really appreciate you coming back and updating on your experience, it helps the rest of us know what it was like.
You inspired me to stop putting it off, so I’ve scheduled the OPIc for Sunday to find my baseline. I am pretty sure I am going to rate lower, because I haven’t been doing much prep/practice as I should, but it will give me a starting point for the coming year’s study.

Glad to hear that they got back to you so fast with your results too!

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#17

I took it here in Japan 6 years after moving in, because my company asked for it. Got Advanced High.

Like @ganbareniichan, I remember the hardest part for me was by far the role play. On my assessment, the tester said I got my keigo wrong during the role play, but of course I did, lol
We were talking in keigo all the time, and out of a sudden it’s like “now pretend I’m a friend of yours and (…)”. Sure, I noticed it after two or three sentences and fixed it, but it’s really hard to just change a button and get it right from the beginning.

Other than that I remember being asked about social problems in Brazil and possible approaches to them, stuff like that. But it’s already two years ago, so I can’t recall it in much detail.

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#18

Yay for finally scheduling it! Please let me know how it goes for you! I’m still super curious about the OPIc experience. When do you have to have your Intermediate-High or higher result by in order to qualify for the teaching positions you’re wanting?

That is awesome to hear! Do you think you’d ever take it again to aim for superior or is it just not even on your radar since you were doing it for work? I’m really hoping I can continually improve my speaking ability. I’d love to be at superior level in 8 years when I plan to move to Japan for a schoolyear with my kids.

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#19

I probably won’t take it again until next year but in the meantime I’ll be setting my sights for Advanced-Mid for next time. From what I can tell from comparing the ACTFL framework with the CEFR that would be the equivalent of going from a high B2 to a low C1… so in other words, FINALLY tackling the hurdle and overcoming the intermediate plateau. I’m looking forward to aiming for it.

I’m honestly SO GLAD I took this test… it is feeling really motivating for me to continue my studies. And makes me really proud to see how far I’ve come from knowing nothing…

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#20

Really not on my radar. After taking N1 and J1 at BJT, the only exam I still would like to take is 2級 at 漢検, other than that I’m fine.

Honestly, I’m not even sure how one is supposed to take OPI in Japan. My company arranged the exam for us, so we just go there and take. But I really can’t find anything on Japanese internet about how to take the exam by yourself. Even the Japanese OPI Study Group webpage has nothing about it on their page…

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#21

I’d eventually like the N1 and 漢検2級 designations as well… one day. I’m working on N2 study for December.

You can sign up for the OPI as an individual (particularly easily with any US form of payment) at ACTFL.org, which is what I did. Currently all tests are administered and proctored by distance so it’s kind of an ideal time to take it as you don’t have to go to a test site or anything just to sit in a room with a phone… but I can totally understand being done with language testing at your level of proficiency, too.

#22

Oh, interesting.

I remember checking their page long ago when my company asked me to take OPI. I think by then they would only apply the exam in the US (or at least not in Japan), what would automatically exclude me.

If they are doing everything by distance due to COVID it might be possible to take it from Japan, indeed. Nice to know that.

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#23

Well, here I am on the other side! :confetti_ball:

I took the OPIc (C for computer) on Sunday, and honestly have the same feelings that you do, feeling really grateful that I went ahead and did the test at all because it really encourages me to keep moving forward. The results showed that my study over the years has stuck, despite long gaps of not using Japanese at all, and being very rusty currently. I scored an Intermediate-Mid.

I did not do any intensive oral study beforehand, or practice dialogue with anyone. I just reviewed grammar, vocab, etc, the very basics. Three of the questions I did not understand (or realized what they were asking afterwards, too late) and really didn’t have the ability to do much with the role play because I didn’t understand what role I was supposed to be playing, or the computer’s role for that matter.

It is important to note that OPI is rating your skill, not whether you got the question “right” or “wrong.” They are trying to rate what you know, what your actual language skill is, so producing as much language as possible within the given time can only help.

I found out last week that I actually need to pass the test at Advanced-Mid in order to pass my program, which was a bit of a surprise. But I have taken the test now and know how to prepare better, plus I rated higher as a baseline than I expected after being so rusty. I have one year to amp up my skills and pass it. I think it is very doable now. Also, after my experience with the OPIc, I am curious to see what it is like to take the OPI (with a real person). But for the purposes of my program, I will most likely take the OPIc again because I felt less anxiety at the idea of wasting someone’s time or being embarrassed at my mistakes, lol.

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#24

Cool! I’m so glad to hear you took it and were pleased with your result (I agree that it is great to score intermediate-mid after dusting off the language for use again)!! Was the results turnaround similar (like 24 hours) for you?

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Let’s keep working! I’d be up for Skyping together with you toward the end of the year (maybe post-JLPT in December?) if you’d like some personal practice. We could go back and forth asking OPI style questions… particularly as we are both working toward Advanced-Mid + for next year (I’m sorry your program info sprung that change/realization on you).

When do you plan on taking it again next? Will you be trying to get progressively higher and higher ratings (like going for Intermediate high before you try for Advanced low, for example) to space and pace your study or just trying again when you feel you’re approaching Advanced-Mid level?

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#25

Here I am from another thread, I would very much like to join up for OPI study if y’all have room for another. よろしくお願いします :bowing_man:

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#26

Great! I read your other post. Do you have plans to take the OPI again right away? Do you feel like you know where to work to improve?

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#27

I’m not sure what my timeline for taking the test is yet; I need to get my feedback form from ACTFL, and I will also be meeting with my advisor soon to get a concrete timeline for my program application. But suffice to say at the very least I’m looking to re-take within the year, and I have a few ideas about where I went awry…

#28

Update; turns out I have almost a year to re-take it and I’m still being let into my program!! I’m very relieved, but I still want to get right onto preparing to study. Are you still interested in doing some OPI practice work? I’m ready to train :muscle: :martial_arts_uniform:

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