Just got notification today that I've passed my British Sign Language (BSL) level 3 exams! 😄
There were three parts; a formal presentation, an informal conversation and a receptive exam, all a week apart in December last year.
Formal Presentation
For my formal presentation I chose "How Deaf people face discrimination in the workplace". Being Deaf myself and having worked previously as an employment advisor at Manchester Deaf Centre gave me more than enough insight to build my filmed presentation. We had to include as much of the syllabus criteria as possible including timelines, appropriate facial expression, fingerspelling, multiple aspects, role-shifting, correct hand-shapes, established lexicon, spacial placement and direction, non-manual features, instructions, opinions, multi-channel signs and a Powerpoint presentation. Oh, and Deaf humour had to be shoe-horned in there as well! It had to be between eight and ten minutes, and I managed to squeeze it all into ten and a half. A little leeway was allowed.
Informal Conversation
We had to wait 30 minutes before the informal signed conversation to find out what the list of three topics would be, then using the half hour to prepare and research before once more sitting down before the camera, this time opposite the examiner. I chose "Deaf peoples' access to public services", again drawing on my own experiences and list of complaints. We had to do most of the work in the conversation, I think the suggested ratio was 70/30, or 60/40 maybe. Again, we had to include as much as possible of the above the syllabus criteria, which really doesn't reflect a real signed conversation at all, but there you go. It was much more relaxed than the presentation, and it was the examiner's responsibility to keep to the twelve minutes allocated for the exam, and draw the conversation to a close. This was better, as watching the clock all the time would have made it stressful and even less informal.
Receptive
I almost enjoyed this exam, as my receptive skills are quite good anyway, and the two men signing the stories were using quite local 'accents'[1] and were taking their time. The topic was "Social Activities" and the first monologue talked about the man's growing up attached to the Deaf social club and its importance as a social hub and place of education. The second man talked about going out to theatres, art galleries and museums. He discussed the technology and accessibility features that mean they are now wuch more accessible to Deaf people. The third section - the dialogue - had both of them discussing a theatre visit, and how absorbing the Sign Language interpreter's performance was[2]. At the end of each section we were quizzed on our understanding of the stories.
Wrap
I was really confident about the presentation and receptive exams, but I'd convinced myself that I'd made a mess of the conversation by allowing myself to become too absorbed in the chat, and missing out loads of the required criteria. I'd resigned myself to a re-sit but I'd obviously done enough to get a passing grade. I'm taking a break from studying and exams this year, and will decide later whether to go through level 4 or skip it and go straight to level 6. I don't know why there's no level 5.