Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Imedb presentation

Hi there, my name's Inès and I'm a French sixth-former studying and living in France. I just passed my OIB French baccalauréat (French A-Levels with an international option), it works differently and I basically studied a lot of different subjects but the main ones were : English Literature, History/geography (both of those taught in English), Sociology, Economics and Politics.

I didn't apply for the UCAS this year and I'm gonna start French uni next september (my course will be History and Geography), but I'm thinking more and more about applying for 2015, so I'm here to seek advice :-)

See you later !

Reply 1

8472

Original post by Imedb

Welcome to :tsr:

We have an international study section here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=827

Feel free to ask me anything. :smile:

Reply 2

ElleM1407

Hi, im Elle :smile:

so are you fully French as your English is really good? What's school life in France like?

Reply 3

Imedb

Original post by ElleM1407

Hi, im Elle :smile:

so are you fully French as your English is really good? What's school life in France like?

Nice to meet you ! Yep, I'm fully French, born and raised in Paris :smile:

In my opinion, it's pretty different from school life in the UK. For example, we don't get to choose what subjects we'll be taking at our final exam. The only choice we have is at the end of our 1st year of high school, where we can either get specialized in literature, maths/science or social sciences. I picked the latter, that's why I took economy and sociology at my finals. It's also pretty different in a cultural way, we don't have to wear uniforms during our school years ! :smile:

What about you ? Which A Levels did you take ? Do you know what you want to study in Uni yet ? :smile:

Reply 4

ElleM1407

Wow! Did you find learning English quite easy? That is different from our schools! I was able to narrow my choices down which I was grateful of as subjects like maths I could not get my head around :smile:

Lucky you with the uniforms though :smile:

Our uniform isn't too bad, we just have to have a grey blazer. But other schools in the area are more strict.
I've just finished my first year in 6th form and due to start my A2 levels in September, which is like the school year before you go off to uni. I take English literature, history, biology and... French aha! What sort of things did you study in English Lit and History?
I want to study in Primary Education with English on the side (not many Unis do this though). Not trying to sound creepy or anything but I like children and seeing them develop there knowledge and understanding of society is what I want to do as a career :smile:

What about you? What you plan on doing with the History and Geography course after uni?

Reply 5

Imedb

I think it's not a complicated language if you compare it to German, French or Arabic, but it's badly taught and that's why most of French students aren't really good at it. People would be better at speaking English if we got them interested in this language/culture at an early age (like I was, I've always been a huge Harry Potter fan hahaha) and if learning didn't seem like some chore !
That sounds really cool ! How do you find learning French ? Do you have a favourite subject ? :smile:

I took an OIB baccalaureate, which means both of my most important subjects (English Lit and Geography) were taught in English and required us to write essays and do presentations in this language. It was pretty useful, gave me the opportunity to expand my vocabulary and to learn methodology (yours is very different from ours !) :smile:

Concerning the curriculum, English lit was focused on classical works (we studied Shakespeare's Macbeth, modernist works as well such as The Wasteland, Aldous Huxley's Crome Yellow and short poems) but also modern ones, The History Boys by A. Bennett and Seamus Heaney's Human Chain.
In History and Geography we basically followed the French syllabus (wars, French politics, US and Chinese diplomacy, globalization and development) with some special features : we spent two months on British politics from 1945 to John Major, it was interesting but a bit painful tbh haha !
What about you, what do you study in History ? :biggrin:

Oh that doesn't sound creepy at all !! It's such a great choice, we need passionate teachers or else how are kids going to get interested in learning ? That's a very respectable carrier ! Do you already know what uni you'd like to apply to ?
Well tbh History-Geography was more like a back up plan to me, I love this subject but I've always wanted to study International Politics and they don't do it as a BA in France, only as a master degree :frown:

So I picked it in order to do something during my 1st year and to be able to figure out what to do later. I recently got my baccalaureate results and they were much better than expected. So since I'm realizing that I could get in British unis I didn't think I'd met the requirements, applying to the UCAS has become an option !

