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How do I revise for french to get a Grade 9?

I have Memrise, AQA GCSE French Vocab book, grammar book and revision guide.
I don't know what to do with them, how to revise for them, etc. I'm in Y10 so I know there shouldn't be that much rush at the moment. However, I have 11 other subjects to do as well as this one. I want to get quite strong on at least more than half to save myself from the torture I'll get through in Y11.
I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO REVISE FOR LANGUAGES OR HOW MUCH I SHOULD REVISE! HELP!!!

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Reply 1
Spend 20 - 30 minutes every day on memrise learning vocab - that's what got me from a 3 to an 8
Reply 2
Original post by pwk123
Spend 20 - 30 minutes every day on memrise learning vocab - that's what got me from a 3 to an 8

Once you learned the vocab from Memrise, you kept going back to test yourself and ensure you don't forget it, right? Every how many days/weeks?
Reply 3
Original post by Sha.xo527
Once you learned the vocab from Memrise, you kept going back to test yourself and ensure you don't forget it, right? Every how many days/weeks?

Every week I'd try to go through the vocab for 1 of the 4 units
Reply 4
Original post by pwk123
Every week I'd try to go through the vocab for 1 of the 4 units

Ok, thank you! :smile: I was starting to regret picking it, buy you are a life saver!
Reply 5
Original post by Sha.xo527
Ok, thank you! :smile: I was starting to regret picking it, buy you are a life saver!

Are you using the big AQA official memrise set?
Reply 6
Scraped a 7 due to my inefficient revision (a regret of mine). However, I can say for a fact that using a revision guide as your principle tool is very ill-advised. Also, it is very useful to drill yourself on vocab while also testing your grammar and if you want to go the extra mile, listening to videos/songs in french.
Reply 7
Listening to french radio / watching children's TV can get you used to the lisetning section and the speaking general conversation section
not too sure how but I achieved a grade 9 in french in 2019, and I loved listening to french music so much which helped me with listening (you don't need to understand every last word- then I used to find english translations to see if I had general idea/ heard correct vocab)

speaking - I practised as much as I could with my teachers in lessons/ watched some examples online and did photocards and roleplay practice as much as I could, even if I never did the speaking. Practicing quickly creating answers to these will help a lot. For general conversation themes I just learnt a few key phrases that I ensured would allow me to include enough tenses etc. Participating in lessons will help even if its just a word as teachers correct pronunciation which all adds up!!

Reading- if you are super dedicated there is news articles (i think Le Monde is one) you can read and translate + french instagram accounts (e.g popular magazines), and I used quizlet and lingvist to learn as much of the key vocab as possible- also helps with listening. Cannot emphasise enough how important vocab is

Writing- tenses, idioms, grammar practice- particularly higher level tenses like the subjunctive if used correctly will impress the examiner and the imperfect (if I remember correctly as I no longer study french), also negative structures, not just ne pas but ne ni ni and ne plus stand out

I was always told achieving a 9 in French was unattainable as a non-native (thanks to my school for the support lol) but I managed it- so don't let anyone ever tell you its not possible!!! You have plenty of time too so best of luck :smile:

p.s written flashcards never helped me at all !!!
Original post by silverdanger
not too sure how but I achieved a grade 9 in french in 2019, and I loved listening to french music so much which helped me with listening (you don't need to understand every last word- then I used to find english translations to see if I had general idea/ heard correct vocab)

speaking - I practised as much as I could with my teachers in lessons/ watched some examples online and did photocards and roleplay practice as much as I could, even if I never did the speaking. Practicing quickly creating answers to these will help a lot. For general conversation themes I just learnt a few key phrases that I ensured would allow me to include enough tenses etc. Participating in lessons will help even if its just a word as teachers correct pronunciation which all adds up!!

Reading- if you are super dedicated there is news articles (i think Le Monde is one) you can read and translate + french instagram accounts (e.g popular magazines), and I used quizlet and lingvist to learn as much of the key vocab as possible- also helps with listening. Cannot emphasise enough how important vocab is

Writing- tenses, idioms, grammar practice- particularly higher level tenses like the subjunctive if used correctly will impress the examiner and the imperfect (if I remember correctly as I no longer study french), also negative structures, not just ne pas but ne ni ni and ne plus stand out

I was always told achieving a 9 in French was unattainable as a non-native (thanks to my school for the support lol) but I managed it- so don't let anyone ever tell you its not possible!!! You have plenty of time too so best of luck :smile:

p.s written flashcards never helped me at all !!!

+ I revised little and often- if you practice vocab even 5 mins a day (or two times a week for 15 mins was what I did more) it will be effective this early on!!
Reply 10
Original post by pwk123
Are you using the big AQA official memrise set?


yeah
Heya! Doing degree French atm and these are tips that I still use/ did use at GCSE -
1. Learn vocab throughout the year, little by little. No point learning the entire memrise set in an evening, because you won't remember many of the words. Better to learn 10 per day or 80 per week or something and actually try to use them in sentances than just clocking thorugh them!

