AQA A2 French 14th June

Original post by sophiella

I'm doing exactly the same haha! But I'm reading Alice in Wonderland :tongue:

Alice in Wonderland in French sounds great!
I think my favourite thing about French Harry Potter is that Hufflepuff is called Poufsouffle :tongue:

Reply 83

Original post by sjwilsonn

Yeah that's one of the most famous starts to a book in history I think! There's a really good reading of 'L'etranger' on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEp7hATkECw
if you are sick of reading it.
Have you read anything else by Camus? I have only read La Peste and L'etranger - both in Engish unfortunately! I would struggle to write about Camus' philosophy in english so good luck... :P x

Thanks so much for that link, I'll definitely have a listen to that before the exam! :smile:

I've not read any more Camus yet, is La Peste good? Haha I see what you mean, it took me ages to get my head around some of his ideas and that was when my teacher was trying to explain it in English! :tongue:

x

Reply 84

katii:)

Original post by dreadpiraterach

Alice in Wonderland in French sounds great!
I think my favourite thing about French Harry Potter is that Hufflepuff is called Poufsouffle :tongue:

Is it actually? That sounds so funny! :biggrin:

Are the names changed too? Apart from the fact that they say 'arry? :P

Reply 85

gypsyclimber

12

Eeee so glad to find you guys! I'm getting pretty nervous for the exam, it's my last one and so the mixture of fear and excitement is horrific haha.

I'm studying a French region (Provence) and a book (Le silence de la mer). Revision wise, we've done a fair few practise essays, and so I'm reading back through them and making sure I've planned the questions on the past papers. Other than that it's mainly vocab, watching French TV and listening to French radio. My mum speaks french which helps.

Bricking it though, need to get an A in French overall. Anyone got any idea what you'd need to get in this exam if I got a high A in speaking and the exam at AS, and hopefully got a high B/A at speaking in the A2 speaking exam?

Also, if anyone wants any links or ideas for french programmes to watch - let me know! me and my mum watch some stuff sometimes

x

Reply 86

Original post by chessjohnston

Yeah translation tips anyone ?

If you've finished the English into French translations and haven't come across a subjunctive, go back and check, it's hiding in there somewhere!

Reply 87

Original post by Somaiya.7

Yeah it went okay :smile:

couple of tricky questions though. Wish we knew our marks! Have you been advised what order to do the listening /reading /writing in?

I always prefer to do the writing first, then the translation, then I find myself almost excited to do the rest of the paper haha. Then if I have time at the end I can check the essay and translations with a fresh mind

Reply 88

izz_yanes

I'm so scared for this exam it's my last exam so I've been focusing on my other exams more which was a bad idea in hindsight... started by doing some past papers but the bit I find the hardest is the essay!! We've studied a period of history (the Resistance) and a play (Rhinoceros by Ionesco) and my practice essays throughout the year have ranged from an E to an A so I'm really uncertain :frown:

Reply 89

Original post by Forza-Milan2011

Is anybody else writing their essay about la La Haine ? If so do any of you have some plans for essays

merci

I'm doing Kassovitz too. This is how I usually plan my essays:

Intro - mention a bit about directors success, particularly with La Haine (César, Cannes etc) but keep it short and brief; clearly state which points you're going to mention, referring to 2nd part of title (I'm going to explain why I like these aspects/how they contribute to its popularity etc)

Plot - brief summary of plot. My teachers all say this is easier than trying to explain who's who in your analysis, and that you shouldn't assume that the examiner knows what you're talking about. But shouldn't spend more than 5 mins on this part.

Analysis - probably easiest to divide paragraphs by whatever points you made in your introduction, e.g. para 1 - police brutality; para 2 - life in the banlieue; para 3 - racism

Conclusion - If I'm running out of time I don't bother with a conclusion, I'd rather get marks finishing off the analysis than writing a conclusion that gets few marks. But I try to sum it up in a few sentences when I can, as it gives it a nice structure, remembering to refer back to the title.

Remember to bring in personal reactions and subjunctives.

Hope this helps!

Reply 90

Original post by gypsyclimber

Eeee so glad to find you guys! I'm getting pretty nervous for the exam, it's my last one and so the mixture of fear and excitement is horrific haha.

I'm studying a French region (Provence) and a book (Le silence de la mer). Revision wise, we've done a fair few practise essays, and so I'm reading back through them and making sure I've planned the questions on the past papers. Other than that it's mainly vocab, watching French TV and listening to French radio. My mum speaks french which helps.

Bricking it though, need to get an A in French overall. Anyone got any idea what you'd need to get in this exam if I got a high A in speaking and the exam at AS, and hopefully got a high B/A at speaking in the A2 speaking exam?

Also, if anyone wants any links or ideas for french programmes to watch - let me know! me and my mum watch some stuff sometimes

x

I've got the same grade-wise, and we've figured out that even with a C in this exam I'm likely to get a low A overall, so yours should be similar.
I'd love some links please! We often watch French news (France 2) but can never find any interesting programs so would love some ideas!

Reply 91

Somaiya.7

Original post by MONeil

I always prefer to do the writing first, then the translation, then I find myself almost excited to do the rest of the paper haha. Then if I have time at the end I can check the essay and translations with a fresh mind

Yeah I think I may get the writing over and done with first! How are you practising for the reading/listening?

Reply 92

username893771

Does anyone know if there's a difference between "Un Couteau" and "Une arme blanche" or are they just synonyms?

Reply 93

Original post by katii:)

Is it actually? That sounds so funny! :biggrin:

Are the names changed too? Apart from the fact that they say 'arry? :P

I think most of the character names are the same- some of them are really literal translations of the English versions, like for example when they refer to Voldemort as "You Know Who", they say "Vous Savez Qui". Muggles are Moldus and Hogwarts is Poudlard for some reason :biggrin:

Also the word for wand is baguette, which conjures some strange visions of Voldemort using a stick of French bread to kill people :tongue:

Reply 94