how to stop procrastinating(french)

i am struggling to revise and its really bad now there’s 20 days until my french speaking exam and im struggling in french, help!

Reply 1

Ineffable-

It’s difficult not to procrastinate for something you have no passion for but that’s just what discipline is all about. There are 24 hours in a day, you sleep 8 and have 16 leftover, you should use that as your reference.

Reply 2

flâneuse

Idk which level you're taking French at, but I'll assume either GCSE or A Level.

For speaking:
-prioritise as this is your first exam, but remember that if your other papers rely on the vocab that comes from your speaking topics, you're technically killing two birds with one stone.
- get some flashcards, one per topic. On one side, write information/facts. On the other side, write some questions that correspond to the information on the other side.
- if you're doing an IRP for A level, write your speech on a flashcard (use both sides) and time yourself with a stopwatch. Stop the stopwatch after you finish each heading (get a friend to help you if possible, initiate when they should stop) so that you know how long each section takes. Including an intro plus your five headings you're looking at 15-20 seconds each.
- using flashcards again, write questions on each topic that may appear that are not already rehearsed (I believe these are the ! marked ones on GCSE and all questions after the IRP speech and the topic card for A level AQA) and get your peers to do the same. If you do any mocks, write down the questions that are asked too. This diminishes your chances of being thrown a curveball question as you've probably already faced it, which boosts your confidence in the exam.
- for the speaking cards, dig out every single one that you can and rehearse it. If you're doing GCSE and have to describe an image, get any image that you see online (don't be specific, type in something vague so the image is less generic of your search description, alternatively go on Pinterest or instagram and choose something trending).

For reading/listening:
- French subtitles on everything. Watching a K-drama but can't understand spoken Korean? Force yourself to rely purely on the French subs to give you context. If you have video games, put them into French too, especially if you have a simulator game like animal crossing where there's more dialect.
- go on Le Monde and choose an article. You'll be familiar with the content because it's just news that's most likely being broadcast in the UK too. Read it, and say it out loud.
- French podcasts or radio. Get a radio app on your phone and just listen to it each morning as you get ready, even if it's just while you get dressed. Just get the sound of the language familiar in your head. Go on Spotify and pick your favourite genre but from French artists. I wouldn't go for rap/hip hop purely bc it's a little harder to understand at first because of the amount of slang. Indie or Chanson francaise are good options to start with.
- for listening, watch French films/series with no subs at all. I recommend Divines, Intouchables, Amelie, Mortel to name a few. Get used to high and low pitched voices so that you recognise the same words said by different people (and not just the woman on the mock CD). I remember there was a really low voice in my A level listening and it threw me off because I couldn't understand it to the same level that I could understand the high-pitched young woman on the previous track. The more exposure you can get to the sound of the French language (without actually going to France), the better!

For writing:
- TIMING. If you're doing A level you will not have all the time to go into the same amount of detail as an English literature essay. Regardless, learn the structure that your board wants you to follow, look up some exemplar essays and follow even single piece of feedback that you've been given. Your timing will be more efficiently spent if you go in knowing exactly what structure you have to follow.
- Learn some basic phrases that you can throw in that correlate to each topic so you have something to work with if your mind goes blank during the exam.
- Again for A level if you don't already know basic grammar rules or conjugations, you need to iron those out before you get penalised in AO4 (AQA). I am not kidding when I say that this ending up me losing out on getting an A* after my grade breakdown showed that my grade was pulled down due to my misgendering of words, which I realised shortly after leaving the exam hall. Those few extra marks from the writing and I would've got it, so don't think that it's not that important.
- I don't remember how strict they are on GCSE regarding SPAG, but remember to not faff too much in choosing your question if you have more than one option. Just ensure that whatever you pick you cover all the bases regarding your tenses and put in a subjunctive if you can. Once you're out of the exam, don't feel intimidated if you ended up choosing a question that nobody else did. Everyone has different strengths and there's nothing you can do about it now, anyway.

bonne chance :smile: