the A1 in french

oncex

Honestly guys has anyone done it? so hard to get the A1 in. Any tips/advice? Repeating so I know my downfall was the tape!

CookieMonster.x

oncex wrote: »

Honestly guys has anyone done it? so hard to get the A1 in. Any tips/advice? Repeating so I know my downfall was the tape!

I got an A1 in French. I don't know how I did it really because I didn't even have a teacher for months. I think the main thing is to learn phrases and vocabulary. Anything I learned for the exam (like obesity from a book) didn't come up so I was really stuck in the exam. Luckily I had loads of phrases I had learned off the night before (very last minute!) an good grammar to get me full marks. You need to know your grammar inside out and have a wide range of vocabulary to get the marks. For the diary make sure you know your layout and you need lots of emotional phrases - be over dramatic!
I can't think of anything else just at the minute but if I do I'll come back

oncex

CookieMonster.x wrote: »

I got an A1 in French. I don't know how I did it really because I didn't even have a teacher for months. I think the main thing is to learn phrases and vocabulary. Anything I learned for the exam (like obesity from a book) didn't come up so I was really stuck in the exam. Luckily I had loads of phrases I had learned off the night before (very last minute!) an good grammar to get me full marks. You need to know your grammar inside out and have a wide range of vocabulary to get the marks. For the diary make sure you know your layout and you need lots of emotional phrases - be over dramatic!
I can't think of anything else just at the minute but if I do I'll come back

Wow well done, they seem to be few and far between. Did you study it a lot? I got a B1 this year but felt like it was my optimum. Where did you get the phrases?

Canard

I got my aural marks up from around the 50s at Christmas to 76/80 in the real thing mainly by listening to French music. Once you get very used to the sound of it and hear it spoken so quickly, aurals become much less intimidating. Yelle, Coeur de Pirate and Les Soeurs Boulay are my favourites.

http://www.newsinslowfrench.com/ This site is also very good. Just have a look, speaks for itself really!

General phrases are really all you need besides your grammar and a bit of specific vocabulary. I threw them in everywhere and got 98/100 in that section because if you know the phrases, you're not going to write them incorrectly, and if you can supplement them with some fancy grammar and vocabulary then you're flying. It's also helpful to write a bit more than they tell you to.

I don't really have a specific list of phrases anymore, but french.about.com is full of useful things like that, for example this is a list of French phrases. Some are as basic as hello, but many are useful linking phrases, suitable for the reaction pieces. Pick the ones you like and make sentences containing them to get familiar.

These are more idiomatic so they're a little bit more difficult to just drop in, but the diary entries are great for them.

Bonne chance.

CookieMonster.x

oncex wrote: »

Wow well done, they seem to be few and far between. Did you study it a lot? I got a B1 this year but felt like it was my optimum. Where did you get the phrases?

To be honest I didn't study that much but I do have a flair for languages. I didn't think I would get an A1 either and my percentage was very high. A B1 is a fantastic result, well done! You can definitely go up this year! Make sure you understand what is needed in the conprehensions ie. whether or not you quote or if you take the whole sentence or not. I read the front section in the exam papers for this. For Q6, find the answer in the text, translate and then give the quote.
For the written section, spend time planning your answer. I had 3 points in my answers and made sure to use the phrases I had everywhere. Have a good introduction and ending but be careful not to use phrases that are useful for anything (like we need to do something before it's too late) as these were outlined in the chief examiner's report. Learn vocabulary for a wide range of topics. They have really started to move away from topics like obesity and pollution. Now you have to be able to create an answer on the spot instead of regurgitating a whole load of notes.
I had random sheets from books I had found for phrases. I'll put some up tomorrow if I'm on the computer (or in the next week or so). I would advise you use the phrases everywhere and anywhere as long as they fit (do not put something in because it looks good!). I got diary phrases from my book 'Tout va bien'.
Also, start your prep now for the oral. I was quite worried for mine as I didn't have a huge amount done for it so be prepared! When in your oral make sure you smile, act natural and just have a normal conversation! In my mock oral we had to go in in twos. The girl I was with didn't make eye contact, looked around a lot and sometimes just didn't answer. She got around 45/100. Even though I was shaking so much from nerves (it was with a French person!) I just smiled, laughed appropriately and paused a bit to hater my thoughts as to what I was going to say. I got 89/100 even though I could have been a lot more prepared. Also, just try you best with the accent.. I thought my accent was the worst ever but I said to myself, 'who cares if I make a tool of myself trying to pronounce my Rs' and I just went with the flow and actually sounded okay. Don't be embarrassed! If your accent isn't the best, listen to some French music and podcasts and learn the common pronounciations like -tion and plurals ending in s.
I can't remember the rest of what I was going to say but like I said I'll post again. Did you view your papers by the way? If you post rough marks of the sections or say what your worst section was I can give more specific advice to one section if you like. You have a B1 which is fantastic so I think you could definitely bring it up.

