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Edexcel IGCSE French (17th May 2016)

TSR2222

What did everyone think of the examination?

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Reply 1

jamestf453

listening was impossible

Reply 2

jamestf453

reading and wrting were ok

Reply 3

MattB_

I agree, the listening was one of the harder ones for a while, whereas the reading and writing were relatively easy, balancing it out a bit. Hopefully the boundaries are lower so I can hopefully get an A*

Reply 4

TSR2222

Original post by MattB_

I agree; the A* grade boundary will probably be below 84% (2014's A* grade boundary).

What did everyone write for the last question on the listening and the 10-mark question on the reading?

Reply 5

metellaest

Original post by TSR2222

I agree; the A* grade boundary will probably be below 84% (2014's A* grade boundary).

What did everyone write for the last question on the listening and the 10-mark question on the reading?

I thought it went terribly.

The listening went so quickly, and that bit about happy face / smiley face (which I found easy on past papers) I got so confused on...

I thought the professeur bit was okay, but the policiere bit was damn near impossible...

My writing was alright, but I think I messed up that reading 10-marker...

Reply 6

metellaest

Also, can someone explain to me how the grading works?

I took:

Speaking: worth 60 marks (25%)

Listening: worth 50 marks (25%)

Reading and Writing: worth 60 marks (50%)

How does that get condensed into a mark out of 100???

I think my speaking went pretty well, so I hope that somehow saves the disaster that was my listening test...

Thanks!

Reply 7

Simonovs

Some of my friends did it, and they're all super smart, and one speaks French fluently but they still said the listening was hard. Well done all who did it.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 8

TSR2222

Original post by metellaest

If you are doing the Edexcel IGCSE French course (4FR0), the marks are as follows:

speaking: 40 (20+20) marks;
listening: 50 marks;
reading: 30 marks;
writing: 30 (10+20) marks;
TOTAL: 150 marks.

I believe that the mark, out of 150, is converted to a percentage, which is used to determine your grade. In my experience, a mark of above 122 will probably be an A*, and a mark of above 128 will certainly be an A*.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 9

metellaest

Original post by TSR2222

Thank you

that makes sense.

The only thing that still confuses me is that I could have sworn that my French teacher told us the speaking was out of 60 (20 for photo presentation, 20 for each of two topics)? But I may have gotten that wrong...

Reply 10

TSR2222

Original post by metellaest

Thank you

There are 20 marks available for the presentation (and the associated questions), and there are 20 marks available for both discussions; each discussion is not marked separately. I hope this clears it up.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 11

alrightstudent

What could they lower the grade boundaries to? Because 80% would be great but I'm pretty sure that's being too optimistic. By the way, did anyone else find that second to last question on the reading surprisingly difficult? (the one about a level choices i think)

Reply 12

metellaest

Original post by TSR2222

Ah - okay. Thanks for clearing that up :smile:

Reply 13

qwertyigcse

Original post by alrightstudent

I found it difficult but worked through it, I worked out the ones it couldn't be and worked from there. What did you get?

Reply 14

MattB_

I too found the second to last question on the reading difficult not because I didn't understand the French but the questions themselves were worded weirdly

Reply 15

alrightstudent

Original post by qwertyigcse

I found it difficult but worked through it, I worked out the ones it couldn't be and worked from there. What did you get?

I don't remember at all but it wasn't too good. Last question wasn't bad i found that a lot easier and writing was pretty calm. I'm banking on the speaking and writing to save me...what's the point of igcse??

Reply 16

alrightstudent

Original post by MattB_

I too found the second to last question on the reading difficult not because I didn't understand the French but the questions themselves were worded weirdly

Yh i know exactly what you mean same here

Reply 17

qwertyigcse

Original post by alrightstudent

apparently the extra i makes it a lot harder to 'please' universities, and to be 'internationally' recognised

Reply 18

alrightstudent

Original post by qwertyigcse

apparently the extra i makes it a lot harder to 'please' universities, and to be 'internationally' recognised

Screw that, universities will look at my igcse A compared to a gcse A* and not think twice about it. Our school recently introduced it in languages and it's been hell.