French in 6th Year

cgill

I'm going into 6th year and looking to take up French as it could be worthwhile for college entry requirements. Have any of you done this and how did it go? Have you any tips for learning French to a good standard quickly or any useful resources? I searched this forum to see if anyone had asked this before but couldn't find anything, apologies if I missed it.
Thanks in advance!

pleindespoir

I just came to Ireland and just did OL as they assumed I will have hard time doing it. I took 3 month french classes during weekends post 5th year as I came late as well (october). French is very enjoyable for me and so, I got As for exams and mocks. I think listening to french songs really helped me. And watching youtube videos of French youtubers like cyprien. I also talked alot to my french friend in french. Bought and read the original my little prince in french. Followed french twitter accounts. Lots of enthusiasm there but I think those really helped. I have missed my LC and so repeating 6th year, and I was allowed to do HL. I am very excited. Also, I used HiNative app to check my grammar and answers I did from the exam paper. Bonne chance !

yoyojc

cgill wrote: »

I'm going into 6th year and looking to take up French as it could be worthwhile for college entry requirements. Have any of you done this and how did it go? Have you any tips for learning French to a good standard quickly or any useful resources? I searched this forum to see if anyone had asked this before but couldn't find anything, apologies if I missed it.
Thanks in advance!

So did you not do French for fifth year? What about Junior cycle? Do you know how to conjugate verbs into past tense, present tense and future?

I got an A1 this year and I grew to love the subject so much. I listened to 'Stromae' a fantastic french speaking singer, Indila, Shy'm.

You can learn off general phrases for the written comprehension which is quite easy. For example: 'I think this is a very serious problem in today's society" - Je pense que c'est un probleme tres serieux dans la societe moderne (no accents on my computer!)

Also, practice your oral exam a hundred times, write out all the possible topics and have an answer learnt off and just rattle it off every once and a while. I asked my teacher to practice with me and every Wednesday when I didn't do religion we practiced the oral exam and come April I was A1 standard.

It's definitely a doable exam if you work hard, but if you're taking it up in 6th year without having done it in 5th year, you'll have to put in substantial work and familiarise yourself with the verbs in order to take the Higher paper!

biosci

I just finished my leaving cert and had an abysmal teacher for the 6 years of secondary school so at the start of 6th I decided to bite the bullet and get grinds. I went to a local French school with native French speakers teaching me and the three others in the class. Classes were completely in French and we were encouraged to speak to each other outside of the class in only French. We worked primarily off papers with a major focus on the oral. The pace at which my French improved was absolutely astronomical. So if you have the option of attending extra French lessons absolutely go for it.

I also did a paper once a week from November and gave them to a different French teacher in my school to correct. She marked harshly and this really helped. For the months of April/May I aimed to do a French paper a day and got them corrected. This really helped to familiarise myself with the exam content.

So speaking as someone who would have 100% failed my leaving cert French this time last year, it is absolutely possible to pull your grades up. And if you enjoy the language it will pay off.

This was really long winded but I hope it's helpful.

cgill

Thanks for the replies! Yoyojc, I got an A in JC French and quite like the language, it was just a case of choosing to do other subjects during 5th year. I think with a bit of revision I'd be back to JC HL standard quite fast (congrats on your A1!).