Oral/Aural Component
Where an oral-aural component is set, it has three parts: listening to short spoken texts and answering, reading aloud with correct sound and intonation, and speaking - self-introduction, picture description or a short situational dialogue.
Listening
Expect numbers, prices, times, dates, directions and brief dialogues. Drill numerals and time telling: в два часа, половина третьего, без пяти три, девятое мая, тысяча девятьсот сорок пятый год. Write digits as you hear them and answer in the language required by the question.
Reading aloud: sound rules
Final voiced consonants devoice: друг [друк], город [горат]. Unstressed о reduces to [а]-like sound: Москва [масква], хорошо [харашо]. -тся and -ться are read [ца]: учится [учица]. Letters сч and зч merge: счастливый [щасливый]. Distinguish ё from е: всё versus все.
Intonation
A statement falls (ИК-1): Я иду в кино. A yes/no question without a question word rises on the word carrying the focus (ИК-3): Ты идёшь в кино? A question with a question word falls on that word (ИК-2): Куда ты идёшь?
Speaking
Prepare eight to ten sentences about yourself: name, city, family, studies, hobbies. Describe a picture with positional phrases: в центре, слева, справа, на заднем плане. Rehearse two dialogues: В магазине (Сколько стоит? Дайте, пожалуйста...) and У врача (Что вас беспокоит?).
Worked example
Read aloud: «Сегодня мы идём в кино?» Reasoning: no question word, so the question is ИК-3 and the pitch rises on the stressed syllable of the focus word кино (-но). The unstressed о of кино reduces towards [а], and the final и is short. In «Куда мы идём?» the pattern would be ИК-2, falling on куда.
Traps
Flat intonation turning questions into statements; pronouncing unstressed о as [o]; reading -тся as a full [тся]; misreading ё as е and changing the word; answering in English when Russian is required.