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OCR French A2

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Original post by hgreylock
Oddly enough, despite the general consensus, I quite liked the translation? (Does that mean I've translated it all wrong?) And I read an examiner's report which discussed the unnatural usage of subjunctive and so I tried to use as many as I could fluidly without disrupting the natural flow of my essay, if you know what I mean? Using plenty well though will probably snag a load more marks - it's just that line which I'm afraid to cross! And to be honest, I had no idea for most of the synonym stuff so you're probably right - the more I think about it though, the more marks I've lost :frown: Ah well, praying my resit gains a good mark to haul my A2 through!


If you found the translation OK then that means you are a boss at French :smile: . Yeah I try not to over-subjuctify everything, good point. I'm also hoping for a decent grade in what I'll call the cat cafe exam so that my A2 gets bumped a little bit!
Reply 21
Original post by alexgm101
Had to create an account just to comment - found the exam pretty tough today. That translation was incredibly hard. Also did the chomage essay, knowing it would be popular and therefore maybe harder to score top marks, but still better than others imo. Surprised to hear people only putting a couple subjunctive in; my teacher wanted us to do as much as possible, so maybe I did about 10 or more clauses throughout the paper (even one in listening). Didn't find the IVF babies reading too hard, but it wasn't an easy one. The rest of the scam reading wasn't easy either, especially the whole 'why did he send the money and why did he want to help' or whatever it was. Though I did find the word matching/synonyms easier (on both readings) than I have seen in other past papers. Also, I answered avant-garde for that multiple choice question; so now we have all three answers :P - a la pointe - at the forefront/experimental, no? Just my two cents :biggrin:

I put that the scammer said that her mother was ill and she needed money to pay the hospital costs and I said he payed it because he wanted to meet her however I'm not sure about that last bit.
Reply 22
Just want to check. The first listening about forests you had to answer in English and the second listening in French right? I didn't even read the question but they've always the English one first.
Reply 23
Hey, what were your answers for the forest question as my friend and i got really different answers
Original post by alexgm101
If you found the translation OK then that means you are a boss at French :smile: . Yeah I try not to over-subjuctify everything, good point. I'm also hoping for a decent grade in what I'll call the cat cafe exam so that my A2 gets bumped a little bit!


Haha, not quite but I'll take it! :biggrin: And gosh, that was even worse than Albert's suicide (did that shock anyone else? Like Albert, no!), I was sat there thinking when on earth did this become my life - sat at the back of an exam hall (where I have to sit so my listening track doesn't disturb anyone else!) listening to someone tell me that a cat purring helps people relax :confused:
Reply 25
Original post by KATIE6464646464
Exactly! And I have no idea what the other pollution essay title was on about.. when i first saw it i was so scared! At least the other one was broad enough to include pollution too! Yeah nuclear energy or energy resources would have been ideal!!

Did you do 13 or 14? I did the one with affirmation in the question. Was that the one you did?
Original post by target21859
Just want to check. The first listening about forests you had to answer in English and the second listening in French right? I didn't even read the question but they've always the English one first.


you are correct :biggrin:
Reply 27
Original post by gooon
Hey, what were your answers for the forest question as my friend and i got really different answers


Do you remember the questions?
Original post by target21859
Just want to check. The first listening about forests you had to answer in English and the second listening in French right? I didn't even read the question but they've always the English one first.


Yep! If the question's in English, you answer in English and vice-versa :smile:
Original post by target21859
Did you do 13 or 14? I did the one with affirmation in the question. Was that the one you did?


Did the one about awareness of environment, that was the second one of the pollution/environment questions .. what did the first one even mean!?
Original post by hgreylock
Haha, not quite but I'll take it! :biggrin: And gosh, that was even worse than Albert's suicide (did that shock anyone else? Like Albert, no!), I was sat there thinking when on earth did this become my life - sat at the back of an exam hall (where I have to sit so my listening track doesn't disturb anyone else!) listening to someone tell me that a cat purring helps people relax :confused:


Oh man, we have like a language lab with computers and stuff so it's an exam with like 5 people doing it in quite a nice room, I couldn't do a 2.45 exam in the hall, oh god !! Yeah totally cried for Albert, all so sudden. Best wishes to his family at this tough time.
Reply 31
Does anyone remember any of the questions? We could build some sort of mark scheme.
Original post by gooon
Hey, what were your answers for the forest question as my friend and i got really different answers


