The 23^rd National Olympiad of the English Language for Students of Technical Universities has already finished and the final stage of the Olympiad took place on Saturday, 14^th May 2022.

One of the students of The Poznań University of Technology, taking part in the final stage, is Ms  Agnieszka Żebrowska. She is one of the laureates, who was granted the 4^th place. We’ve made a short interview with her after the event:

1. Are you satisfied with your results? Why/ Why not?

Yes, I am very happy with my results. Mostly because every consecutive success came as a surprise; I genuinely hadn’t expected to get this far.

2. What did you think of the level of the test you took in the final of the Olympiad? How did you prepare for that?

I would say the difficulty was a little less than what I’d expected, at least when it comes to the technical side of language. The knowledge of popular culture and history was, as usual, the most challenging part, and other than that the test was fairly simple. I did not take any time to prepare specifically for the test, though you could say that what constituted my preparation was my everyday use of the language. I talk to most of my good friends in English, for example.

3. Which topic of the presentation did you choose and why? How successful were you at your speech delivery?

I picked the Philip Dick quote and I spoke about how using words differently can influence society. I chose that one because I didn’t like the other two, and since it’s something that was already on my mind. As for how well it went, in my personal opinion I succeeded in making my point the way I wanted to, and the kind judges seemed to appreciate it as well.

4. What is your personal opinion on the idea of Oxford debate as the final stage of the Olympiad? How did you prepare for that and what did you find the most difficult about it?

I think an Oxford debate is an apt way of measuring the contestants’ language competence only as long as they’re not overwhelmed by having an audience, which isn’t too much to expect, and are not hindered by an inability to come up with arguments to present, which is a challenge that could be pointed out as unfair.
I prepared for the final stage by studying up on the rules governing Oxford debates, which I was already familiar with for the most part but wanted to make sure I got right. This, however, didn’t really help in the end, as the Olympiad didn’t adhere to those rules and the Oxford-style debate only roughly resembled that form. The most difficult aspect of that entire undertaking for me was producing anything that I could say about the subject that was given to us, since it’s not really something one thinks of very often.

5. Can you tell us how you are going to spend the money you won?:)

It is my sincerest hope that I’ll be able to buy an MP-52 Masterpiece Starscream action figure, otherwise known as ‘a cool Transformers toy’. I don’t usually get to make purchases like that, and it would be incredibly nice to have it; it is much more likely, though, that I won’t spend the money at all and just save it for when I really need it.

6. Are you going to continue your participation in the Olympiad in the following year/ years?

As much as I would like to, my participation in future editions of the Olympiad is regretfully forbidden by the rules of the contest, as stated in paragraph 2. Having taken fourth place, I cannot take part again. That said, I am not going to try.