AQA A2 French Speaking

My speaking exam is tomorrow! D: I plan on writing my one minute presentation out as a paragraph, that's how I did it in both of my mocks. Then I try and think of some of the questions the examiner might ask and draft bullet point notes for what I might say in response. I hate the idea that they could ask you pretty much anything that you haven't prepared!

My cultural topics are the war in Algeria and the book l'Etranger by Albert Camus

For the first part is there choices of two topics which are in different sections of the textbook if you know what I mean. So could there be two cards: one on Renwable energy and the other on Pollution, or are they from completely different sections? Any tips for the exam as well?!

No, they won't give you two stimulus cards that are both from the same overall section. The choice will either be Environment & Multiculturalism, Multiculturalism & Contemporary Social Issues or Environment & Contemporary Social Issues.

Just try to stay confident, even if inside you're thinking "oh no what do I say now" try to sound as if you know what you're talking about. For the one minute presentation at the start, come up with about 4 or 5 points- you don't need to go into loads of detail on them, you can justify them later on. Take control of the discussion- try to anticipate what the examiner might ask next. Their questions follow on from your answers so lead them to ask something that you're prepared to answer.

Don't worry if you haven't learned massive chunks of text off by heart because you have no way of knowing for sure that the examiner will ask the questions you've prepared and if it sounds too scripted, you'll receive lower marks for interaction. Give your opinions as much as you can. And don't worry about a few little mistakes here and there (grammar errors, hesitations, misunderstanding a question) because no one is perfect and when you're speaking spontaneous French for 15 minutes there are bound to be some mistakes.

I have no idea how mine went (and there's a 4 month wait to find out) but I'm just so glad it's over now and I can concentrate on other things! Good luck everyone!

Thanks for this! Big help.. So in essence you can actually not revise one of the 3 topics? Obviously it's risky as you're then limiting yourself, but I don't like multiculturalism topic and my exams soon.. So, when you choose the card and prepare the card and speak for one minute, what occurs in the rest of that 4 mins? Did your examiner just stick to things on that card or move onto other areas of that subtopic (if that makes sense)? So say card was on pollution, they'd more than likely ask about renewable energy etc?
Thanks

You can definitely get away with that method. I also hated that topic.

Yeah it makes sense, as its a waste revising it. Although it does mean you have to cover both other ones intensely, just in case you can only actually do one of the cards (I.e other one is on multiculturalism).. How was your exam?

I did A2 German, not french. Got a card on racism (which i hadnt revised for) and on the death penalty. Definitely make sure theres nothing on the other 2 topics that you couldnt talk about. It was alright, didnt do amazing, came out with a B overall at A level.

Thanks for this! Big help.. So in essence you can actually not revise one of the 3 topics? Obviously it's risky as you're then limiting yourself, but I don't like multiculturalism topic and my exams soon.. So, when you choose the card and prepare the card and speak for one minute, what occurs in the rest of that 4 mins? Did your examiner just stick to things on that card or move onto other areas of that subtopic (if that makes sense)? So say card was on pollution, they'd more than likely ask about renewable energy etc?
Thanks

That's exactly what we did, our teachers decided it would be better to not teach one of the topics then we had more time to do the other two in more detail (the one we left out was Contemporary Social Issues). But even if you only learn/revise two, there will still certainly be one stimulus card that you can do. There's a 1 in 3 chance that your choice will be between two topics that you've done, but if not then at least you're not wasting your preparation time choosing a card because you know straight away which one to go for.

In general the examiner will just challenge things that you've said, so you'll have to defend and justify your opinions- don't change sides. That first 5 minutes is like a debate, and I think most of the time they do stay within the area of your stimulus card.

Yea I understand what you mean the topics for German sound the same a French? B is very good at A Level, I got the same at AS, but it's definitely my liability subject, it's so hard, especially speaking exam! For the stimulus card, does the examiner stick to that for the whole 5 mins or do you talk about other topics in that Chapter?

Thanks! Which topic did you miss out? Did you get a card on something you liked? Mine would be pollution. It's just random some of the cards I've looked at from past exams. The debate section is the one that worrys me and always having to expand. Did you add in a lot of your own knowledge, stuff not in te book etc? Just wouldn't know what to do if I was stuck on a question, it's such a pressure situation!

We just did Environment & Multiculturalism, so we missed out Contemporary Social Issues. I was hoping for something in Multiculturalism because that's my best one and I got racism so I was quite happy with that. I used my own knowledge as part of my presentation and she asked me about my own experiences, such as "Has racism been a problem at your college?" In that situation it doesn't matter if your answer isn't true, it matters that your answer is consistent with everything else you've been saying- you have to stick to the viewpoint that you took in the 1 minute presentation.

I know what you mean, I hate the idea that they could ask you anything! But I think they understand that- a lot of the examiners are former teachers who have taught A Level language students and understand how nervous we'll be. They can't- and don't- expect you to be fluent enough to reply to unprepared questions without any hesitation at all, so if you need a moment to think about what to say then that's completely fine.

You've put me at ease a bit thanks! So they're likely to just ask around the topic on the card, so preparing well on the topic, you should be able to adapt it to any kind f questions.. We're you encouraged to add in facts, figures and other extra stuff along those lines? And yeah I worry about that and varying structures, using subjunctives etc

You're welcome, we're all in the same boat here! When's your exam? I didn't really use many facts & figures but if you did use a statistic or something you could completely make it up and the examiner wouldn't know. We did a period of history as one of our cultural topics and were always told that it's not the end of the world if you can't remember the dates because the examiners won't know the exact facts and even if they did, they'd be more interested in hearing your opinions etc.

All my grammar knowledge completely goes out of the window on the day of the test but do some practise and it should get better, especially on areas you're not as confident on- I always got imperfect and conditional mixed up and I had to do so much revision on that. I always tried to get a subjunctive into the one minute presentation- I learned a few phrases that I could use with a subjunctive (stuff like il est essentiel que) and the only subjunctives I used were of avoir, etre or faire because I just thought those were easiest to remember.