French

fufureida

How can I get a B in French ? I struggle badly with this subject... What can I do to push my C3 in the mocks to a B3 in the real thing? French is my worst subject bar maths... I just reallycan't get my head around anything.

What topical essays do u guys reckon will come up? Any tips on how to score high in comprehensions? I never do well in those...

fufureida

Help...?

brian1991

I don't know exactly what to tell you, but I hope this helps: http://www.linguaguide.com/recipe/LinguaGuide-Recipe.pdf
Although this may be more of a summer project. I would advise listening to French radio everyday (you can get it on AM and MW on radios here in Ireland) and reading Le Monde (or whatever you can get). Also, learn five phrases a day that will help with letter writing to give you more confidence. For example, ''you must be the change you wish to see in the world'' is a phrase you can use every year. e.g your penpal mentions war, littering etc and you use the above phrase. It's like ''That would be an ecumenical matter'' but for French.

Brian, Professor of French Literature, the Sorbonne (okay, not really lol).

Síle28

Hi Fufureida. First thing is not to panic, though I know easier said than done. I'm a French teacher. The best thing you can do are simple things in the time you have left.
Go over simple but important tenses. Check you know the endings. Don't forget the conditional tense, it's so similar to the future and very useful for the written part.
You don't say if you're doing Ordinary or Higher level? I agree with the other poster, try to learn 3-5 expressions a day to use in the written part, it will also help you understand the comprehensions. Record them onto your iPod and listen to them while you go for a walk or write them on Post-Its and stick them around your room where you are seeing them and learning without realising it!
Regarding the comprehension, all you can do really is read the ones that came up on past papers, it's all practice and technique. Remember you DON'T need to understand every word, always read the questions first and the title and any words they translate for you at the bottom so you get an idea of what it's about before you even start. Try to figure out where the answer is in the paragraph, they usually tell you which paragraph the answer is in and if you can pick out the sentence you think has the answer it's easier to guess. Bonne chance

fufureida

Síle28 wrote: »

Hi Fufureida. First thing is not to panic, though I know easier said than done. I'm a French teacher. The best thing you can do are simple things in the time you have left.
Go over simple but important tenses. Check you know the endings. Don't forget the conditional tense, it's so similar to the future and very useful for the written part.
You don't say if you're doing Ordinary or Higher level? I agree with the other poster, try to learn 3-5 expressions a day to use in the written part, it will also help you understand the comprehensions. Record them onto your iPod and listen to them while you go for a walk or write them on Post-Its and stick them around your room where you are seeing them and learning without realising it!
Regarding the comprehension, all you can do really is read the ones that came up on past papers, it's all practice and technique. Remember you DON'T need to understand every word, always read the questions first and the title and any words they translate for you at the bottom so you get an idea of what it's about before you even start. Try to figure out where the answer is in the paragraph, they usually tell you which paragraph the answer is in and if you can pick out the sentence you think has the answer it's easier to guess. Bonne chance

Hi I do HL

I can't help it I'm stiill panicking like crazy!

fufureida

What kind of topics are likely to come up? Racism? Role ofwomen? Pollution? Economy crisis??

The thing is I always get As in tge written assignment but I fall hard on my ass in tge comprehension and Aural! Dunno why!

djcervi

As a general rule you really cannot prepare for the written compositions, in terms of specific themes. The best way to compensate for this is to really perfect your grammar, since the main aim of that section is to see whether you can write an argument in clear and concise French. Also read over French opinion pieces, so as to get a grasp on the style needed for answering this question. If you're looking for a book on vocab for general themes mot a mot is your answer. It's a French A level book, which you can get in language bookseller or very good bookshops with sections for languages. Bon courage!

Edit: I just realised your query

For the Aural the best way to get better is just practise pure and simple. TV5MONDE have a section called 7 jours sur la planete, in which you can listen to news reports taken from French language television. These also come with transcripts, so you can read what is being reported. It was part of my language homework for 1st year French in college, but I'm sure it would be helpful but a bit challenging.

Reading Comprehension, maybe have a look at lemonde.fr, and see if that helps.

fauxshow

The best way to improve your grade is to do as many reading comprehensions as you can get your hands on, they're worth 30% and by doing a few every week I managed to drastically improve my French grade over a short space of time. The best way to see if you're on the right track is to go on examinations.ie and correct your answers with the marking scheme. There's no secret to it, just lots of practise!

Make sure you do at least one listening comprehension from the past papers each week, they're worth 20% and where most students fall down. Learn off some phrases for the written expression, but don't get bogged down by it. You can spend a much more productive half hour of study doing a reading comprehension, which is worth four time as much marks as say your diary entry.

The key to it is just to work your way through all the past papers really.

Don't panic, French is very doable once you put a bit of work in! Good luck!

fufureida

Thanks every one u have all been really helpful I'm gonna do comprehensions n aurals every night from now on