Reply 6

ElleM1407

From an English perspective id say it would be quite hard to understand a lot of our accents especially for exchange students. I struggle to understand some of the broader ones :biggrin:

And who doesn't love Harry Potter haha! Which is your favourite book?

With French, I'm not really naturally talented at it. I probably don't know as much as I should but I'm working on it :smile:

What I find hardest is the different tenses, like how you have past tense but there's both the perfect and imperfect tense :biggrin:

My favourite subject is English or maybe history depending on the time period we are studying! I'm studying Macbeth now, were focusing on the gothic elements in it. Even though I'm English, I don't actually know any of the other books you mentioned haha!

That must have been difficult doing the essays and presentations, I struggle my way through writing one page long French essay for homework :smile:

would you say with a different language its just practise and you grow in confidence as you did more presentations etc. Our History syllabus is mostly different to yours, we did Stalin's Russia and Martin Luther King but we did touch on politics in the public health and poverty section. We also went really quickly over the French wars but that was just about how they affected British trade.

Thanks! I don't want to be one of those teachers that's 'copy this' and 'do that' I want to be more creative and active in the classroom. With the Uni's I've started looking lately at Reading and Brighton (the ones that do primary with English) and then a couple which are a bit closer to home as well. Ill go to the open days and see what I think of them. I'm finding the whole process nervewracking :/ how about you?
Well done on your good results btw :smile:

Its worth investigating your options since you did better than you thought, have you any ideas which British Uni's you'd like to come to? I think it'd be amazing to study abroad! Scary but exciting haha! Have you ever been to England?

Reply 7

Imedb

Aaaah Harry Potter ! It's so hard to choose but if I had to pick one of the books, it'd be the The Half-Blood Prince because I loved learning more about Voldemort's family background, the genesis of evil, you know ? I found it fascinating, and I also loved the plot ! What about you ? Do you have a favourite one ?

Don't worry, French is even confusing for French people haha ! We used to do very long History essays, I wrote like 12 pages at my finals, divided in two subjects, but that's just average. Some write more than 20 pages ! Of course, quantity does not mean quality but still, I find that impressive. We did Stalin's Russia as well, as long with totalitarism last year. Do you guys focus on different centuries in the same year ?

Sounds awesome ! I don't know much about Reading (except obviously the festival), but apparently Brighton is a very cute place ! Which part of the UK do you live in ? And yep, I've been to England many times :smile:

My brother in law is from Leeds but I've never been to Yorskhire. However, I went to London, Bath, Plymouth, Cornwall and I also visited Scotland (my sis lived in Edimburgh for a while). Last time I came to England was in December 2012 and, speaking of Harry Potter, I went to the WB Studios tour in London : best day of my life haha ! Did you have the occasion to visit the studios ?
And also, have you ever been abroad ? What about France ? :wink:

So many questions !

Thank you !! I'm thinking of applying to The University of Edimburgh and St Andrews in Scotland (it's cheaper than England for EU residents). As for England, maybe King's College or Durham. I'd be awesome if they accepted me, but even if it's not the case I'll have my History and Geography course as a safety net !

Reply 8

ElleM1407

That's a good point :smile:

its like i reluctantly felt sorry for him at times! Until he started killing loads of people that is! My favourite book would probably be the Prisoner of Azkaban just because i love the knight bus and i like the plot and characters in it like sirius :smile:

but out the films i like the Order of the phoneix the most.

French is one of those things im determined to be good at but its taking time haha! That is a lot of writing, the average in our exams is about 2-4 pages on a topic & there's 2 questions so that's only about say 6 pages in the whole exam. How long do you have in your exams? Im not exactly sure how to answer that aha we did 20th century for Stalin, 19th century for king, public health & poverty so... Yeh? We did like 2 centuries in the same year :/ im having one of those moments where I can't get my head around it haha

