AS/A2 French?

I took French at AS in September (AQA) and an finding it really difficult, particularly the speaking the is expected of me. Does anyone out there have any tips?

Also, ever since our january exams i've been thinking about next year, and whether to carry it on to A2 or not. Obviously it will depend on what I get for my AS in August, but what grade would be ideal for me to go on to A2? I was thinking that if I don't do great to drop French and pick up Biology,, but I'm not sure....

Agh! Pleasse help all you out there on TSR :woo:

Reply 1

Clairey :)

Hey

Well I'm currently studying French at A2 level, and I know how you feel! I found it a massive jump from GCSE to AS level but the best piece of advice I can give you is to learn vocab! Because honestly, the more you know, the more you'll understand! It helps with every part of the exam! That was my problem at AS, I didn't learn my vocab properly and ended up getting a D in the exam. My speaking made up for it though as I got an A in that, which gave me a C overall. So yeah, vocab and revising tenses so that you can use things like the conditional and subjunctive because they look really good when it comes to the writing part of the exam.

Even though I only got a C, I carried on to A2 because I enjoyed it and it's going better this year. Find out what the topics will be when you're in A2 because if you're not interested in them, then you won't want to do it as there is a lot of new vocab to learn and it does get a bit tedious at times.

As for speaking, pick a topic that you actually want to learn about and want to research! I started off the year in a major panic because I didn't like any of the main topics! If you're like that, then just talk to your teacher about some ideas and stuff. I ended up doing the Cannes Film Festival which I really enjoyed cos I got to talk about films and the media etc. Then just practice practice practice - think of quesions that you might get asked, how you would answer them.. that sort of thing!
Hope this has helped - I did the OCR exam though so it might be a bit different!
Let me know if you have anymore questions or anything :smile:

Reply 2

aeterno

15

Well, at my school you needed at least a C to carry it on to A2 - but of you really like it (and your school let you) I don't see why you shouldn't carry it on to A2 even if you do get lower.

How do you practise your speaking? Do you speak in only French in your lessons and to your classmates outside of lessons? Because this helps to make speaking in French more natural (even if your sentences make absolutely no sense at first, you'll get used to it if you keep at it). Listen to French people talking - you'll get more of an idea of intonation/accent/pronunciation - try to imitate them (don't worry about sounding ridiculous), heck record yourself imitating them if it helps!

I also did AQA but considering everything has changed since I've done it, do you care to fill me in on what exactly you have to do for each unit?
For example, I had 3 units - one was a reading and listening paper, another was a writing paper, and the last was an oral.
This would help me give you more relevant advice :smile:

Reply 3

Clairey :)

VickyG166

I took French at AS in September (AQA) and an finding it really difficult, particularly the speaking the is expected of me. Does anyone out there have any tips?

Also, ever since our january exams i've been thinking about next year, and whether to carry it on to A2 or not. Obviously it will depend on what I get for my AS in August, but what grade would be ideal for me to go on to A2? I was thinking that if I don't do great to drop French and pick up Biology,, but I'm not sure....

Agh! Pleasse help all you out there on TSR :woo:

Oh and at my school, you only have to pass it (get an E) to carry on to A2 :smile:

Reply 4

VickyG166

OP

1

aeterno

Well, at my school you needed at least a C to carry it on to A2 - but of you really like it (and your school let you) I don't see why you shouldn't carry it on to A2 even if you do get lower.

How do you practise your speaking? Do you speak in only French in your lessons and to your classmates outside of lessons? Because this helps to make speaking in French more natural (even if your sentences make absolutely no sense at first, you'll get used to it if you keep at it). Listen to French people talking - you'll get more of an idea of intonation/accent/pronunciation - try to imitate them (don't worry about sounding ridiculous), heck record yourself imitating them if it helps!

I also did AQA but considering everything has changed since I've done it, do you care to fill me in on what exactly you have to do for each unit?
For example, I had 3 units - one was a reading and listening paper, another was a writing paper, and the last was an oral.
This would help me give you more relevant advice :smile:

Cheers

this was really helpful
Basically, once a week, we see the french speaking assistant but its only for like 45 minutes, and we're supposed to speak 100% french in class, but in reality is much more like 30%... and im going to france for ten days in march on an exchange which should help my french a bit

we do a listening exam, a reading/writing exam and then the speakking exam (i have a mock after half term)... the speaking exam covers all four topics, media, sport, family/relationships and popular culture by way of the stimulus card and then conversation

and my question is, if you get any lower than a C, is it really worth carrying it on to A2, or would there be no point in putting myself through another year of worrying that i cannot speak the flipping language? :p:

xx

Reply 5

aeterno

15

VickyG166

Cheers

this was really helpful
Basically, once a week, we see the french speaking assistant but its only for like 45 minutes, and we're supposed to speak 100% french in class, but in reality is much more like 30%... and im going to france for ten days in march on an exchange which should help my french a bit

we do a listening exam, a reading/writing exam and then the speakking exam (i have a mock after half term)... the speaking exam covers all four topics, media, sport, family/relationships and popular culture by way of the stimulus card and then conversation

and my question is, if you get any lower than a C, is it really worth carrying it on to A2, or would there be no point in putting myself through another year of worrying that i cannot speak the flipping language? :p:

xx

30%?! I must have had a really strict teacher then...if we didn't know what to say in French and speak in English, she'd pretend she didn't understand what we were saying so we were practically forced to speak in French. It helped a lot though :biggrin:

Ah, so it hasn't changed too much then. Do you still have to do a 2 min presentation for your speaking exam? Because we had to do one on either the environment or media and then get asked questions on that topic. As long as you memorise all of your presentation, you'll get a good percentage of your speaking exam and you'll feel more confident with the rest of the exam thereby improving your marks. If not, the stimulus card is usually pretty straightforward - you just need to get clued up on relevant grammar and vocab, and of course make sure your accent is pretty good. Although examiners tend to put more focus on grammar than accent, so if your accent slips up a bit, try not to worry too much.

Well considering the jump between GCSE and AS, with there being a lot of vocab/grammar thrown at you and more emphasis on speaking proper French, it can seem like it's impossible to do. Believe me, 2 years ago I was in the same position as you - I thought I wouldn't even pass and in the end I got an A. Provided you work hard and ask your teachers if you have any problems or for advice on how to improve your French, I'm sure you can get a good mark.

However, if you do get below a C - it's really up to you whether you want to carry it on to A2 or not. It depends on what you get for your other subjects and what you want to do at uni. If you absolutely hate another subject you're doing, or you got a lower grade in it, surely you'd rather drop that then French, right? And if you do continue it to A2 and you get a low mark for it, just remember that at the end of the day, no one can take away your right to say you have an A-level in French.

Also - retakes (yes, I know, I'm not supposed to encourage them) are always an option if you don't do so well at AS but think that you can still improve. In fact, you're likely to do better at AS exams when you're at A2 standard. Obviously, I'm not encouraging you to slack this year just because you can retake because it can be stressful if you're doing too many.

And another to thing to conclude this mini essay - have some faith in yourself! I'm sure you'll do fine provided you work hard :smile:

AS/A2 French?

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