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AQA A2 French- 19th JUNE 2012

Hello!

I haven't seen any threads around for this exam so I thought I'd get one started.

how are you all feeling for the exam?

Which topics are you doing for the essay questions?

I'm doing Amelie, and WW2, though I'm leaning towards doing a question on Amelie in the exam rather than the war.

Bonne chance! :smile:
(edited 11 years ago)

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Salut!

Thanks for starting this thread, I've been meaning to start one for ages.

I'm quite nervous about this exam, because I really need to get an A for my firm and the quality of my essays is seemingly incredibly variable.

I'm doing L'Etranger and WW2, I think I'll decide on the day which one I write about and revise them both equally so that I have more options.

What kind of thing are you doing to revise?

Et bonne chance a toi aussi!
Reply 2
Original post by TheatreLovely


I'm quite nervous about this exam, because I really need to get an A for my firm and the quality of my essays is seemingly incredibly variable.

!


Hello i seem to have the same problem with my essays! Does anyone have any really good essay tips?

Im doing Brittany and La Haine, although my essay for Brittany seem to score much higher which I don't really get....
Hey,

I'm going L'Etranger as well. Apparently you get a lot of credit for studing an author because they're harder!! But I'm finding it all a bit complicated....what essays have you guys been practicing? I am also studing a film director which is a lot more easier...If the exam titles are too complex on the day then I may just have to write about the director!
Reply 4
Hiya, I'm studying the German occupation and un sac de billes; focusing on un sac de billes x
Reply 5
Hello!

I am studying Entre les Murs and L'Enfant de Noé... though we've been geared more towards writing on Entre (which I definitely prefer) and I've not written an essay on L'Enfant.

I think I could in the exam if push came to shove but I would much prefer a good question on the director. Anyone got any ideas what questions might come up for this?

Considering we've already had:

-an important work & why
-techniques
-influences on the director
-aspects which have impressed you most
Reply 6
Hey I am doing this exam too,
I am doing Guy de Maupassant and La Haine. Leaning towards La Haine because its so much more interesting to write about.
Getting 31/32 out of 40 in the essays I'm doing but my teacher keeps saying personal reactions are what gets you the marks, which I do ok, I just need to improve the way I give my reactions. Does anyone else find this?

I have the AS retake this afternoon!!! gonna smash it (hopefully)!!!
Original post by artiemead
Hey I am doing this exam too,
I am doing Guy de Maupassant and La Haine. Leaning towards La Haine because its so much more interesting to write about.
Getting 31/32 out of 40 in the essays I'm doing but my teacher keeps saying personal reactions are what gets you the marks, which I do ok, I just need to improve the way I give my reactions. Does anyone else find this?

I have the AS retake this afternoon!!! gonna smash it (hopefully)!!!


Hello, i'm doing 'La Haine' too and getting 40/40 :smile:. La haine is great for personal reactions. Hope this helps, it's a bit of a mess of ideas:


-Noir et blanc - This is an extract from one of my essays (although don't copy it): "Une technique de Kassovitz qui accentue la pauvreté est l’usage de noir et blanc. Je crois que ceci représente le manque de couleur dans les vies des jeunes et leurs perspectives décroissantes. Mais aussi je trouve que l’utilisation de noir et blanc crée un sens de l’intemporalité et que ces conditions [le délabrement dans leur environment, les HLM, le déclin] continueront à exister, à moins que le cycle ne soit rompu. "

But also think about:
La fin du film - J'aimerais penser que.... Hub' n'ait pas été tué par le policier (le "flic"), mais je ne crois pas que ceci soit le cas.
- Si Hub' n'avait pas été tué par lui, à ma connaisance, c'est vraimente possible que....
-Je ne doute pas que.....
-Si j'étais Hub'/ Said/ Vinz...

These might also help whilst concluding?
-Avant d'avoir vu ce film....je n'etais pas conscient(e).......
-Maintenant, je suis informé(e) que....
-Le film m'a donné un apercu (précieux) de la vie des jeunes pauvres en France
-Si j'étais Mathieu Kassovtiz...........

Content
Comment expliquez-vous le titre du film? Would you change it?
Les citations? - "la Haine attire la haine". Pour ma part ceci connote que....
L'amitié du trio - fédératrice o non?

Introducing opinions in a sophisticated way
À mon avis / Selon moi In my opinion
Pour ma part / En ce qui me concerne As far as I’m concerned
À mon sens As I see it
Il me semble que It seems to me that
J’estime que I consider that
Je soutiens que I maintain that
Je suis d’avis que - I’m of the opinion that
Je suis persuadé que I am convinced that

-Bien que je sache....
-Il est important que nous sachions que....

Detailing and illustrating

ensuite - next
de plus - in addition
en outre - furthermore
qui plus est - what is more
de surcroît - moreover
à ceci s'ajoute / il s'y ajoute - to this can be added
encore - also
en deuxième (etc) lieu - secondly
par ailleurs - in addition
en dernier lieu - lastly
enfin - finally
pour terminer / achever - to finish up with
quant à - as for

There is also a book called Mot a Mot which is really useful for expressing opinions!
Reply 8
hmm is anyone doing an essay on the author? If so how are you revising, I think I'm gunna look at the specification and make notes based on it :smile: and look at past papers, iv done 3 essays and ranged from 30-34 x
Reply 9
Original post by Bjcross
hmm is anyone doing an essay on the author? If so how are you revising, I think I'm gunna look at the specification and make notes based on it :smile: and look at past papers, iv done 3 essays and ranged from 30-34 x


I'm doing Un Sac de Billes as well :wink:

Going to start making some Q cards on different themes and revise those I think, as well as doing essays.

