*What I got asked in the French Oral '12*

PictureFrame

This is just a thread for those doing their French Orals this week or next, had mine this afternoon and it went very well, anyway this is what I was asked:

• Name, Age, Dob, Where I live
• What there is to do in my area for adolescents
• My family
• Do I get on well with my family
• Talk about School
• What Subjects do I do
• Which ones do I like
• What subjects don't I like and why?
• What I want to do next year?
• Why do I want to do this (Law)
• Plans for the Summer
• Exam Pressure (mon document)
• Pastimes
• My Music Practical Exam tomorrow
• Do I play a Musical Instrument? What Grade?
• What's a typical weekend for me (past/present/future)
• Alcohol *kinda brought this up myself
• Do I like to travel?
• Economic Crisis and Emigration * again brought this up
• Do I like sport? Why is sport important?
• The Olympic Games* I brought this up
• The last film I went to see
• My favourite author, and the last book I read
• Have I ever been to France, did I speak much French there

So that's what my Oral consisted of today, I ended up talking for 16 minutes :rolleyes: she forgot to look at the stopwatch! :pac:

Hope this is a help to some of ye guys

BellaVerita

Thanks for posting that, I've mine tomorrow
How did they say "What Grade?" in French, I have music as one of my hobbies.
Did they ask you about the weekend in each tense as 3 seperate questions?

Manic2

Mine was appalling, but don't judge me! :P
Here's what I was asked.
Btw, I do pass, and I'm about 99% sure she knew this upon the first 3 seconds of walking in, so this might apply more to those doing pass.

- General intro. (Rather than asking my name etc. she simply said "tell me about yourself" which sorta threw me because I didn't know where to start :P)
- Talk about my family
- Talk about my area (Facilities etc.)
- What are my pass times?
- Am I sporty?
- Subjects I do/like/dislike
- Do I hope to study my favourite subject in university?
- What career would I like to have after university? And why?
- Where is the university?
- What I did over Easter?
- What do I do on weekends?
- What I plan to do after LC during the summer.
- Have I ever been to France before?

That's it as far as I can remember, I've a feeling I'm missing something, but yeah :P

PictureFrame

BellaVerita wrote: »

Thanks for posting that, I've mine tomorrow
How did they say "What Grade?" in French, I have music as one of my hobbies.
Did they ask you about the weekend in each tense as 3 seperate questions?

Quel niveau? I think

Nope. She said about ' Weekend typique' I told her what I usually do the 3 days, then last weekend I was sick but I had to study for this oral, next weekend I know i'm going out with a friend as it's his birthday!

skanger

PictureFrame wrote: »

This is just a thread for those doing their French Orals this week or next, had mine this afternoon and it went very well, anyway this is what I was asked:

• Name, Age, Dob, Where I live
• What there is to do in my area for adolescents
• My family
• Do I get on well with my family
• Talk about School
• What Subjects do I do
• Which ones do I like
• What subjects don't I like and why?
• What I want to do next year?
• Why do I want to do this (Law)
• Plans for the Summer
• Exam Pressure (mon document)
• Pastimes
• My Music Practical Exam tomorrow
• Do I play a Musical Instrument? What Grade?
• What's a typical weekend for me (past/present/future)
• Alcohol *kinda brought this up myself
• Do I like to travel?
• Economic Crisis and Emigration * again brought this up
• Do I like sport? Why is sport important?
• The Olympic Games* I brought this up
• The last film I went to see
• My favourite author, and the last book I read
• Have I ever been to France, did I speak much French there

So that's what my Oral consisted of today, I ended up talking for 16 minutes :rolleyes: she forgot to look at the stopwatch! :pac:

Hope this is a help to some of ye guys

That seems like some amount you must be very good at french to get through all that

PictureFrame

skanger wrote: »

That seems like some amount you must be very good at french to get through all that

Meh, i'm ok definitely not the best! Just hoping for a B2 tbh!

skanger

PictureFrame wrote: »

Meh, i'm ok definitely not the best! Just hoping for a B2 tbh!

Since your finished and we can't steal your thunder, do you have any gems you can share with us, you know phrases you learned that you just couldn't wait to say.