2. Speak to native French speakers. There are apps like Tandem (where you text native speakers and they correct you whilst you correct their English) which you can use, but there are the obvious risks to that. If you have the money then I recommend Italki, and if not then perhaps your French teacher will know a French teenager looking for a pen pal! The point is that using the grammar and being corrected in the context of a conversation (or even not being corrected, tbh) is often more effective than sitting and practicing grammar exercises, since you are more likely to be paying attention and using a wider variety of structures.

3. Sadly for some, grammar is still necessary, and I found the CGP workbooks really helpful for this. The translations are particularly good, as you can mark them are work out which areas of grammar and vocab you might want to touch up on!

4. Listen to podcasts or watch tv. There's TV5Monde which is quite good, but on youtube there's Extra French which is GCSE level, and then podcasts like Coffee Break French. the more you listen, the more you will get used to picking out the words you know from the ones that you don't.
Reply 13
Original post by silverdanger
not too sure how but I achieved a grade 9 in french in 2019, and I loved listening to french music so much which helped me with listening (you don't need to understand every last word- then I used to find english translations to see if I had general idea/ heard correct vocab)

speaking - I practised as much as I could with my teachers in lessons/ watched some examples online and did photocards and roleplay practice as much as I could, even if I never did the speaking. Practicing quickly creating answers to these will help a lot. For general conversation themes I just learnt a few key phrases that I ensured would allow me to include enough tenses etc. Participating in lessons will help even if its just a word as teachers correct pronunciation which all adds up!!

Reading- if you are super dedicated there is news articles (i think Le Monde is one) you can read and translate + french instagram accounts (e.g popular magazines), and I used quizlet and lingvist to learn as much of the key vocab as possible- also helps with listening. Cannot emphasise enough how important vocab is

Writing- tenses, idioms, grammar practice- particularly higher level tenses like the subjunctive if used correctly will impress the examiner and the imperfect (if I remember correctly as I no longer study french), also negative structures, not just ne pas but ne ni ni and ne plus stand out

I was always told achieving a 9 in French was unattainable as a non-native (thanks to my school for the support lol) but I managed it- so don't let anyone ever tell you its not possible!!! You have plenty of time too so best of luck :smile:

p.s written flashcards never helped me at all !!!

Thank you so much! That was a lot of information, which I appreciate a lot ! :smile:
If I get a Grade 9 I'll come back here and write all of y'all a thank you essay, I didn't expect French to be this hard at GCSE.
Reply 14
Original post by redmeercat
Heya! Doing degree French atm and these are tips that I still use/ did use at GCSE -
1. Learn vocab throughout the year, little by little. No point learning the entire memrise set in an evening, because you won't remember many of the words. Better to learn 10 per day or 80 per week or something and actually try to use them in sentances than just clocking thorugh them!

2. Speak to native French speakers. There are apps like Tandem (where you text native speakers and they correct you whilst you correct their English) which you can use, but there are the obvious risks to that. If you have the money then I recommend Italki, and if not then perhaps your French teacher will know a French teenager looking for a pen pal! The point is that using the grammar and being corrected in the context of a conversation (or even not being corrected, tbh) is often more effective than sitting and practicing grammar exercises, since you are more likely to be paying attention and using a wider variety of structures.

3. Sadly for some, grammar is still necessary, and I found the CGP workbooks really helpful for this. The translations are particularly good, as you can mark them are work out which areas of grammar and vocab you might want to touch up on!

4. Listen to podcasts or watch tv. There's TV5Monde which is quite good, but on youtube there's Extra French which is GCSE level, and then podcasts like Coffee Break French. the more you listen, the more you will get used to picking out the words you know from the ones that you don't.

Cheers, I'll use of all those points :smile:
Reply 15

Didn't think of that one haha, thanks :smile:
Reply 16
Original post by silverdanger
not too sure how but I achieved a grade 9 in french in 2019, and I loved listening to french music so much which helped me with listening (you don't need to understand every last word- then I used to find english translations to see if I had general idea/ heard correct vocab)

speaking - I practised as much as I could with my teachers in lessons/ watched some examples online and did photocards and roleplay practice as much as I could, even if I never did the speaking. Practicing quickly creating answers to these will help a lot. For general conversation themes I just learnt a few key phrases that I ensured would allow me to include enough tenses etc. Participating in lessons will help even if its just a word as teachers correct pronunciation which all adds up!!

Reading- if you are super dedicated there is news articles (i think Le Monde is one) you can read and translate + french instagram accounts (e.g popular magazines), and I used quizlet and lingvist to learn as much of the key vocab as possible- also helps with listening. Cannot emphasise enough how important vocab is

Writing- tenses, idioms, grammar practice- particularly higher level tenses like the subjunctive if used correctly will impress the examiner and the imperfect (if I remember correctly as I no longer study french), also negative structures, not just ne pas but ne ni ni and ne plus stand out

I was always told achieving a 9 in French was unattainable as a non-native (thanks to my school for the support lol) but I managed it- so don't let anyone ever tell you its not possible!!! You have plenty of time too so best of luck :smile:

p.s written flashcards never helped me at all !!!

do you have any recommendations of French music that you really liked?
Original post by Sha.xo527
do you have any recommendations of French music that you really liked?

stromae, madame monsieur in particular I found easy to listen to and understand :smile:
baguette
Reply 19
Original post by lawmanqq1999
baguette

croissant

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