How to do well in A Level languages?

I do AS French and Spanish my top tips for the writing section is include lots of examples so you can get a good content mark

Reply 3

Anna Schoon

13

Original post by afcnew14

If French AS is anything like the Spanish one then in the writing its all about content, not many marks for grammar etc... So read a few mark schemes and see all the content they ask for.
hope this helps

Hmmm... that depends very much on the exam board.

If you're really serious about going on with French at A2 then you should make sure you get to grips with the grammar. Start with revising your verbs - your conjugation needs to be pretty faultless and, at AS, you should demonstrate that you are able to use the following tenses and moods: present, passé composé, imperfect, pluperfect, future (as in je ferai; not je vais faire), conditional, present subjunctive, imperative. At A2 you add the following to that list: future perfect, conditional perfect and perfect subjunctive. However good your content might seem, if you don't know your verbs you will not be able to communicate your ideas effectively!

Reply 4

AvocatDuDiable

12

Spend a little time each day speaking French to yourself, that's what I did.

Just speak about what you can see around you perhaps. If there are objects you don't know in French, look them up.

Or talk about your plans for the week and do the same thing. Good way of learning new verbs.

I got a D in my written exam but an A overall at A-level, so the oral must have gone well. Follow my advice :wink:

Reply 5

Original post by afcnew14

If French AS is anything like the Spanish one then in the writing its all about content, not many marks for grammar etc... So read a few mark schemes and see all the content they ask for.
hope this helps

Original post by dtin

I do AS French and Spanish my top tips for the writing section is include lots of examples so you can get a good content mark

How do you get a good content mark? I find it difficult trying to find things to say and I do both french and spanish too, do you find that it is quite confusing between them?

Reply 6

Original post by L1000

How do you get a good content mark? I find it difficult trying to find things to say and I do both french and spanish too, do you find that it is quite confusing between them?

I do AQA AS and i would recommend doing 3/4 points on each side of the argument and for every point you make you should think of an example to back it up with. You may find you have enough time to write more than 4 ideas for each argument but i find that i can't because i'm a slow writer.
I used to get mediocre/bad marks in french essays but i learned these ways and i got much higher marks in later ones. In spanish I started ok but when i learned these techniques i got really good so I would say it works.

and yes I do get confused sometimes

Reply 7

Original post by dtin

I do AQA AS and i would recommend doing 3/4 points on each side of the argument and for every point you make you should think of an example to back it up with. You may find you have enough time to write more than 4 ideas for each argument but i find that i can't because i'm a slow writer.
I used to get mediocre/bad marks in french essays but i learned these ways and i got much higher marks in later ones. In spanish I started ok but when i learned these techniques i got really good so I would say it works.

and yes I do get confused sometimes

I do the same board, how are you revising for both? I've sort of written out points for each topic and things, but finding it quite hard to learn all of them and getting confused between the two languages. Are you practicing writing essays for each topics? or just topic vocab in general?

With the examples to back it up with, doesn't it get repetitive saying par exemple or por ejemplo all the time?

thanks so much for your advice :smile:

Reply 8

Original post by L1000

I do the same board, how are you revising for both? I've sort of written out points for each topic and things, but finding it quite hard to learn all of them and getting confused between the two languages. Are you practicing writing essays for each topics? or just topic vocab in general?

With the examples to back it up with, doesn't it get repetitive saying par exemple or por ejemplo all the time?

thanks so much for your advice :smile:

in my experience you can still get a high mark by saying par exemple/por ejemplo all the time but you can try to fit in something like comme in french or como or tal como in spanish
for practice im just looking at potential essay QS and doing plans for them

Reply 9

Original post by dtin

in my experience you can still get a high mark by saying par exemple/por ejemplo all the time but you can try to fit in something like comme in french or como or tal como in spanish
for practice im just looking at potential essay QS and doing plans for them

So do you think the best thing to do is just revise content, remembering what to say for the topics, and using like specific vocabulary to each topic?

Thanks! That sounds like a good idea, good luck :smile:

Reply 10

Original post by L1000

So do you think the best thing to do is just revise content, remembering what to say for the topics, and using like specific vocabulary to each topic?

Thanks! That sounds like a good idea, good luck :smile:

I would say the best way is to revise as many points for each topic as you can and as much topic vocab as you can you dont need to remember every word just the vocab you think will be the most useful in the essays.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 11

Original post by dtin

I would say the best way is to revise as many points for each topic as you can and as much topic vocab as you can you dont need to remember every bit of word just the vocab you think will be the most useful in the essays.

What about for the oral? (Sorry for so many questions :colondollar:

)

Reply 12