PictureFrame

skanger wrote: »

Since your finished and we can't steal your thunder, do you have any gems you can share with us, you know phrases you learned that you just couldn't wait to say.

`
Yep I had two really:

• Il n'ya pas de recette magique, mais a mon avi nous devons lutter contre la drogue etc. avant qu'il ne soit trop tard
• Oui, je pense ___ est tres grave. C'est le probleme plus grave de notre pays en ce moment

BubblegumBitch

My went excellently!

• Straight away, she asked about my town
• Brother/Sister
• My school
• Passtimes (music + introduced my document [Pic of me and Nadine Coyle])
• We spent AGES on the document I rambled on a lot and she butted in every now and then with a question, which I was able for
• My plans to go to University
• If I was ever in France
• If I ever wanted to travel abroad

Mysteriouschic

I might as well add my last years one. I remember most of what I was asked. I haven't had this years one yet.

-Name
- Age
- Birthday
- Personality
- Tell me about your family/how many brothers and sisters do you have?
- Do you get on with your mother?
- Where do you live etc.
- How many teachers were in my school?
- Describe my school?
- Whats my favourite subject?
- What was my favourite passtime ? which was movies/tv. which lead to asking my favourite movie. I said Step Up and said I liked the dances. An she asked if I danced.
- What country would I like to visit and why?
- What course do you want to study in university?
(Nothing abstract came up or for anyone in my class)
Their my be more questions which came up but thats all I can remember.
- then just questions on the document

I forgot most of what I learned on the day but thats the questions I was asked. My examiner was very nice and helpful last year she'd actually cover the tape an tell you what to say in english if you get stuck some of the time. (not sure if all do this).

SureYWouldntYa

- Describe Yourself
- Desbribe your family
- Whats your pastimes?
- Document
- Have I ever been abroad?
- Describe School

C'est tout

It really flies, like too fast

JonnyMcNamee

Got asked like 5 questions because I blabbed for about 2 or 3 mins on each of them. She smiled and noted it straight away when I used the subjunctive Couldn't have went better tbh, just wish I had remembered to slip in the conditional! I had like four answers prepared on it and all :pac: Oh well!

Smithwicks Man

Could anybody tell me exactly what happened when you went in and exactly what questions you are asked? (In english). I have no document and I think I really need a good start.

I'm quite poor at french but only need a D3 in pass and have some stuff learned off for an introduction such as my name, age, dob, a short description of myself and then I was wondering should I say something like ''I like my hometown'' and hope she'd ask me about my area.. Or would they cop on to that?

Any help is greatly appreciated

Cruel Sun

Bit off topic, but imagine how awkward it would be if the examiner farted.

Coeurdepirate

Martin_94 wrote: »

Bit off topic, but imagine how awkward it would be if the examiner farted.

Hahaha before my oral I pictured myself needing to fart in there and focusing so much on holding it in that I was unable to speak!

Cruel Sun

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

Hahaha before my oral I pictured myself needing to fart in there and focusing so much on holding it in that I was unable to speak!

lol, have mine on friday, but it's not too bad cos it's ordinary level and it's not going towards my points

skanger

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

and then I was wondering should I say something like ''I like my hometown'' and hope she'd ask me about my area.. Or would they cop on to that?

Any help is greatly appreciated

The examiner lets you lead the way, they would cop on to that and ask you about it, they're not their to hurt your chances

Togepi

She didn't ask me about my family.

Joke's on her though, I aced it anyway.
(I hope!) :P

Smithwicks Man

Oh okay, cheers. I'm doing pass and am quite weak and would be happy if I scraped a pass in the oral and got 40 marks. Focusing on trying to prepare stuff around 4 topics - A description of myself and Family and what they do, My school, Sport, and what I did/do/will do at the weekend and maybe a holiday.

I'm just learning sentences off by heart though and won't really be able to say anything if I get asked something that's nothing to do with the I above. Here's hoping I pass!

Does it make any difference that I'm doing pass or is the oral all common level?

hiyakeano

Just had mine today and i was such a nervous wreck going in, but there really is no need, it's not as horrible as you'd imagine!
My examiner was lovely, a little strange however.

