Recently, I took the I the Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjero (DELE) exam that was…read moreadministered through Isabella & Ferdinand Academia de Español. Overall, I thought the flow of the exam was what I expected based on previous test takers' and tutors' accounts. The first day of the exam was administered at an elementary school somewhere in DC, and the second day's exam was administered somewhere in Chevy Chase. Naturally, I assumed that the exam would be administered over two days, but I learned that some folks had to take all four parts of the exam in one day (YIKES). Hopefully, those folks did not have any problems commuting from the elementary school to the other exam location (15ish minutes by car and 20-45ish minutes by bus). I thought all the staff who administered the exam were pretty nice, friendly and helpful. However, I thought my exam's protector could have administered the exam's instructions i a louder voice. Overall, the center was pretty good with responding to emails about the exam. Typically, they would respond within 24 hours of receiving my emails. While it wasn't a huge deal, I kind of wish they could let us know the site(s) of the exam at least two weeks before the exam. I believe we received information about the exam locations 5-7 days before the exam, so I guess it wasn't a huge deal. However, I did appreciate that they sent a reminder email the day before the first day. My minor complaints - could be an issue of Isabella & Ferdinand Academia de Español, Instituto Cervantes, a combination of both entities, a question of logistics or my own ignorance. ;) -Although our proctor called out remaining time during the three portions of the exam, I wish that our exam room had a clock in the front of the class. -The protectors should ensure that everyone's cell phones/electronic devices are turned off or set to silent before starting the exam. However, I think test takers should have been considerate enough to silence or turn off their electronic devices before entering the exam room. Unfortunately, multiple folks' phones were buzzing during the exam. Of course, since the exam was in progress, they had to wait until the break (after the second component of the exam) to turn off their devices. Also, I'm kicking myself because I forgot to bring my ear plugs. -While I was scheduled to take my oral exam at 9 am, I didn't get started until around 9:30 am. I guess administrative hiccups can happen, but it would have been nice to receive a simple email saying something like hey test taker, we are running a bit late today. Just something to easy the test takers' already high stress level - especially since the oral portion of the exam involves giving two monologues and having brief interviewers. For the site of the 2nd day of the exam, we had to wait in the lobby of the building until someone from the center brought us upstairs. It was kind of a interesting situation because the security guard really did not have much information about what was going on. -For the speaking portion, test takers have 20 minutes to prepare two monologues. I was a bit surprised when one of the exam's administrators brought another candidate into the room while I was preparing my monologues. If we were both preparing the monologues that would have been fine because we would have been in a quiet environment. Unfortunately (for me), the administrator was verbally giving the instructions to the other candidate, which kind of broke my concentration. Fortunately, the administrator observed that I was having some trouble concentrating while he was speaking, apologized, and immediately decided to finish giving the instructions in the hallway. I do not think it messed me up (per se), but it threw me off a bit. -I was a little perturbed that we could not use pencils for the writing section. However, I think that was my fault for not confirming this information while preparing for the exam. While you do have sufficient amount of space to write your written exercises, being allowed to use a pencil would have made life a bit easier. For instance while proofreading, what if I wanted to change something in the second sentence of the first paragraph that has 4-5 sentences? It would be nearly impossible to properly and cleaning correct your errors since I pretty much would have to cross out an entire paragraph and re-write everything. This was especially frustrating because I learned (via Reddit) that folks taking the exam in other places of the world were allowed to use pencil for the written section. But, on the other hand, I cam understand why only pen is allowed. I guess the folks will scan the exams and the graders might grade the electronic versions of the written exercises. Also, the scanners might not pick up text in pencil as well as it would for text written in pen. Although I had some minor complaints, I though I&A did a decent job administering this exam.

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I attended the 12:30pm service at Arlington Community Church. The staff, fellow worshippers, and…read morepastor welcomed me with open arms. The pastor even went out of his way to shake my hand and briefly converse. The service was in Spanish yet I was able to follow the events as the staff provided a headset with translation. Can you say Spanglish friendly ? :) Towards the end of the service Baptisms commenced. Afterward everyone was treated with Arroz con pollo and cake ! Although such treats are not an everyday occurrence, its nice to know the congregation celebrates unique events with all aspects of friendliness.

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