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AQA A-Level French Speaking Exam [Exam Discussion]

any advice on getting a solid A in the speaking exam for french a-level? im stressin as the idea of only having 5 minutes to prepare an unseen card is terrifying
any help on how to use those 5 minutes effectively? i always seem to run out of time and i haven’t even got to the 3rd question, let alone thought about the 2 questions i have to ask the examiner!!

cheers :smile:

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Reply 1
Original post by heisenbatch
any advice on getting a solid A in the speaking exam for french a-level? im stressin as the idea of only having 5 minutes to prepare an unseen card is terrifying
any help on how to use those 5 minutes effectively? i always seem to run out of time and i haven’t even got to the 3rd question, let alone thought about the 2 questions i have to ask the examiner!!

cheers :smile:


I'm doing the A-level too. Did you do the AS? I don't know if this will get you an a but I found making a set of five question structures that could be changed according to the topic useful for the as. also learn lots of set phrases so you don't need to worry about structure
Reply 2
Original post by anna257
I'm doing the A-level too. Did you do the AS? I don't know if this will get you an a but I found making a set of five question structures that could be changed according to the topic useful for the as. also learn lots of set phrases so you don't need to worry about structure


we did a mock of the AS, but i still struggle with preparing the cards in such little time!
thank you for your advice! :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by heisenbatch
we did a mock of the AS, but i still struggle with preparing the cards in such little time!
thank you for your advice! :smile:


do you have access to a French person who you can practise speaking with? we're really lucky at school as we have a French assistant so we practise a card/just speaking nearly every week. I found it helpful to wing it a few times with no preparation at all to see what I could make up on the spot. if you have someone you could talk to even if it's not a card it's really useful
Reply 4
Original post by anna257
do you have access to a French person who you can practise speaking with? we're really lucky at school as we have a French assistant so we practise a card/just speaking nearly every week. I found it helpful to wing it a few times with no preparation at all to see what I could make up on the spot. if you have someone you could talk to even if it's not a card it's really useful


yeah we have a speaking lesson once a week for an hour, but it generally just turns into a chat rather than proper work... and i end up feeling underprepared!
Original post by heisenbatch
yeah we have a speaking lesson once a week for an hour, but it generally just turns into a chat rather than proper work... and i end up feeling underprepared!


I relate to that so much! My speaking exam is May 10th and I'm so nervous
Reply 6
Original post by CresentHan
I relate to that so much! My speaking exam is May 10th and I'm so nervous


mine’s may 10th too! good luck
Reply 7
Original post by CresentHan
I relate to that so much! My speaking exam is May 10th and I'm so nervous


Original post by heisenbatch
mine’s may 10th too! good luck


Mine's the 10th too! :redface: Feel like I know nothing atm :/
Original post by sundae
Mine's the 10th too! :redface: Feel like I know nothing atm :/


Original post by heisenbatch
mine’s may 10th too! good luck


My german is on May 9th! I write answers to 6 questions, some of which are specimen questions, and learn them along with set phrases. I got an A at AS

Another Tip: Learn phrases which let you stall for time like 'What an interesting question'

x
Reply 9
Original post by graceflower4747
My german is on May 9th! I write answers to 6 questions, some of which are specimen questions, and learn them along with set phrases. I got an A at AS

Another Tip: Learn phrases which let you stall for time like 'What an interesting question'

x



Ahh it's all so soon! I'll be so glad to get it over with.

That sounds like a good idea. Are you doing an IRP? That's definitely my biggest concern at the moment as I know what I want to say I just can't say it? (if that makes any sense :rolleyes:)
Original post by sundae
Ahh it's all so soon! I'll be so glad to get it over with.

That sounds like a good idea. Are you doing an IRP? That's definitely my biggest concern at the moment as I know what I want to say I just can't say it? (if that makes any sense :rolleyes:)


Yes I'm doing german climate change policies (boring but I don't have many interests lol)
I've got my 2 minute presentation then prepared paragraphs for the discussion on things I've mentioned, eg. my opinions on nuclear energy.
What have you done?
Reply 11
Has anyone else seen the sequence for the speaking cards on the AQA website? I'm trying to guess what card i might get. For example it says student 1 gets yo choose from cards E+L but who does student 1 relate to? Like first alphabetically or the first person to have their seaking exam? I'm revising everything equally anyway im not going to completely chance it haha but might give me a better idea going into the exam as to what might come up :smile:
Original post by s-roli
Has anyone else seen the sequence for the speaking cards on the AQA website? I'm trying to guess what card i might get. For example it says student 1 gets yo choose from cards E+L but who does student 1 relate to? Like first alphabetically or the first person to have their seaking exam? I'm revising everything equally anyway im not going to completely chance it haha but might give me a better idea going into the exam as to what might come up :smile:


omg i need to know the answer to this !! i'm going to be first to take my speaking exam so maybe i can figure what i'll get aaaah i'm so stressed !!
Original post by ohsnapitstee
omg i need to know the answer to this !! i'm going to be first to take my speaking exam so maybe i can figure what i'll get aaaah i'm so stressed !!


This is only a specimen sequencing table, the actual one will be different
Reply 14
Original post by ohsnapitstee
omg i need to know the answer to this !! i'm going to be first to take my speaking exam so maybe i can figure what i'll get aaaah i'm so stressed !!


Original post by graceflower4747
This is only a specimen sequencing table, the actual one will be different


Off topic but how are you all revising for the cards? Don't know if there's any point trying to learn a load of statistic?
Original post by sundae
Off topic but how are you all revising for the cards? Don't know if there's any point trying to learn a load of statistic?


Hey!! I'm asking myself the same question. How do you all revise for the cards?
Reply 16
Original post by graceflower4747
This is only a specimen sequencing table, the actual one will be different


Ah okay, thanks for letting me know :smile:
Reply 17
The way I’m revising the cards is I’m making little summaries of each topic and sub topic with all the relevant information from my textbook. They’re basically like cheat sheets so I can include key vocab, phrases to remember and a couple of statistics that I can throw into the conversation somewhere, and then I’ll condense that into Flashcards so I can try and memorise it all off by heart.

Hope this helps :smile:
Hey hey :hi:

This looks like a really useful exam thread! I've added it to our big list of exam threads here where you can find helpful threads for all the exams you're doing. If you want to make any more exam threads, let me know the link and I can add it in as well! Happy revising! :dance:
Reply 19
Original post by s-roli
The way I’m revising the cards is I’m making little summaries of each topic and sub topic with all the relevant information from my textbook. They’re basically like cheat sheets so I can include key vocab, phrases to remember and a couple of statistics that I can throw into the conversation somewhere, and then I’ll condense that into Flashcards so I can try and memorise it all off by heart.

Hope this helps :smile:


Ah that sounds like such a good idea. Wish my exam board had make textbooks but we've got absolutely nothing :frown:
(edited 5 years ago)

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