HPMS

I got an A1 this year, but I really don't know how I did it as I wasn't expecting it in the slightest but I'll try and give you a bit of an insight!

I think the oral brought me up loads. I must have gotten near 100% in my oral after viewing my script.

I prepared a lot for the oral. I used 4 subjunctives...one of which was unprepared but I just felt like I should throw it in. I know people say that it isn't always necessary to use a subjunctive in order to get an A1 but there is no denying it is impressive! That's why I think it is more important to know how to conjugate it rather than just learn a few phrases off (although I am not saying that you shouldn't do that either). I learned off phrases but I also knew how to conjugate it in case I found myself in a situation where I needed to say "Il faut que..." but didn't know how to say the verb following it so LEARN the conjugation!

For the writing, I'm gonna be honest because I didn't learn off anything and I was very unprepared. I just made sure that I used the wording of the question in the answer so that everything stayed on topic and if I didn't know or wasn't sure how to say something - I didn't say it because I wasn't going to risk losing grammar marks!! Grammar is soooooo important. I used simple french. In fact, in the written exam I didn't use any subjunctives at all but I still only lost a few marks in each...the 30 markers were like 28 and 29!

I got near full marks in the comprehensions, but over the years I've picked up vocab so I think that's why. It is also very handy how most of the time you can just quote directly from the text which reduces error. You have already gotten a B1, so obviously your vocab isn't bad but I would continue reading french and listening to it in order to increase your range of vocab!

For the listening, do all past papers as many times as you can. Then, listen to french songs (Sexion D'assaut are great, I lived off of "Avant qu'elle part and Ma Direciton all year!!) and TV/Radio - plenty of sites online that help! I used to download podcasts from this site that I can't remember but if I think of it, I'll let you know

Finally, like I hinted DO NOT NEGLECT THE ORAL!!! It is so important! If I hadn't done a good oral I would not have gotten the A1 without a shadow of a doubt so start preparing NOW. I had an oral copy which had answers to a whole bunch of possible questions.

Bonne chance!

oncex

sorry guys only just saw the replies, thanks so much. What french songs were you suggesting? I have been listening to coeur de pirate a lot.

Canard

Here's some of my favourites! Some of them (mainly BB Brunes) have quite good vocabulary too.

BB Brunes - Coups et Blessures
BB Brunes - Cul et Chemise (this one is to the tune of We'll Be Alright )
BB Brunes - Aficionado
Yelle - Ce Jeu
Stromae - Papaoutai
Lescop - La Foret
Les Soeurs Boulay - Sac d'école / Mappemonde (they're Canadian French so the accent is a bit different but theyre good songs!)
Mickael Miro - Ma Scandaleuse
Mickael Miro - L'horloge tourne
(both of those are great)

If you want any more I have plenty, but that's as far back as my Youtube Likes go atm :P

Daniel2590

Another one you might like to add to that list is Maître Gims, I love Bella and J'me Tire by him :P

robman60

I'll be taking the advice given here on board too.

French is my favourite subject but I have an absolute failure of a teacher, I mean the worst I've ever had. We're a mixed class of ordinary and higher which doesn't help but it's absolutely ridiculous the way he carries on. Spends about 3/4 of class time with the ordinary and then asks us to come in after school to correct work which he does terribly.

My grammar and vocabulary is strong but we actually haven't done anything on the paper except comprehensions so I'll probably get grinds after Hallowe'en just so I have some idea how to approach the long questions but I'll need work on the oral too.

HPMS

Daniel2590 wrote: »

Another one you might like to add to that list is Maître Gims, I love Bella and J'me Tire by him :P

I LOVE MAITRE GIMS!!! Also listen to Sexion D'Assaut - his band. They are amazing too! I especially love Avant Qu'Elle Parte (subjunctive woop!)...and Ma Direction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN2ozTZNJC0

doogybag

hi, how do u start the question 1 in the written if they don't what your opinion, what is the opening sentence then?

oncex

Canard wrote: »

Here's some of my favourites! Some of them (mainly BB Brunes) have quite good vocabulary too.

BB Brunes - Coups et Blessures
BB Brunes - Cul et Chemise (this one is to the tune of We'll Be Alright )
BB Brunes - Aficionado
Yelle - Ce Jeu
Stromae - Papaoutai
Lescop - La Foret
Les Soeurs Boulay - Sac d'école / Mappemonde (they're Canadian French so the accent is a bit different but theyre good songs!)
Mickael Miro - Ma Scandaleuse
Mickael Miro - L'horloge tourne
(both of those are great)

If you want any more I have plenty, but that's as far back as my Youtube Likes go atm :P

Thank you so much. Have now fallen madly in love with french music, and its nearly replaced One Direction as my most played haha

doogybag

oncex wrote: »

Thank you so much. Have now fallen madly in love with french music, and its nearly replaced One Direction as my most played haha

hi, is there any specific vocab to learn 4 comprehensions, is learning the words in the past exams a good idea?

