Vocabulary: 

Vocabulary plays a crucial role in the NAATI CCL exam as there are two languages that the student has to be accurate in. It’s a good idea to practise common conversational words in English as well as your LOTE. 

In the weeks prior to your exam, remember to create a list of words that you can keep updating every day. Even if you learn just 5 works daily, it can add a lot of value to your vocabulary. 

NAATI CCL has specific topics that the dialogues are based on, which include, but are not limited to Business, Consumer Affairs, Employment, Health, Immigration/Settlement, Legal, Community, Education, Financial, Housing, Insurance, Social Services. 

Your work bank should include common words in all of these topics so you can be more confident about your knowledge when giving the actual test.

Speak out loud: 

The key to practising on your own is to speak. Speaking out loud will give you more confidence in your speech, ability to utter words coherently, your vocabulary and your speed of answering. 

All of these factors are very important in the NAATI CCL, as all of your responses will be recorded. Ask a friend or a family member to read the dialogues, and interpret those as precisely as you would during the test. 

Active listening: 

It is a good idea to start practicing active listening, which means you are not just hearing the dialogue, but rather understanding and comprehending it to the best of your ability. 

Your main goal is to interpret what is being said, and to do that accurately, you must understand the context and background of the conversation as well. 

Look at it from a personal perspective and imagine yourself in the conversation, that way when you interpret the dialogue, you can do so with the exact meaning in one language as the other. 

In NAATI CCL especially, active listening is essential to avoid negative marking, as addition or omission of any word can lead to that. 

Radio & Television: 

Using objects from your daily life can help you study for your exam as well. We listen to a lot of ordinary conversations and audio in our life, so why not make that a part of your lesson plan too? 

What we hear from the television, radio, movies and TV shows are easily available to everyone and can be used as study material for interpretation. 

Students can be driving, eating or doing household work while simultaneously interpreting what they hear. This can especially help you gain more confidence in the language that you are weaker in. 

Record dialogues in your weaker language and start practising line by line. 

Note Taking: 

In the NAATI CCL, the recordings can be quite long, so it is not possible to remember each dialogue accurately when it contains 4-5 sentences each. 

This makes the skill of note taking to become a key step in providing your answers. There are many techniques when it comes to note making, a few being keyword writing, using shortcuts and mnemonics. 

The test has common phrases that have repeated in previous tests, identify these phrases and find a way to remember them in an easier way. 

Abbreviate certain phrases, and learn to listen in a way that you can quickly identify keywords to note down.  

Avoid pauses: 

Speaking uninterruptedly is paramount in getting good results in NAATI CCL. Taking a long time to translate, or having too many gaps in between your words is frowned upon when it comes to the scoring. 

This often happens because you cannot find the exact word in the language you are translating the recording into. 

This tendency to get stuck on a word is natural, but you should make sure to not be stuck for too long. It will disrupt your natural flow of sentences and take up time.