Help With As French Needed!!!

My situation is I must get an A in AS French or I won't meet my Cambridge offer for L100.
The problem: I just started to study French (from the complete beginner) last summer and transferred straight to AS French after 2 months studying it. My French teacher is horrible (I hate her) and whole last term I didnt study anything, simply didnt expect Cambridge to include French in my offer. Now, I don't know what to do, I think that if I study hard I can improve my reading and writing but listening and oral exam worry me a lot.
My school put me for the Jan exam in listening, reading and writing which is tomorrow and I haven't got any practice (I've seen only 1 past paper so far) and I dunno how to write a letter in French :confused:

(heard that u have to write one in the exam).
I'll be very very thankful for any tips to improve French from a C (or even D) to an A in just 5 moths.

Reply 1

Jammertal

3

Oh dear! For a start you can read French newspapers and watch TV in French. That should help to understand and after all speak French better. I don't know how hard A-levels actually are, but from a C to an A seems a fairly big step. If it's about special topics, you need to learn technical terms, too. Maybe you can also try to find somebody with whom you can talk in French (ideally a native speaker) and who can do some mock exams with you.

Reply 2

Cunning Linguist

3

i don't think that at the moment, you should be worried about reading newspapers.

one thing you really DO need to do, is listen to french a lot. (anything that's not really really fast). learn chunks and chunks of vocab. and yes, you need to find someone who you can practise your french on.

i don't mean to discourage you or anything, but this is gonna be HARD! (have you studied Spanish before by any chance?) but i'm sure ur determination and dedication will see you through. and anyway, if you fail tomorrow's exams, you can always resit in summer, can't u?

Reply 3

polythenepam

2

the letter is easy....all you need to do is learn some bog standard phrases to pad your letter out and then u need to manipulate the requirements of the letter to the language u know.

i am also taking this exa 2moro....i got a b last year...which isn good enough for my teacher lol!

if u want i will post the pharases i learnt last year for the letter.

as for the translation make sure it makes sense in english and use proper english grammer.

the listenings are the tricky part....it if is one with a multiple choice from words.....make sure the word fits grammatically

hope that helps...i'll post more when i get in from school lol

Reply 4

Cunning Linguist

3

polythenepam

the letter is easy....all you need to do is learn some bog standard phrases to pad your letter out and then u need to manipulate the requirements of the letter to the language u know.

i am also taking this exa 2moro....i got a b last year...which isn good enough for my teacher lol!

if u want i will post the pharases i learnt last year for the letter.

as for the translation make sure it makes sense in english and use proper english grammer.

the listenings are the tricky part....it if is one with a multiple choice from words.....make sure the word fits grammatically

hope that helps...i'll post more when i get in from school lol

what is all this about writing a letter? i didn't have to do that. maybe the board is different. i'm doing AQA. i have a resit tomorrow, an essay about the environment

Reply 5

Lama

OP

thx for all your ideas :biggrin:

i'm doing Edexcel by the way and in the past paper i saw, you have to write a response to an article

Reply 6

ice.

im doing the listening tomorrow :frown:

no clue what to do now, i mean there's a limit to how much you can know, right?

Reply 7

Cunning Linguist

3

ice.

im doing the listening tomorrow :frown:

no clue what to do now, i mean there's a limit to how much you can know, right?

in my opinion, there is just no way you can revise for a listening. you just have to have an ear for the language.

aaaaaggghhh.... exams are so unfair sometimes. i mean, for chemistry i spend centuries revising, and i end up getting a crap mark. and for french listening/reading, i didn't even spend five minutes revising, and i get full marks for that module! :confused:

Reply 8

polythenepam

2

Je vous remercie de votre lettre – thank you for your letter
Suite a\ votre dernière lettre – further to your last letter
En reponse a\ votre lettre du 10 juin – in reply to your letter of the 10th june
Veuillez m’indiquer/confirmer – please advise/confirm
J’ai le plaisir de vous confirmer – i have the pleasure in confirming
Je regrette de devoir vous signaler – i regret to have to point out
Je vous serais oblig/e(e) de + inf – i would be obliged if you would

there...try learning some of these

Reply 9

Cunning Linguist

3

polythenapam, just be a bit careful with accents! it may get confusing for some people ... !

