How much work required to get an A1 in French?

ella.cole

My teacher told our class that an French was the easiest subject to get an A1 in if we just worked consistently. I don't really know if I believe her though as my brother said only 5 people in his class got A1s a few years ago?

My question is how hard to I have to be working to ensure I am one of those people who gets the A1? It seems very difficult? If anyone here got an A1 in French in the past could they give me any tips?

Thanks

aimzLc2

Hi i looked on this website where you can see statistics , its helpful. In 2011, 5.7 percent of students taking french got an A1 so it is difficult yes but look at the number of A1 compared to other subjects and it is average! 67 percent of those taking russian got an A1 in 2011! but only 1.2 percent in art did. When i looked at all the subjects it looks in the middle to me! so not the easiest to get an A1 but not the hardest. Personally i find french hard i am only aiming for a B in it but you need to do a great oral, practise essays every week , listen to tapes/news/radio in french and keep doing comprehension. Have a perfect grammar base too, it will help for all aspects of french.

http://airo.ie/news/leaving-cert-results-%E2%80%93-interactive-statistics-distribution-and-breakdown

mixery

With the Russian it's because a lot of native speakers did it. It's technically a curricular subject, but very few schools offer it.

I would look more towards other languages, and French is the lowest percentage, if I'm looking at the graph properly. But I guess consistency is key in learning languages. To me, she was just bluffing to get y'all working :P .

ray2012

I got an A2 (86%) in my French mock, and I'm hoping to get an A1 in the real thing. You must know your grammar, inside out! If you got that, that's half the battle. Know your 5 tenses (Past tense, Present tense, Future tense, Imperfect and Conditional), and if you're going for an A you should know or have a fairly good idea of the main verbs with the subjunctive. You should know vocabulary on a lot of different topics ranging from the environment to the problem of alcohol in today's world. Try learning sentences/phrases that can be used in many written questions, for example : ''C'est un problème croissant de nos jours'' - It is a growing problem now-a-days. I use that sentence in almost all my written questions. Also use sayings, for example ''Mieux vaut tard que jamais, comme on dit!'' - Better late than never, like one says! They really help your writing to stand out to a corrector, and will enhance your French. For the oral, you need to be able to reply to questions you haven't prepared, and steer the examiner to a topic you wish to talk about. A good French pronunciation would help greatly, as it is worth 20 marks of the oral. If you sound confident, natural and fluent speaking, you should score highly. The listening is a section that must be practiced. It's my least best section. In order to improve you must practice previous years listening exams, Watch French tv or videos on youtube or maybe listen to French music. The comprehensions need a lot of practice also. Before going into the exam, know what a 'pronoun' is, for example. Check out the exam papers for these grammar questions, they should be an easy 5 marks for a good French student. Practice comprehensions going back to 2002, and translate some of the words/sentences/phrases in the text. Try reading articles online, maybe on www.lemonde.fr , I feel they really help as they deal with important topics that may crop up on the written section like racism/drugs/alcohol.

But yeah, an A1 in French is really possible. You must be dedicated to work for it. Again, know your grammar inside out, what verbs go with avoir/etre in the past tense, imparfait endings.. everything! :P Bonne Chance!