Exit Interview Description
 

The 104 Exit Interview is the test to determine if 104 students are qualified to "exit" 104 and enroll in either 104.5 or 105. In  104.5 students are given the opportunity to work on improving pronunciation skills, grammar, and presentation skills. Usually, the Exit Tests are scheduled for the final three class days of each quarter. On these days there are no English 104 classes. Instead of attending class, you will be scheduled for your interview in one 15-minute time-slot during your normal class hour on one of these three days. In order to qualify for the Exit Interview, you must have satisfactorily completed (earned an S in) English 104. Satisfactory results in the Exit Interview will qualify you for English 105.

The 104 Exit Interview is a 15 minute "conversation" with two members of the Spoken English Program staff. (Your 104 teacher will not be one of your interviewers.) The topics of conversation usually include general, non-academic questions which will give you the chance to talk to the staff members for several minutes at a time. You will also be asked to talk about some of the activities in English 104 (conversation partners, or class discussions, for example). Or you may be asked to talk a bit about your field of study.

The interviewers will be deciding which level of course you should advance to. They will, therefore, be interested in your pronunciation, fluency, listening comprehension and grammatical accuracy. Success in 105 requires a solid foundation in these skills.

Some General Advice:

- Say as much as you can: Take the initiative in this conversation; don't make the interviewers struggle to keep the conversation going. Feel free to let the interviewers know when you have nothing to say on a topic; they will change it.

- Monitor your speech: If (and when) you make a mistake in pronunciation or grammar, it is better to go back and correct it than to ignore it. The interviewers are expecting some mistakes. They are interested in learning if you are aware of them, and what you do with them.

In other words, it is better to say a lot and make some mistakes (correcting them when you can), than to say very little, even if it is perfect.