Reply 10

polythenepam

2

linguist786

polythenapam, just be a bit careful with accents! it may get confusing for some people ... !

i no...but my computer is being funny!!!! grrrrrrrrrrr

Reply 11

Cunning Linguist

3

polythenepam

i no...but my computer is being funny!!!! grrrrrrrrrrr

haha lol. well there some four letter codes you can get (well i've got them if you want them) and if you press ALT + (that code) that accent will come up. oh yeh - and if u want an acute accent, e.g. é, then all you have to do is: CTRL + ALT + that letter. will work for any vowel

Reply 12

G.A.K

4

Ouch! Harsh! Learning languages at A - level requires hard work. However, I have the worst teachers ever. They handed my written work back to me the day after my exam! I'd finished about 6/7 French essays & I managed to get a good A in French. Thus, anything is possible. Even if you get no constructive feedback from your teachers whatsoever!
You need to practise every day without failure. Read. Write. Listen. To. French! & You will be winning! The fact you got a place at Cambridge shows you are intelligent..so you can do this! :smile:

Invest in:
Mot à Mot, a book which you can buy from Amazon etc ...it condenses useful vocab into chapters and has brilliant sentences to use which will get you high marks. It saved me!

Buy an Elan grammar book and go through the different grammar conjugations each night. Make sure you understand subjunctives (nasty but will get you marks if used properly), future/passe compose/conditionals and that should sort you out. Elan is quite hard and if you do them properly (answer sheet is provided) you're on your way for an A!

Exam technique is important: download from AQA or whatever your exam board is; past papers for all the modules. My motto is always practise, practise, practise & learn from your mistakes. Don't be disheartened if you get C's to begin with...it will soon go up :wink:

Buy a very good revision guide such as the Letts one. It is brilliant and very concise!

You must read French firsthand all of the time to get top notch reading skills. Start off with French Mr Men it will encourage you and enthuse you! Then go on to www.lemonde.fr for hard core Francais! I'd also advise reading L'étranger by Albert Camus it is not the most difficult French and you will learn a hell of a lot if you look in the dictionary at the vocab you do not know!

Listening is the hardest methinks, so you should try www.funradio.fr to relax/chillout whilst reading French. Also watch French news, should google it and find the links somewhere. Go in at lunch time and listen to school tapes, start from GCSE and progress...listen for the basic words and then stop and pause regularly for the precise/specific details. You will get better.

As for speaking, pronunciation is the key for marks. Try to demonstrate authenticity by saying "euh..." and practise all the little parts of French words..& constructions, for example th in French = tay sound not fuh! This helps. Also research idioms to show an awareness of French like; quand les poulets auront les dents, "when pigs might fly!" it shows you know your stuff :wink:

(I know I am crazy!). If you don't know what to say spend ages saying "ca depend...euh, je dirais que..." just add in stupid stuff. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to do fab in speaking, it's just nerves (which I had!) Tut!

As for writing, show a variety of verbs/conjugations don't stick to boring je pense que...get a variety/staple phrases to throw in. I did well in writing so if you need help pm moi! Also background knowledge = looooooads of marks! So go on L'insee the official French stats site and remember/learn off by heart some cool French stats and use in written work...!! This is the key! When doing language A - Levels you have to be enthusiastic about that country's culture/lifestyle too & the only way to show this is facts that you have learnt about! Vocab is the best thing to have a grasp of. If all else fails, the fact you have/use a variety of words demonstrates your knowledge & ability! Make a list of cool words to use for each topic!

Hope that helps!xx :smile:

Reply 13

*soph*

14

This doesn't really help, but as a morale booster - I was in a German class with a girl who took her AS german after only learning it for 18 months who got a high D. That was in the January session, in the May with resits she got an A at AS, so it can be done!

Help With As French Needed!!!

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