End of term report - exams finished

Last Saturday saw Luna JP004 hold its last Cambridge ESOL exam session of the year, with FCE in two venues (Tokyo and Nagoya). We sincerely hope all our candidates will be happy with their results and that all your teachers were able to prepare you for a very hard day?

The previous weekend we also held CAE in Tokyo. The added stress for us on the day was introducing new facial recognition software to our venue & staff at King's Road. Althought the installation of the software went OK when we tried at Luna, Jim did not anticipate being stumped by Macs! In the end having to resort to an older Windows running Japanese XP, everything worked out. Sort of.

The aim of the new tech is to assure candidates of the safety of their results, and enable authorised parties such as potential employers, visa authorities & academic institutions to check an applicants' learning portfolio against their image collected on the day of the exam. Very important stuff, then, and identity checks vital. All our candidates understood the importance of this extra security step, but did not appreciate having their photos taken after hours of exam hell!

Image by ijiwaru jimbo via Flickr

Thank you to all our professional examiners up and down the country. You are the face of the exams and we really appreciate the work you do to prepare for the speaking tests and the travelling you undertake.

Thank you to our venues for your adherence to the strict guidelines required of you, and for getting things right.

We would like to thank Trevor, Chie, and Chizuru for their assistance with these sessions, and especially thank Yukari for her hard work at Luna as Centre Exams Manager this year. She was totally new to the job a year ago, and had big Yuki-sized shoes to fill. It is a very challenging job and one we are proud of her doing so well.

Please check our exams website www.luna-jp004.jp in the new year for 2012 exam availability. we will be offering 'for schools' as well as 'regular' sessions for KET, PET, & FCE. Of course, Young Learners (YLE), CAE, CPE will be available too.

If you are a teacher interested in entering candidates, or a student yourself, please contact us. Schools interested in hosting the exams should do likewise.To keep up to date with ESOL & exam related things on the internet, follow Jim's "Scoop it" topic.

Fingers crossed over the Christmas/New Year break for good results!