AQA French - New specification (First AS exams in 2017)

Original post by Razneen

I'm taking AS French this year too! Mainly I'm just noting down lots of vocab, doing memrise and writing out possible answers for speaking cards with facts + mini case studies etc... It's quite difficult to revise it though I think - it's hard to know what you need to know about France itself and its relevance to the topics.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

Yeah i got those exams too, i am sooooo scared omg. The speaking is on Tuesday and i'm so nervous, i forget words like 'a' or 'at' etc and i just freeze.. :'(

Reply 4

I'm not doing the AS version but I am doing A Level AQA French on the new syllabus!! What are your speaking exams like for AS? We are prepping for the A2 version already and it isn't very fun..

Reply 5

Original post by Rex Onocrotalus

I'm not doing the AS version but I am doing A Level AQA French on the new syllabus!! What are your speaking exams like for AS? We are prepping for the A2 version already and it isn't very fun..

Yeah i can imagine smh. Ours is the new syllabus aswell and we basically have 2 stimulus cards based on the topics we've learnt and 3 questions. I'm just so scared because i have a feeling i'm going to freeze :bricks:

Reply 6

Original post by riapatel00

Do you have to ask questions back or is that an A2 thing? It's such a random thing they've placed in oral exams :biggrin:

Yeah I always freeze in my oral lessons, the teacher says something to me and my mind loses all the specialist vocabulary.. it's the worst feeling :s-smilie:

Reply 7

Original post by Rex Onocrotalus

I'm not doing the AS version but I am doing A Level AQA French on the new syllabus!! What are your speaking exams like for AS? We are prepping for the A2 version already and it isn't very fun..

They're pretty scary but hopefully it'll be fine. I have a feeling it'll be hard to tell how I've done afterwards but my teachers seem to think I'll be fine I hope they're right. :s-smilie:

I'm only doing the AS as I'm also doing Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Physics and will probably drop so I can focus on them. The workload just for the speaking is making me glad I have entered myself for the AS as at least I have the choice to drop next year without having felt like I wasted anything. :h:

Basically the exam format is that you prepare two cards for 15 mins in total - each with 3 questions on, and then are faced with a bunch of surprise questions (like around 10 ) for a discussion based on them. You have to include facts about France and the wider Francophone world etc...which I'm guessing is similar to the A2 minus the presentation? So overall quite nerve-racking.

Reply 8

Original post by Rex Onocrotalus

Do you have to ask questions back or is that an A2 thing? It's such a random thing they've placed in oral exams :biggrin:

Yeah I always freeze in my oral lessons, the teacher says something to me and my mind loses all the specialist vocabulary.. it's the worst feeling :s-smilie:

Yeah you do have to ask questions.... It's a bit forced though. :biggrin:

Hard to keep a straight face. I also find that with the notes I prepare in the 15 mins before as I feel somewhat robotic no matter how hard I try while reading them.

Reply 9

we have to ask 2 questions or we loose marks :frown:

its so awks cos idk when to ask them lmaooooo. Yeah. first thing in May aswell :frown:

. I feel sick thinking about it smh

Reply 10

Original post by Bulbasaur10

They're pretty scary but hopefully it'll be fine. I have a feeling it'll be hard to tell how I've done afterwards but my teachers seem to think I'll be fine I hope they're right. :s-smilie:

Holy moly you're doing 5 subjects??? That's impressive!! I'm doing 4, but only 1 is an AS level and I'm stressing out just revising for that :biggrin:

Are you given 15 minutes prep time or is it 5 minutes like for the A2? Everything else you've described is what the A2 orals are like, except with the presentation, as you've said. I quite like the final question on the facts about France and the wider Francophone world for some reason, as it's quite easy that you can rely on the facts to get you through the question and there isn't as much opinion within that question.

Original post by Bulbasaur10

Yeah you do have to ask questions.... It's a bit forced though. :biggrin:

Hard to keep a straight face. I also find that with the notes I prepare in the 15 mins before as I feel somewhat robotic no matter how hard I try while reading them.

Original post by riapatel00

we have to ask 2 questions or we loose marks :frown:

its so awks cos idk when to ask them lmaooooo. Yeah. first thing in May aswell :frown:

. I feel sick thinking about it smh

I agree, my questions always seem to forced it's quite funny :biggrin:

Forming questions in French is quite difficult as well, what with all the inversion and the "qu'est-ce que/est-ce que" etc. I was told to ask them after finishing your answer to the second bullet point and the third. :tongue:

Reply 11

Original post by Rex Onocrotalus

Holy moly you're doing 5 subjects??? That's impressive!! I'm doing 4, but only 1 is an AS level and I'm stressing out just revising for that :biggrin:

Only 5 minutes prep? Eek.... Yeah we get 15 minutes in total. Much better than that :s-smilie:

- although sometimes the more time you get to think, the more you worry and it can sound more fluent off the top of your head that from your notes I find.

Reply 12

Original post by Rex Onocrotalus

Holy moly you're doing 5 subjects??? That's impressive!! I'm doing 4, but only 1 is an AS level and I'm stressing out just revising for that :biggrin:

Only 5 minutes prep? Eek.... Yeah we get 15 minutes in total. Much better than that :s-smilie:

- although sometimes the more time you get to think, the more you worry and it can sound more fluent off the top of your head than from your notes I find.

Reply 13

imma do thatt, thank youuu

I agree, my questions always seem to forced it's quite funny :biggrin:

Reply 14

Original post by Bulbasaur10

Only 5 minutes prep? Eek.... Yeah we get 15 minutes in total. Much better than that :s-smilie:

- although sometimes the more time you get to think, the more you worry and it can sound more fluent off the top of your head that from your notes I find.

Yeah, I think the whole point is so that it tests you on what you can say without planning, as on the old spec it was 20 minutes long and people could just write out their answers. Now, I have to make very brief bullet points which is stressful af :colondollar:

And yeah that's true, my French is always much better when I'm not reading it from notes so I guess I'd get a worse mark for my accent if I just wrote down what I was going to say :biggrin:

Reply 15

Razneen

Original post by riapatel00

we have to ask 2 questions or we loose marks :frown:

its so awks cos idk when to ask them lmaooooo. Yeah. first thing in May aswell :frown:

. I feel sick thinking about it smh

I found it works quite well ask the question for each card after the second question. The question will always be ' Quelle est votre réaction aux informations sur cette carte?', so it's easy to pre-prepare that question :smile:

Reply 16