Ruxandra Barna, elev la Excelență: A vital helping hand on my path to linguistic success!

I am Ruxandra Barna, a high school senior who, throughout the course of her secondary education, managed to obtain both a perfect score in the Cambridge Advanced English and second place at the county Olympiad, only 2 points away from a national qualification. How much of this is due to attending English excellency-courses? This is the question I will respond to.

In short, none of this would have been possible, had I not frequented them. Why? Because the foundation of my passion for language would not have been laid properly. I have always had this innate inclination towards English in all its aspects (literature, writing, speech, grammar, etc.), but as with most natural proclivities, it got taken as a guarantee and I had never given much thought to cultivating it. That was before enrolling for the excellency course.

Step by step, this new experience began shaping me. Each Saturday morning provided me with the chance to, first of all, expand my knowledge in regards to language, by learning diverse grammatical and vocabulary structures at a level of difficulty with which I had no tangency beforehand. The help of the teachers was crucial, and I was mesmerized by their skill and also inspired by the fact that I was privileged enough to benefit from the help of top-tier scholars, at the cost of only a late-morning sleep. Being guided by mentors in the learning process is vital, and offers a sense of direction that nothing else can provide; as the courses followed a plan, I was able to conduct my studying in a manner opposite to the hectic one I would have approached in their absence. Moreover, in one aspect, I found these classes to be one of a kind: practising speech. Rarely have I found myself in a context where my English speaking skills were as challenged as they were here: we were a small group of advanced individuals, and because of that everyone had something relevant to say and got the chance to talk.

Practically speaking, the classes were clearly adequate-for-purpose. The final goal was for students not only to gather enough skill to call themselves advanced, but also to be able to fructify it in English exams, such as the CAE. Therefore, the exercises we did were specific, which was helpful, as we got a glimpse behind their apparent curtains, of what the tasks truly assess and the mindset with which they are designed.

All of this contributed to a metamorphosis in me, from an ‘innate inclination’ to a ‘conscious goal.’ And I am forever thankful that I did not pass this opportunity, that changed my views in modes that might not have occurred to me in any other way. I encourage everyone who can spot in themselves a proclivity to study English not to be sceptical of the potential these courses hold and to the extreme opposite: go in with a view through which you feel as though you are overestimating their value. From my experience, I can say I am almost sure that view will turn out to be well founded.