How should i revise for French GCSEs?

I'm going to be taking my French GCSEs soon but am not sure what is the best way to go about revising for it. Any ideas? (preferably from someone at a high level i.e.currently getting A*s or has already done French GCSEs and got an A* and is now doing French A Levels, although all responses are welcome)

I've heard that it's good to listen to French Radio in preparation for the Listening exam but i don't understand anything they say!

For speaking, im currently answering loads of questions about each topic which my teacher said are very likely to come up in the exam.

Reading and writing are the two that im having trouble with. Obviously, i need to memorise lots of keywords, grammer and idiums, but i'm not sure what the best way to do these things are. I have several revision books. Should i simply copy vocab. and useful phrases from them and go over it loads before my exam?

-Thanks in advance

P.S-i really would like opinions on what i said about how to use my revision books

Reply 1

saches

BlahBlah444

Well if your exam board is Edexcel, you only really need to practice ticking boxes. :wink:

Seriously, have you got a vocab book? You should be noting down all your vocab into one book so that you can revise it easier, then just download a few practice papers and practice doing the reading and writing exercises. Don't worry about not being able to understand French radio, I'm doing A2 French and I can only hear about 1 word in 10 properly. You could also do the games and revision exercises on BBC bitesize, they're surprisingly good! :smile:

Good luck! :biggrin:

Reply 2

Echo_Foxtrot

I'd recommend writing and memorising a few key generic si clauses and other complex structures. Also make a short list of clever vocab such as linking words. Definately go over key vocab lists and pick a few good ones. It'd probably be wise to revise over irregular verbs. Don't try to learn everything, just pick out a few key words and phrases.
Good luck! :smile:

Reply 3

LondonDreamer

I'm not sure how useful my response will be as I'm only doing GCSEs myself.

I'm completely with you on the French radio - they talk so fast and it's really hard to understand :frown:

. I've been thinking about getting some language-learning CDs to practise listening but they're all sooo expensive. I believe the BBC website is quite good with lots of clips of sounds you can listen to? (I haven't actually checked it out lately but it's high on my list of things to do).

I've basically been doing the same as you for speaking - practising answering common questions. Similarly for writing, I've been practising writing pieces on all the major topics (holidays, school, future plans, you get the drift). Make sure you know all the grammar really well, especially the perfect tense and which verbs take etre rather than avoir. That's where you're likely to pick up the really high marks from what I've been told.

I've not really done much revision specifically for reading, although I've found it useful to go over old exercises in the textbook (we use Tricolore which I find really good).

Reply 4

lattywatty

I don't know what idiums are, so you're already doing better than me :biggrin:

I got an A*. For speaking I memorised all of my answers to all possible questions. Turns out I memorised them too well so I spoke too fast so she had to ask me extra unprepared answers. So memorise them, but still take your time when speaking.

For reading, I just did a few exercises on the internet. Probably revised about 2 hours in total for that.

For listening, did even less. Did a few exercises but only actually worked for like an hour.

Then our listening and reading were RIDICULOUSLY hard (I think we were an "experimental" year group regarding the exam; I'd never seen any past paper like them and we weren't on a new spec!). I think the boundaries must've been lowered. I really had to concentrate and I still think some of it was tremendous luck on the tick boxes.

So yeah, I concentrated all my efforts on speaking because I thought, realistically, there was no way I was gonna learn any more French in the month before my exams. I think it's just one of those that you have to keep practising as apposed to reading anything or memorising useful phrases.

Still, good luck :smile:

Reply 5

LeChat

I know you said it wasn't your weakness, but if you have to do a speech in your speaking test, be able to reel it off at any speed, be able to start again at any point in case you're interrupted/momentarily forget what on earth you said, I think I even took to practicing mine at supersonic speed in weird accents :s-smilie:

I did alright though :biggrin:

Just download as many past papers as you can, it doesn't matter what exam board (it's all French!) and just do them endlessly. Try doing the listening first with the recording, then with the transcript and recording afterwards, if you can persuade your teacher to give them to you on a tape or something.
Good luck, I'm sure you'll be fine :smile:

Reply 6

nebby

hey there.

for speaking, i would record myself speaking the answers to the speaking booklet and then play it over and over again. i would also come up with loads of useful phrases that i can use if i have a mental block.

for listening, i ould ask your teacher for some old exam tapes to take home and then look up the papers and practice.

for reading, i would do more practice papers and set myself vocab tests for a certain date. then i have to have learnt it.

good luck, you'll do fine!

Reply 7

confused123

Well I did French GCSE last year and I got full marks on foundation so a C which is not bad but if I had done a paper on higher I would have got a B! Anyway I just went through my books a lot and thoroughly learned my books I went to many after school revision classes where no one except me turned up so he was sick of me by the time I sat the exams. But it worked eh?