How I learned Swedish and prepared (cram) for my Swedish Yki test (P1)
By: Linh Nguyen
Tags: Swedish, Language Learning, Svenska, Yki, Learning Swedish

How I learned Swedish and prepared (cram) for my Swedish Yki test (P1) Linh Nguyen Jun 8·5 min read

Hi, so if you are here, you are probably interested in either studying Swedish language or the Swedish Yki exam, or you might just be curious. Regardless of your motivation, I would want to share with you my journey to pass the Swedish Intermediate level after studying very hard for 3.5 months.

Before starting the post, I just wanna introduce myself and my background a bit (you can skip if you are only interested in the Swedish part). I have been learning in Finland for 5 years, and I was planning to apply for the Finnish Citizenship, therefore, I need to take the Yki test in either Finnish or Swedish. For the last few years, I have been always very busy with both studying my degree in Aalto University in Data Science, and working as Web developer, I did not make much progress with my Finnish studies, even when I genuinely enjoy learning languages. Then this summer, Corona comes as a curse, I was on temporary lay-off for 2 months. However, the silver lining is I suddenly have more free time than I have possibly had in last 5 years. Thus, I took on two summer projects: my bachelor thesis, and the Swedish Yki test. I did not know much Swedish before May, 2020, I took a beginner course at the University almost 2 years ago, and did not study much.

Ok, enough of my rambling, back to Swedish.

Self-studies vs taking courses:

This is completely up to your preference, I think you can definitely do it without taking courses. However, taking courses might speed up the process a bit, because the teacher will help you picking studies material, correcting when you are wrong, and structure your curriculum. During the summer, I took a few different courses, including:

Swedish intensive online course (C & D) from Esbo Arbis: Each course takes one week, 5 days per week, 6hs per day, cover from chapter 10 to 20 of the RivStart A1 A2 textbook. I studied chap 1–10 on my own. It was very intense, but on the bright side, very cheap, only a bit more than 50euros per course. You can find it from https://ilmonet.fi/ if you live in Finland.

Private Tutor from Preply: This is a bit more expensive, but you can also optimise for the price that you can afford on their website, I took class 3 times per week for almost 2 months, each session is 90 mins. I made a lot of progress because the tutor was correcting me all the time lol. However, this can be more exhausting than you think, so maybe don’t take super long session :D Your productivity will diminish after a while. Books:

I think studies material aka textbooks and work books are very helpful and important resources in language learning. Obviously, you can learn from other sources, but textbook helps give the structure, and ton of practise, which will help speed up your learning significantly. I used mostly the Rivstart series for my Swedish studies. It is a very popular book that you might be able to find from the library. For me, I ordered all my books from amazon, you can also order them from Adlibris if you leave in Finland, or Sweden. The textbook cover both grammar, and different skills practise. The plus side from these books are the content are very engaging, you would get to read about Swedish culture, geography, political system etc through both short and long texts, which makes learning a lot more fun in my opinion. Moreover, you can access all the extra studies material such as audio files, solutions, transcripts for free from their website https://digital.nok.se/web/site-709522/state-jurdcojshercytzr/front-page .

The issue with Rivstart is the learning curve is very steep, it is usual that you would encounter almost 100 new vocabulary every chapter. Thus, I would highly recommend you study it with a teacher or tutor. Otherwise, it can be quite hard. Rivstart A1+ A2 Textbook: I studied most of this book, both self-studies and study with a group in an intensive course from Esbo Arbis.

Rivstart A1 + A2 Övningsbok: I selected exercises that cover new grammar structures, or any exercises that looks like a good revision, along with almost all the Repetera part after each chapter.

Rivstart B1+ B2 Textbook: I studied this textbook with my tutor, I was only in chapter 6 when I took the exam, I think you are supposed to study to chapter 9 if you wanna past B1, and to the end of the textbook to reach B2. However, I was still able to pass even when I was only in chapter 6, because I tried to engage with and study from Swedish content not only from the book but also from other sources such as children books and news.

Rivstart B1 + B2 Övningsbok: I have only finished 6 chapters in this book, but I think it is a really good practise.

Essentials of Swedish Grammar: I use this to look up grammar topic that I did not understand, it’s very understandable, and comes with a lot of examples. You can find them from Amazon.

Fun materials:

I believe that emerging yourself with fun, daily life content, really helps improving your Swedish, and make Swedish more like a “living” language for you.

Here are some fun stuff that you could try watching:

Amira är här: https://urplay.se/program/199769-amira-ar-har-med-stodord-folj-doften a very funny series of short videos about a girl named Amira, who is always late and talks about why she was late. Because it is designed for people adult learning Swedish, it uses easier language, with subtitle in many languages including both Swedish and English. Furthermore, it also highlight new words in big text when you encounter one.

The Swedish Family: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC04lAYEYR4BiaJkbqArxmRA as the name, it’s a Swedish family channel, talking about their daily life, with subtitle in Swedish as well.

Orka plugga: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6MsEzsYtwJ7-iQMa5td-Q Educational channel about studies tips, motivation etc for Swedish pupils. Their newer videos often have Swedish subtitle. As this is aimed for Swedish youth, the language could be a bit harder that 2 previous sources, but it is helpful to try things above your level as well.

Ok, this post is a bit far longer than I expected. I will write more about my method to learn vocabulary and how did I prepare for the Yki test specifically in the Part 2 of the post.

Thank you for reading :D