How to get high marks in French writing pieces?

ApeLove

I want a high grade in French, but my opinion pieces and journal intimes are always stuck around the 25/30 mark point...I make v few mistakes with grammar, but it just seems that I lose marks for not fully answering the question or something, although I always think that I've covered all the points well in the tiny word allowance given?
Is it ok to go wildly over the word count, or how can I improve?

Salty

Don't write too much extra, because you could be making more mistakes and end up with less marks than you would if you had stuck to the approx word count. If you're writing very correct French, you will get high marks in June. Do you have any appropriate idiomatic phrases? Apparently they like those, but only if you don't go overboard, and only if they're relevant.

J_E

Keep it simple, tackle the document at hand, discuss it, give your personal view on it. Keep it simple is most important though. I've seen a good few full-mark answers and never to they try to attempt anything crazy, they stick to the basics with one or two nice phrases.
One or two minor grammar errors are accepted and you can still pull an A with them, but try to keep agreements and tenses right.

NotExactly

ApeLove wrote: »

I want a high grade in French, but my opinion pieces and journal intimes are always stuck around the 25/30 mark point..

I'm in the exact same situation. I find it hard to stick to the questions asked and find if I make a few mistakes I loose alot of marks.