Jeez, stuggling to remember. What were the questions ?? :P I remember

Vital to the region b/c employment
They are the 'green lungs' of the world
they need to be celebrated
Covers a quarter of the region and provides 20k jobs

can't remember much else, I only remember that the last question was the trickiest with that listening, something about how the wood gets sent to China and Portugal and then comes back to be sold? That's what I got anyway.
Original post by alexgm101
Oh man, we have like a language lab with computers and stuff so it's an exam with like 5 people doing it in quite a nice room, I couldn't do a 2.45 exam in the hall, oh god !! Yeah totally cried for Albert, all so sudden. Best wishes to his family at this tough time.


That sounds so nice, eugh - the hall was freezing and I was alone at the back and then some children were playing grime music at about 5000 decibels right below the window for 10 minutes at about the 1 1/2 hour mark and I could have cried! But yes, my issues pale in comparison to Albert and his family's so I shouldn't complain - your good wishes are seconded!
Reply 34
Original post by KATIE6464646464
Did the one about awareness of environment, that was the second one of the pollution/environment questions .. what did the first one even mean!?


It basically asked you if you agreed with the fact that if a natural disaster happens people worry more about pollution as it happens and then forget it. The thing about the car is an expression. It's basically means like it never happened. I was really happy when I saw marée noire as I had some facts on them. I included nuclear energy in my answer - hoping that's relevant. I was talking about how some people didn't forget and protested against nuclear pollution.
Reply 35
Original post by alexgm101
Jeez, stuggling to remember. What were the questions ?? :P I remember

Vital to the region b/c employment
They are the 'green lungs' of the world
they need to be celebrated
Covers a quarter of the region and provides 20k jobs

can't remember much else, I only remember that the last question was the trickiest with that listening, something about how the wood gets sent to China and Portugal and then comes back to be sold? That's what I got anyway.


Yeah I put those apart from the green lungs. They just meant the forests I think. I forgot what I said.
Original post by target21859
It basically asked you if you agreed with the fact that if a natural disaster happens people worry more about pollution as it happens and then forget it. The thing about the car is an expression. It's basically means like it never happened. I was really happy when I saw marée noire as I had some facts on them. I included nuclear energy in my answer - hoping that's relevant. I was talking about how some people didn't forget and protested against nuclear pollution.


Ohh right! That's so good that you understood it .. i bet lot's of people didn't have a clue! I certainly didn't!! Sounds like you probably wrote a pretty decent essay then .. !
Reply 37
The synonyms were grace a, apparente, pionnier and I forgot the last one. The explain in french with albert I put le reste, prevoit de la rencontrer, copine, tres difficile, gros probleme. The IVF complete the sentences I put eliminant, les scientifiques ne perdent pas, avec le tri. Albert complete the sentences I put ete humilie. I can't remember much else :/
Reply 38
Original post by KATIE6464646464
Ohh right! That's so good that you understood it .. i bet lot's of people didn't have a clue! I certainly didn't!! Sounds like you probably wrote a pretty decent essay then .. !


Thanks :smile: I think I did just hoping that nuclear pollution and protests is relevant. I found that the French was quite advanced in this paper. What did you put for the question on the reading about Nigeria for the differences between the beginners and more advanced. I said the beginners used des courriers simples and that the more advanced used fausses lotteries and that other thing and gagnent plus d'argent. I really wasn't sure what I was meant to put for that question but I new the sentence it came from in the text. It was weird I didn't like it.
Original post by target21859
Thanks :smile: I think I did just hoping that nuclear pollution and protests is relevant. I found that the French was quite advanced in this paper. What did you put for the question on the reading about Nigeria for the differences between the beginners and more advanced. I said the beginners used des courriers simples and that the more advanced used fausses lotteries and that other thing and gagnent plus d'argent. I really wasn't sure what I was meant to put for that question but I new the sentence it came from in the text. It was weird I didn't like it.


I think it would be relevant! Yes very advanced, a lot of words which weren't on any topic vocab lists and were difficult to work out! I didn't write that but that sounds right! I read that paragraph about 50 times and i just couldn't make any sense of it!! Was the most horrible text ever haha. Surely grade boundaries must be lower than normal because of this!

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