He asked me:
-About myself
-Then asked me if i had any siblings/do i like them
-he asked me if i get on well with my parents
-asked me about my area, talked for ages bout this
- He jumped into school and the rules and stuff
- Then my favourite subject and we talked about Shakespeare and stuff (was so random..)
- Then we talked bout my document for ages (Coco Chanel) and he was really really interested in fashion so that was good
- Then we went onto what i want to do (law) and like criminals and social problems in Galway
- Oh and he asked me about my past times

That was it, such a random bunch of questions. I was a little annoyed that i didn't really get the opportunity to use much of my prepared phrases but the conversation flowed well so it's not too bad

Bonne chance!

Cruel Sun

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

Does it make any difference that I'm doing pass or is the oral all common level?

Our teacher said they will mark you out of 100, and then if you do ordinary level they will say it's out of 80.

So say, if you get 60/100, but your doing ordinary level, then you really got 60/80 (75 %).

Smithwicks Man

That helps a bit then so.. Cheers! .. Gonna let it slip that I'm doing pass and have difficulty with french and look for a few sympathy marks! :pac:

Orange juice

Went pretty well, we had a really nice examiner.
So, she started with the basics
- Tell me about yourself
- Family
- Where I live, importance of tourism
- What subjects I do, general school Qs
- What I'd like to do next year
- What I did last summer, Petit Boulot
- What I'll do after the exams (this summer)
- What I usually do after school
- What a did during the easter holidays!
- Then I had a document about my football team so she asked me about past times and that was it!

She didn't let me ramble too much and changed convo fairly quickly! But all the same went well! Now to irish!!

cillian95

<snipped unnecessary remark about examiner>

He asked me about:
-Myself
-My parents and my relationship with them
-My pastimes
-Irish rugby team (I brought up rugby)
Document: Was about my plans to volunteer (pretty much left me talk away on it)
-Had I ever been to France
-Difficulties in France
-Differences between France and Ireland
-My typical day in France
-What I want to do in university
-My subjects
-Least favourite subjects
-Why French is important
-What I did over Easter

MauraTheThird

I'm properly terrified for my oral.:eek: I have it on Wedsnesday. I have no less than 30ish pages of french prepared on every sort of a topic (MY TEACHER IS CRAYCRAY), I seriously want sport to come up (Rowing, Le dopage sportif and obseity!) and I'd love to be able to talk about my Document for ages (Le tatouage). I'm just such a shy person, I completely freeze up. Here's hoping it'll go ok

spurious

skanger wrote: »

The examiner lets you lead the way, they would cop on to that and ask you about it, they're not their to hurt your chances

This.
You can direct the conversation on to subjects you want to talk about.
The examiner wants to see how your French is and how you use different tenses, different vocabulary. They are not trying to catch you out.

Izymunz

For anyone who still has it do not say that your level of french is really poor!! Instead say that you love french and that you like the sound of it etc.
Just thought I would throw that in there. Also saying that you are trying for high points would be recommended.

Mysteriouschic

How do you lead the conversation?
Do you just expand on your answers?
Just randomly bring it up?

jkeane16

Had mine today
she asked about
-what i did for my birthday
-school
-family
-transition year
-pass times
-typical day
-what i want to do next year
-what i want to do next summer
-spent a lot of time on my document(Picture of me my sister and cousin in paris) did my cousin live with me? what shop did you get your bag from? what was in the bag? what did i eat in paris? what was the weather like? how much was the boat trip i went on? why didn't i go to the top floor of the eiffel tower? what else did i do in paris?
-last summer
-differences between ireland and spain

Togepi

Izymunz wrote: »

For anyone who still has it do not say that your level of french is really poor!! Instead say that you love french and that you like the sound of it etc.
Just thought I would throw that in there. Also saying that you are trying for high points would be recommended.

Strangely enough they love it when you say you want to be a French teacher...

spurious

Mysteriouschic wrote: »

How do you lead the conversation?
Do you just expand on your answers?
Just randomly bring it up?

Say you want to talk about your holiday last year in Botswana.

Examiner- How many are in your family?
You - Me, my mam and my cousin from Botswana.
Examiner - Really? Botswana? C'est incroyable!
You - Yes and last year I went there on holiday.
Blah blah.

It's easy enough do, if you think about it.

The examiner does not check that your answers are true, just that the French/Spanish/Italian/German is OK.