Improve French Comprehensions before the Mocks?

PictureFrame

Hi there, I am a struggling 6th year with the Mocks approaching far too quickly for my liking, but alas I am here to ask a question about my Pet-Peeve as it were, French.

I would consider myself ok at French but am in desperate need of advice about the Comprehension section of the Paper.

My only strong point in French is the Oral, I have quite a good accent and find the conversation can just flow without me stumbling or stopping.

However, my School does not offer a mock oral meaning my exam will be marked out of 300 marks, with 120 marks going for the Comprehensions. This equates to a whopping 40% and I desperately need to hang onto any marks I can.

Therefore, I'm just wondering what is the best way of studying/preparing for this section if there is any.

Thanks for any help or advice given, the difference between my passing and failing of French relies on you! :P

Thanks once again!

PowKitty

What I do for this section is read articles in french and try translating them. This may seem tedious, especially if it's a long article but it helps me get used to the flow of french. Also I can pick up phrases which can be useful for the written sections.

Hope the mocks go well for you

irish_man

Hi,

Only advice I can give is to print off all the comprehension marking schemes off examinations.ie and keep doing comprehensions. The beauty of having the marking scheme is that you can correct your own work. Practise and you will get better. If you run out of comps try to get some mock papers off your teacher. Though most of the time they aren't LC standard but good for practise nonetheless.

bscm

The comprehensions do have a marking scheme which can be used to your advantage. They are looking for specific things. Key words will tell you whether they want one word, a full sentence, a partial sentence, or you to fully translate it.

It's not like Irish where everything has to be fully translated, often they deduct marks if you fully translate when you're not meant to.

QueenOfLeon

Firstly, I would say don't get too stressed out about the mocks. As you say, you're confident about the oral. Don't let the mocks get in the way of the oral preparation if you need as many marks as possibly from it. Mock grades won't reflect LC grades at all if they're not including essential parts of the exam.

For the comprehension section, it is essential that you understand what exactly the question is asking of you. Is it looking for a quote? Is it looking for a one word answer? The most useful things you should know going into the exam are the words used in the questions which tell you straight away what you need to do. For example, a question starting with "Relevez la phrase" or "Citez" means that you can pick out a sentence directly, whereas questions starting with "Comment" or "Decrivez" will probably need some manipulation.

If you've seen the marking schemes, it shows clearly where you can quote directly or where you need to manipulate. Also at the start, there is a list of what you are deducted marks for. These are excess material, inappropriate quotes, manipulation when not required, no manipulation when it is required, grammar errors and answers given in the wrong language. All of these are basic mistakes that shouldn't happen if you read the question carefully.

Aside from the basics, the best thing you can do is just practise. Try not to jump straight for the dictionary every time you come across a word you don't know. See if you can figure out what it is from the sentence around it, and if not, if you can answer the question without knowing what it is. In the real thing you won't know every word and you won't have a dictionary so you'll just have to get on with it! :P

As you get through them, you'll extend your vocabulary and you should start to recognise common phrases and words that come up repetitively. A lot of people find it easier to remember things after trying to figure it out themselves and looking it up in the dictionary, rather than a teacher telling them what the word means.

Speedy199

What my french grinds teacher got me to do is underline the words you dont understand, then just try translate the other part of the sentence and see how the word you underlined fit in. In other words getting the jist of the comprehension but aside from that just try what i said and keep doing comprehensions! BEst of luck aswell