Those marks are awesome by the way - you should have no problem!
Reply 10
im terrified for the listening x
Reply 11
I'm studying L'Etranger and Amelie :smile:
been doing practise papers and they help me most, fingers crossed for nice topics!
Anyone have any idea what might come up?
Reply 12
Original post by TheatreLovely
Salut!

Thanks for starting this thread, I've been meaning to start one for ages.

I'm quite nervous about this exam, because I really need to get an A for my firm and the quality of my essays is seemingly incredibly variable.

I'm doing L'Etranger and WW2, I think I'll decide on the day which one I write about and revise them both equally so that I have more options.

What kind of thing are you doing to revise?

Et bonne chance a toi aussi!


Sorry about the incredibly late post! Have been doing exams/revising and that :wink:

I'm hoping it's a good paper but it's so difficult to know what may come up seeing as it's a pretty new spec. Would you recommend doing any of the old spec. papers? It may be beneficial just to have a flick through them, though I'm not sure what topics were studied then.

For revision I am just trying to get through as much of kerboodle as possible and the little topic tests etc which are pretty useful! then trying to translate paragraphs from vaguely related articles from 'Le Monde'. and that's about it at the minute. With revision for other exams as well it's so hard to find the time to do everything you want to do :frown:

Original post by cerrr
Hello!

I am studying Entre les Murs and L'Enfant de Noé... though we've been geared more towards writing on Entre (which I definitely prefer) and I've not written an essay on L'Enfant.

I think I could in the exam if push came to shove but I would much prefer a good question on the director. Anyone got any ideas what questions might come up for this?

Considering we've already had:

-an important work & why
-techniques
-influences on the director
-aspects which have impressed you most


My teacher mentioned possibly a question on themes (for a director question). I would love love love a question on that :biggrin:
Reply 13
Original post by cerrr
Hello!

I am studying Entre les Murs and L'Enfant de Noé... though we've been geared more towards writing on Entre (which I definitely prefer) and I've not written an essay on L'Enfant.

I think I could in the exam if push came to shove but I would much prefer a good question on the director. Anyone got any ideas what questions might come up for this?

Considering we've already had:

-an important work & why
-techniques
-influences on the director
-aspects which have impressed you most


omg I'm studying Entre Les Murs too !
Reply 14
How well are you guys doing on past papers btw ?
Reply 15
Original post by Sheo
Would you recommend doing any of the old spec. papers? It may be beneficial just to have a flick through them, though I'm not sure what topics were studied then.


I've done a couple of old spec. papers in class and they're alright... they're a lot harder than the one I think we'll get but it certainly helped to tune up your listening, particularly the hard long listening section. I'm wondering whether their translations will be as hard as ours because they were pretty challenging? The topics are fairly similar - Contemporary Social Issues - so one I did had a bits on drugs, cars & the environment, social issues, immigration, so obviously some of it was helpful. The translation was technology and it was just awful, so I'm praying ours will be a little easier.

I'm actually terrified for it, because I always fall down in translation but I just don't know where to do more practice since I've done all the past papers....


Original post by Sheo
My teacher mentioned possibly a question on themes (for a director question). I would love love love a question on that :biggrin:


Do you think that's likely? I suppose it could be linked to an architect, painter or musician... but it would be a lot harder. For me personally, I would prefer a more general question like 'what are the most important aspects' and then I could talk about themes in one paragraph...
Supposed to be doing La Haine and Les Petits Enfants but might do a Claudine by Colette, or something like les 400 coups...not v. likely to answer a Q on the film though!

Haven't been doing language revision at all really, except lots of unrelated German vocab to break up History revision....I'll start after History's over on the 12th I think.

I got an A* on a past paper (the only full one we did really) but I think that was probably a one off! Bearing in mind I only need a C to get an A, I'm not too bothered about going all out with revision.
Original post by artiemead
Hey I am doing this exam too,
I am doing Guy de Maupassant and La Haine. Leaning towards La Haine because its so much more interesting to write about.
Getting 31/32 out of 40 in the essays I'm doing but my teacher keeps saying personal reactions are what gets you the marks, which I do ok, I just need to improve the way I give my reactions. Does anyone else find this?

I have the AS retake this afternoon!!! gonna smash it (hopefully)!!!


Wish we'd done Maupassant! Is it Boule de Suife, etc? It makes me hot and angry that one! But you'd have to know about the history etc I guess to do an essay on him justice...what kind of prep have you been doing in class?
Reply 18
Original post by chinaberry
Wish we'd done Maupassant! Is it Boule de Suife, etc? It makes me hot and angry that one! But you'd have to know about the history etc I guess to do an essay on him justice...what kind of prep have you been doing in class?


yeah it's Boule de Suif! have to say Maupassant was a very talented writer. but the exam questions for the author's are always so dry, that's why i'm preparing to do the film director. Our teacher's have called back some papers from last year and we look at those essays and decipher why they got such high marks. this one boy got 40/40 and he had only written 3 pages! We also go through the text looking at context as well, deciding what quotes to use and then linking them to points we make in french.
I'm studying la France sur l'Occupation and the director François Truffaut (the film 'Les Quatre cents coups')

How is everyone's preparation going? :smile:


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