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If you have a test coming up, you are probably talking about it with your classmates to prepare for it. Describe your testing experience accurately by learning some common expressions that are often used when talking about tests and exams. Some examples include "procrastinate", "cram", "pull an all-nighter", "burn the midnight oil", "pass with flying colors", "flunk", and "pass by the skin of your teeth". After watching, KILL THAT QUIZ with your new knowledge!

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TRANSCRIPT

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you seven test expressions. Okay? So, seven expressions that have to do with exams, finals, tests, quizzes, whatever you call them. So this video is very useful to you if you are in university or college, in high school, if you're taking the TOEFL or the IELTS, and also if you just want to learn some expressions for when you talk about when you were in school. Okay?

 

So, without further ado, let's talk about these seven expressions. The first expression: "Procrastinate". Okay? This is a very long word that actually has a simple meaning. Procrastinate. If you procrastinate, this is the first thing you do before you do a test. Procrastinate is where you don't study right away. For example, maybe you're very stressed about your test and you just don't want to study, so maybe you watch a movie, maybe you hang out with your friends, maybe you go to the bar. Maybe, like me, you spend a lot of time on Facebook or Twitter instead of actually studying for your exam. So, when you procrastinate, it means that you are not studying. In fact, you are doing everything but studying. Okay? So we call this "procrastinate". And we don't just use this for exams and tests. You can also use this word when it comes to projects, assignments, taxes; anything where you need to do work and you really don't want to do the work, so you do something else instead. Okay?

 

So let's look at our example sentence. "Facebook helped me procrastinate." So before my test, I went on Facebook, I didn't study, I procrastinated. Okay? And because this is a long word, let's just practice pronunciation. Pro. Okay? So say this with me. Pro. Procras, procras. Procrastin, procrastin. Procrastinate. Procrastinate. And you'll notice the "cras", procrastinate, is the loud part. Okay? If you are a person who always procrastinates, you, my friend, are a procrastinator. Okay? You are a procrastinator. A procrastinator is a person who always procrastinates.

 

So let's look at the next expression. If you have been procrastinating, and you've had weeks and weeks to study for your exam but you didn't, then this is when you might have to pull an all-nighter. Okay? "Pull an all-nighter." What does this mean? Well, I want you to look at this word here, "night". So, when you pull an all-nighter, it has to do with nighttime. It's where you study the whole night. You do not sleep, so no sleep. All you do is study all night. You might do this if you have an exam or a test the next day. You will stay awake all night studying. This usually happens after procrastination. Okay? So, pull an all-nighter. Pull an all-nighter.

 

Let's look at an example sentence. A very simple sentence, but: "Last night, I pulled an all-nighter for my math test." I stayed up all night studying. I pulled an all-nighter. It's a little bit of a strange expression, because we have the word "pull" an all-nighter. It's a little strange, but very, very common.

 

The next word: "cram". Okay? So here we have a verb, "cram". "Cram" is similar to "pull an all-nighter", although you can cram for weeks, so the time here is a little different. When you cram, it means you study very, very hard. It's like you are studying all day, all night. You're just always studying, and you're studying a lot in a very short time. You might have a week to cram, you might have two days to cram. Okay? So it's not always one night; it can be a week, a couple of days, but you're trying to put a lot of information in your head. You're trying to learn a lot in a short time. So, before a test, you will have to cram. You will have to study hard. "Study hard" and "cram" are synonyms. Okay?

 

So let's look at an example. "I have crammed a lot for the test.", "I have crammed a lot for the test." This means I have studied hard for the test. I've studied for the past two weeks for this test. I've crammed. I've filled my head up with all this knowledge.

 

Okay, the next expression: "Burn the midnight oil". "Burn the midnight oil" is very, very similar to "pull an all-nighter". Okay? Again, we have this idea of night, midnight. If you burn the midnight oil, it has nothing to do with oil. Okay? Maybe historically, yes, but nowadays, if you say you burn the midnight oil, it means you stay up all night, just like an all-nighter and you pretty much study or you do something all night, working hard. Okay?

 

So here is an example sentence. Tomorrow I have a math test. So: "Tonight I will burn the midnight oil.", "Tonight I will burn the midnight oil." So, tonight I will stay up all night, I will pull an all-nighter. I will burn the midnight oil. Okay? And the reason I need to do the... Pull an all-nighter and burn the midnight oil is because I procrastinated. So now let's look at some things that happen if you procrastinate or if you cram. Okay? So let's look at some more expressions. Okay, so you have procrastinated, you have crammed, you have pulled the all-nighter, you have burned the midnight oil. You've taken your test. So now what happens? Well, you find out your grade.

 

Okay? So, we'll start with the worst case scenario; the worst thing that can happen. On your test, if you "flunk" your test... This is a synonym for the word "fail". Okay? And notice the unhappy face. If you flunk your test, this will be you. You will not be happy. Okay? So it is a verb, and here is an example of this sentence. "I flunked the test." Now, I've written a little "F" here because in American and Canadian systems, we sometimes give grades like "A", "B", "C", "D", "E" and "F". "F" is the worst possible grade you can get, so if you flunk, you fail, you will get an "F". So it's a very bad mark.

 

Okay, so we've started out with the worst. Now let's look at something more positive. If you "pass with flying colours"... This actually has nothing to do with the word "colour". If you pass with flying colours it means you did great on your test; you got a very high score. So, if you pass with flying colours, you'll have a big smile; you'll be very happy. You did well. So: "I passed", and this, if you can guess, is in the past tense because of the "ed". "I passed my test with flying colours." And so, in the American or Canadian system, this would mean you got an "A" or an "A+". You did very, very well. Similarly, sometimes we talk about the word "kill". And usually, you might think "kill" like "enh, enh", very negative. Right? In this case, it is not negative. If you kill an exam, it's a great thing. It means you have aced it. You have done excellent. You have gotten a great score. So, again... Actually, you know what? If you kill, you'd be very happy. Yeah. Okay, kind of ruined his eye.

 

Okay. Maybe you won't look like this, you'll look... Okay, if you kill it, you will be very happy. So, here is an example sentence: "I killed it. I killed my math exam." I did great. I got an "A". Okay? So it has the same meaning as "passed with flying colours". Same meaning. Finally... So, we've now looked at the worst and we've looked at the best. What about in the middle? Well, we also have this expression: "Pass by the skin of my teeth". Okay? It's a very strange expression. "Pass by the skin of my teeth". This means that you have just passed. If is, you know, a fail, anything below is a fail and you passed by the skin of your teeth, it means you got a %. You just passed. You almost failed, but you got one mark so you didn't fail. So this is almost fail, but you did pass. Okay? So, for example: "I passed by the skin of my teeth." This refers to either maybe a mark of a "C" or a "D". If you get a %, you passed by the skin of your teeth.

 

Okay? So, I hope you use some of these test expressions. They're very common. Especially "procrastinate", "flunk", "cram". If you go to any university campus, any college campus, you will hear these expressions. They're also very common on TV shows about university and college, or about high school. So, I hope you do well on all of your tests. I hope you do not procrastinate. I hope you are not a procrastinator. I hope you don't pull all-nighters, because they're not good for you. And I also hope that you always pass with flying colours, and you kill all of your tests. If you want, you can take our quiz at www.engvid.com. There, you can actually maybe pass with flying colours. You can try to use these expressions, and make sure that you understand them all. Okay? So come visit us at www.engvid.com. Also, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel. And until next time, I will see you later.