Yeh ive never been to either place so I definitely want to look into going for a look around the areas. Im from near Wolverhampton which is in the west midlands, heard of it?
Im sure that helped with learning English as well :smile:

i havnt been fortunate enough to go to the WB studios yet but id love to. I've only been to London & Plymouth of the places you mentioned, i was a proper tourist whilst i was there haha did you get to go on the London eye? Or see a west end show?
I've been counties like Spain, Portugal and the canary islands mostly and Yep ive been to France, ive gone with my family for the past 5 years to Brittany as we have friends with a house over there who we stay with & we get the ferry across! Coming this year as well in a couple of weeks, can't wait :biggrin:

And
so many questions and so many answers to give :biggrin:

There really good Uni's i hear :smile:

i wish i was Scottish sometimes as they dont pay fees to go to uni :frown:

i looked at durham at one point aha looks beautiful there though! Hopefully you'll get your first choices, theres so much competition these days, when do you send your application off?

Reply 9

Imedb

The third book is awesome, yeah ! I didn't really like the movies that came after the fourth one (except for the two last ones, of course) because I genuinely felt like too many things were missing, and those missing elements became plot holes.

Well it depends on the subject, but the most important ones generally have longer exams...the history/geography and lit exams were both 4 hours long. But obviously you can leave if you're done before that time. Okay ! We tend to focus on a period of time each year. This year was post-WW2, last year was end of the XIXth century, beginning of the XXth. Do you have a favourite period of time in History ? :smile:

Haha I've never heard of Wolverhampton, but just googled it and it's not far from Birmingham, isn't it ? Do you like it there ? I've never been to the London eye, neither have I seen a west end show..I'm not a very good tourist !! One of my sisters lived in London for a very long time so every time I came to see her it was more like a trip of immersion in the British way of life, meaning I spent my time going around the city and trying food :tongue:

My favourite place to eat at is Ottolenghi, they cook wonderful things and their restaurants are usually in nice places such as Notting Hill or Belgravia. Next time you come to London, you should definitely stop by !

Oh that's great ! Brittany is such a pretty spot ! What part of the region do you go to ? Believe it or not, you've been there more often that I have haha ! I know Normandy better tbh..

I'm sorry for you about the fees :biggrin:

English fees are sooooooo high, event when you're from the EU because even though they're the same as for British students, we hardly get scholarships. So yeah, when you come from a welfare state country like France where universities are basically free, it's always a bit painful to be forced to take a loan and everything. But I guess it's worth it ! Yeah Durham is cool, it kinda looks like Hogwarts, haha ! But apparently it's a pretty small city with not much to do..

I plan to send it as soon as possible, probably in mid-September, so I'm done with it and can focus on my first year in uni. What about you ?

Reply 10

ElleM1407

Yeh, that what annoys me about film adaptations of books, they frequently miss out parts miss out parts, although sometimes little but are often really important to the plot of the book! Who would you say your favourite character is?
To me that sounds so long as all mine were under 2 hours but we cant leave if were done. So far my favourite period is 19th century (just being able to see how much had changed) but we are doing WW2 next year which I think ill find really interesting.
I live about 40 minutes from Birmingham by bus so its good to go for a day out shopping there sometimes :smile:

Yeh I love where I live as its where ive grown up but at the same time Im excited to move out. There's the rough parts like anywhere but my little area is okay really. You should go and see a show if you ever get the chance! I went to see Les Miserables last year and it was AMAZING haha!

I don't blame you with the food though, its pretty good :P why is the greasiest stuff often the tastiest aha! Had a look at the Ottolenghi site and I'm going to look through some of those recipes :smile:

The places we visit there wile we go are Heulgoat, Concarneau, benodet, beg-meil - been to any of them?
I'm sorry to aha I'm pretty prepared for the fact I'm going to be skint over the next couple of years, im hoping I can get a job near the uni though which will help. Have you looked at Bangor Uni in Wales, that's like a Hogwarts as well :biggrin:

Wherever I end up going I want a balance between somewhere nice and peaceful but also has a night life!
Our school have given us a deadline that they need to be done before Christmas, have you wrote your personal statement?

Reply 11

Mati Migliorero

Original post by Imedb

Coucou Ines! j'ai fais OIB comme toi - j'ai applied through UCAS - et en septembre je vais a l'université de manchester! as-tu des questions spécifiques? :smile: