A2 French CCEA - essay predictions?

Anyone could any predictions for the essay for Tuesday's exam?
I'm studying L'Étranger!

Any predictions would be great!

Reply 1

neeson

so far there seems to always be 1 question based on character and the other theme. Meursault is the only character with enough to write about and they've already had questions on the absence of God in his life, his reactions to the public and love, so I think it will be a more straightforward question on his relationship with a particular character(s), possibly his mother or marie!

For the theme question, possibly something on the absurdity of life or non-conformism.
I will probably choose the character Q because it's somewhat easier!

Reply 2

KitschyFox

I hope we get a character question - I'll cry if my only options are trial based :colondollar:

What about his attitudes to women ? Importance of religion/belief in God to society ? I'd be somewhat prepared for those two.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

unclekevo

I'm doing La Symphonie Pastorale, not confident at all, really hoping the other parts of the exam can bring me up because I just can't get my head around Lit

Reply 4

KitschyFox

I usually suck at making predictions but "analyse his attitude toward Marie"? Please and thank you~

Saying that I still think I drifted too far and didn't hit all the points...

If anyone's still reading this thread, what did you think ?

Reply 5

L'onclesoul

Original post by KitschyFox

I did the attitudes to Marie too. I talked about their first meeting, which was quite 'mignon', and then on to the more sexual and less flattering things, like Meursaults actions in the cinema, his refusal to marry her, countering these points with how he felt about Marie being called his 'mistress' and how he replaced God with Marie during his last days in Prison. I concluded with how he was only interested in the physical etc etc and all that rubbish, and stated that although he doesn't love her at any point throughout the novel, he does seem to appreciate the impact she had on his life while he's in prison.

Did anyone else do something similar to me?

The exam on a whole was quite tricky, wasn't it? Can anyone remember if there's marks for use of French in the listening paper? I know I didn't spell traffic aérian, properly... which is forgivable in my eyes, but probably not in CCEAs.
The first part of the written exam (fill the blanks) was easy for me, but it was flook as I've come across some of the words in further study. No one else in my class seemed to know what 'paroles' were...
True, false and not given were and always have/will be a complete nightmare. I get so stressed over the little things I can hardly tell the correct answer. After some discussion after the exam I think I might have got the 10/10 I needed in that section
The written comprehension was OK, again some ambiguities throughout... like the covering of grass with tarmack and it's effect when floods happen is something that's taught in Geography... but I didn't know whether it was relevant to the question about the geographic of the town... I decided against it and just wrote about the rivers etc instead, which is, according to my prof, probably the right answer.
Prose was the hardest thing in the exam. Made multiple mistakes that I knew I was making but had no way around it. Got most of the hard things like the Preceding direct object etcetc, but couldn't figure out how to go about saying 'You must be'... ended up using 'Il faut que tu sois..', knowing it was wrong but putting down something anyway.

Despite how morbid I'm being now, it could have been a lot worse for me!
How about you?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

KitschyFox

Original post by L'onclesoul

....

Now that is what I mean when I say I missed points :P Yours sounds really good ! I'd planned for one about women in general, so I didn't remember to include a lot of what you did.. mine was much more general I suppose.

-Purely physical nature of the relationship, simple pleasure
-How his actions/words hurt her
-He loves her as much as he can, he is happy with their relationship and will make her happy (ie marry her if it's what she wants)
-Then talked about his thoughts about Marie in prison, not paying much attention during her visit.

I definitely didn't score much for content, I see now :/ I bunged in a load of quotes from all over though so pity me please CCEA :P

I thought the exam went /all right/. I didn't even attempt to spell that, just said it in a round about way :P Oh what did you get for the second place you couldn't wear burkas ? And I checked a past paper and they don't mention any marks for correct-ness of French :smile:

I debated between parole and programme, it WAS parole wasn't it :frown:

Only remember one T/F being weird to me, about the guy's hotel..? Geography I talked about being in a valley and the overflowing river, I mentioned the tarmac when describing why they were angry with the government.

Ah that exact prose sentence buggered me too ! Definitely the trick phrase in that piece. I started with "Il faut" as well but chickened out and went with "Tu dois etre" which I didn't much like :/ "Il a envoyé un texto" ? I saw 'text' and was like 'Huh!?'

Definitely agreed, the exam did NOT go atrociously thank gosh !

I'm so glad of TSR, there's no other French student in my year to discuss all this with !

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 7

L'onclesoul

Original post by KitschyFox

I debated between parole and programme, it WAS parole wasn't it :frown:

It was a town hall! Which messed me up because obviously I dismissed that idea because of 'Hotel de ville', however, I wrote business and public buildings, and well... a town hall is a public building so if I get a nice examiner she might excuse it.
It was parole, yes, meaning 'speech' or in this context 'giving the young people a voice'.
I put not shown for the one about the hotel, the text asked people not to use the flood as an excuse for not going to (whatever the place was), it didn't actually tell us whether the flood stopped tourists or not. My confusion was with the one about the banks bursting, because I didn't read it properly the first time round. It was grand in the end, like! I don't remember the question about the Government, just about police or something? Meh!
I said 'enoyé une texto' (after looking it up, I realise the gender's wrong, ah well!).
Your essay sounds good, too! I think we just approached it in a different way, but probably had similar quotes. I only had 7 quotes at the end, but that should be enough to satisfy them! haha.

Reply 8

KitschyFox

Original post by L'onclesoul

...

Hmmm I put government building, so let's hope we get the same kind examiner :P Ahh, I knew it meant speech but I thought programme meaning something like schedule or plan of action :s Ah well.

I flipped between all three options then eventually settled for True cos I had no idea.. 2 marks I can deal with losing :P The government one was actually why the people were angry or something and I talked about government action/urbanization or whatever P:

I think I put down any Marie-Meursault quote I could think of so most likely ! First thing I did when I opened the paper was flip to the back and write down relevant quotes for the essay before I forgot them :P

Well naught to do now until August, hope results day treats you well :smile:

Reply 9

L'onclesoul

Original post by KitschyFox

And to you! I still have my oral to do on the 30th, so I can still retrieve some marks back, thank God! haha.
Good luck! :smile:

Reply 10

neeson

just reading through what you thought of it - on the whole it wasn't too bad!
The listening is my weak point so I realised i got the numbers at the start wrong and it was just not good for me. Got on ok with the 'fill in the gaps' at the start, luckily knew most of the words though had to take a guess with 'chanceux'/tenter etc.

I did l'attitude envers Marie question too, character Q's are by far easier!
i just wrote about how he told her he didn't love her and that marriage wasn't a big deal to him, that he noticed her looks but couldn't look at her during the trial.. tried to get deep saying that his attitude was because he was an outsider/stranger and it wasn't that he just didn't love her but he didn't love anyone in his life - linked to his mother. Don't know if i hit the points either tbh!

Translation was ok though i didn't know the word for 'noise' (had a total blank!) but remembered 'noisy' so used that to say it was noisy instead. also didn't know the verb 'to notice' and the was some confusion over what tense to use for things like 'on arriving.. '.
Still have my A2 oral to do next week and repeating the whole AS oral and written paper so fun times ahead!