Carpet diem

Some great tips here. I got B1 myself a few years back but looking at this my exam technique was poor.

It goes for every other exam in leaving cert or life. Read what the exam wants and also doesn't want and this beats hours of learning off stuff.

doogybag

Carpet diem wrote: »

Some great tips here. I got B1 myself a few years back but looking at this my exam technique was poor.

It goes for every other exam in leaving cert or life. Read what the exam wants and also doesn't want and this beats hours of learning off stuff.

hi, could you give me advice on reading comprehensions, I always seem to pick out the wrong sentence, because I don't know the vocab, I know u have to learn vocab but I don't know what vocab to learn! please help thanks

Carpet diem

doogybag wrote: »

hi, could you give me advice on reading comprehensions, I always seem to pick out the wrong sentence, because I don't know the vocab, I know u have to learn vocab but I don't know what vocab to learn! please help thanks

Get yourself a good note book and divide it into sections:

Sport
Work
Food
Weather
Jobs
etc
etc

Any word you come across between now and the leaving cert that you don't know write into it and you need to learn of the meaning and keep going back over these sections every now and then.

Your never gona know every word but try your best is all you can do. Also you can sometimes use common sense when figuring out what a word means from the context of the sentence of even a word that is similar to English.

doogybag

Carpet diem wrote: »

Get yourself a good note book and divide it into sections:

Sport
Work
Food
Weather
Jobs
etc
etc

Any word you come across between now and the leaving cert that you don't know write into it and you need to learn of the meaning and keep going back over these sections every now and then.

Your never gona know every word but try your best is all you can do. Also you can sometimes use common sense when figuring out what a word means from the context of the sentence of even a word that is similar to English.

are there any certain topics for comprehensions? would u put up the lists u used for vocab on this please?

Carpet diem

doogybag wrote: »

are there any certain topics for comprehensions? would u put up the lists u used for vocab on this please?

It's a few years since I done it so don't have lists. What I'm saying is when doing exam papers or in class and you don't understand a word - take note of it and learn it. You should always need a french dictionary beside you to look up words and figure out stuff. Sometimes you will won't understand every word in the sentence but you will use common sense and know the context of waht they are saying.

I think you should be learning to get a good grasp of simple french rather than learning off topics. Anything can come up on the paper.

Best of luck

d1234

Just a quick question for French - how much should we be writing for the written production? Should we write more than 75/90 words? All feedback appreciated!

doogybag

d1234 wrote: »

Just a quick question for French - how much should we be writing for the written production? Should we write more than 75/90 words? All feedback appreciated!

I think your sapose to right adleast 100 words, how are you going about learning vocab?

d1234

doogybag wrote: »

I think your sapose to right adleast 100 words, how are you going about learning vocab?

Thanks - our teacher said write 75/90 but I thought it seemed a little to short.. I'm in fifth year so have a while yet! I'm keeping a grammar diary. There's also a great fb page called 'Talk In French' which has good vocab/expressions too.

Canard

Teachers often warn that you can make more mistakes by going over the word limit, which is true, but I'd advise it if you're not going to make a lot. Practice both ways and see if it works for you, I feel like they give you extra marks for writing more if your stuff was a bit more basic than it should have been. If you have time you could answer extra ones too, but again, only as long as it's not to the detriment of your already answered questions.

weirdspider

A useful piece of advice to attain the A1:
Regarding the oral-read a short novel in French and use a picture of the cover for the document. Take note of any words you don't understand, translate and learn off at the end of each chapter. You'd be amazed at the amount of verbs, nouns etc. you pick up that can be used across the course, in the written pieces particularly. I read the short story "Stupeur et Tremblements", got it on Amazon for a cent. Its also a nice, relaxing alternative to laboriously learning off vocabulary. Not many people do this so the examiner is more likely to be interested and impressed than if you took a picture of a pet, of you on holidays/at the debs, etc. I would advise however to have a short summary learned off and answers to questions such as "why did you like it?" or "was it difficult to read in French?".

Tescosolvakia

Did it with good grammar. Know your verbs and structures outside of the usual- conditional tense etc. Believe it or not, The OC in French (with English subtitles) is great for picking up on handy phrases for the oral as there's a lot of phrases that can be picked up that centre around emotion and phrases that can apply to the conversational element of your exam.

dazzy123

d1234 wrote: »

Thanks - our teacher said write 75/90 but I thought it seemed a little to short.. I'm in fifth year so have a while yet! I'm keeping a grammar diary. There's also a great fb page called 'Talk In French' which has good vocab/expressions too.

The question will say around 75/90 words but if you have 3 points you'll most likely go over that. Don't worry too much about length it's definitely quality that will get you the marks