How do you get an A* in french writing?

The french writing exam is one of the few exams I'm really worried about. I'd say my speaking was A/B, listening was A* and reading will probably be A/A*, so I need to try and get as high a grade as possible to get A* overall. Has anyone got a good website? Anything? Cheers

Reply 1

bohemian

My teacher says you cannot get above a certain mark unless you give at least one correctly formed verb in each of the 3 main tenses (doesn't matter which kind of past/present/future, just one of each). So make sure you get one of those in. Learn a couple of really good formations, stuff like apres avoir and en *verb* etc, drop them in somewhere. Because the topics are quite open, you can always get them in there. Don't write anything if you don't know how to spell it - there are lots of different words for "good" and "nice", so just learn 2 and learn them well, instead of having a huge number of adjectives which you can't use.
Oh, and plan it out a bit - if you're anything like me, you'll be able to write 250 words in slightly under 1 hour :wink:

so you might as well use the time well, and to your advantage. Makes the time pass too.
Good luck.

Reply 2

Krystal

1

well i duno how i managed it in my mocks but i got A*. Just have a few phrases ready. Nice complex ones ....mayb of some random conditional etc. tense. AND MEMORISE THEM. lol.

Reply 3

carlito1

As mentioned, use past, present and future tenses and also a lot of opinions... c'est génial! etc!

Reply 4

butterfly_girl_5

8

My french teacher was the best Ive ever had and this is her advice and whats listed as what gets you A* coursework so its pretty much the same:

-present reflexive
-past perfect
-1 pluperfect
-imperfect
-future
-conditional
-bien que + subjeuctive- not hard-
-bien que je sois- although I am
-bien que je fasse- although I do
-bien que j'aie- although I have
(just throw in one of those- like- J'adore faire de la natation, bien que je ne sois pas sportive- v impressive)
-pronoun- mes parent me donnent beaucoup d'argent
-always extend answers by:-
-parce que
-toutefois
-de plus/en plus
-begin by: le probleme/l'avantage c'est que
or- ce qui est...,c'est que (also ce qui etait.. c'etait que
constant opinion + justification- essential for an A*
-maybe look up some idioms on the internet and learn them- I used 'l'argent ne tombe pas du ciel' in my aural (full marks)

I think thats about it. Just make sure as well, that you try to stick to things your sure on so as to avoid mistakes

Reply 5

ChubChub

OP

1

butterfly_girl_5

My french teacher was the best Ive ever had and this is her advice and whats listed as what gets you A* coursework so its pretty much the same:

-present reflexive
-past perfect
-1 pluperfect
-imperfect
-future
-conditional
-bien que + subjeuctive- not hard-
-bien que je sois- although I am
-bien que je fasse- although I do
-bien que j'aie- although I have
(just throw in one of those- like- J'adore faire de la natation, bien que je ne sois pas sportive- v impressive)
-pronoun- mes parent me donnent beaucoup d'argent
-always extend answers by:-
-parce que
-toutefois
-de plus/en plus
-begin by: le probleme/l'avantage c'est que
or- ce qui est...,c'est que (also ce qui etait.. c'etait que
constant opinion + justification- essential for an A*
-maybe look up some idioms on the internet and learn them- I used 'l'argent ne tombe pas du ciel' in my aural (full marks)

I think thats about it. Just make sure as well, that you try to stick to things your sure on so as to avoid mistakes

That's awesome, thanks.. Whats 'pluperfect' and 'subjective' though? (Ive forgotten so much...)

Reply 6

PrinceOfCats

12

Subjunctive is subjunctive really. Your dictionary will tell you how to form it. Learn it for one major verb (ie etre) and you're sorted.

Pluperfect is imperfect auxilliary + perfect verb.

I don't know which exam board you're all doing, but I certainly didn't have to do any of this to get my A* in French two years ago. I simply wrote something is simple, correct French and didn't think about the tenses I was using. (Bearing in mind that my teacher was a moron, I couldn't have done any more than that.)

Mot a Mot is always good (at GCSE-level).

Reply 7

Cataclysm

2

J'avais parlé is an example of the pluperfect I think and subjunctive is like "apres le premier homme soit affecté."

Google them for better explanations.

Reply 8

[mellifluous]

5

pluperfect:
Is something way in the past. e.g. I had trained often before the competition. (J'avais fait de la natation souvent avant le concours)
Basically its something that happened in the past before another event also in the past.
Its formed using the imperfect as the auxiliary verb with the normal past participle, i.e. similar to the perfect tense (J'ai fait) but with the present tense auxiliary verb replaced with one in the imperfect (J'avais fait)

Subjunctive: is a tense used after some paticular phrases e.g. bien que... (although), j'espere que (I hope that). Its mainly used where there is doubt or uncertainty.
Its pretty evil in terms of grammar but if you just learn a few phrases and know what the key verbs become you should be fine.
faire ---> je fasse
avoir ---> j'aie
savoir ---> je sache
etre ---> je sois
Some phrases using the subjunctive (apologies for lack of accents!!)
Le film etait ennuyeux bien qu'il ait recu de bonnes critiques
(the film was boring although it had received good reviews)
C'est possible, bien qu'il ne soit pas facile, prendre le train a mon ecole.
(it's possible, althought it's not easy to take the train to my school)

Reply 9

dezlee

7

if you want the top marks though, you need to put some idioms in

eg. j'aime vraiment...

there are better examples though

Reply 10

jonojace

3

First of all you pop down to your local Registrar, and change your name to "Jason Jong."

Secondly go back in time with a flux capacitor and take the Manchester Grammar School's entrance exam and then pass.

Thirdly go to school, and make sure in third and fourth year you get a teacher called Mr. Cittanova.

Fourthly do no revision till the night before, cram cram cram.

Fifthly do the exam, but remember to stand on the table and piss on it (it awards twenty three and a third extra marks).

Sixthly sacrifice a newborn lamb in the centre of a funeral pyre piled up 10 metres tall in the centre of PICCADILLY CIRCUS.

Seventhly pick up your results !

OMG A* in French writing (and French), be proud.

Reply 11

ChubChub

OP

1

jonojace

First of all you pop down to your local Registrar, and change your name to "Jason Jong."

Secondly go back in time with a flux capacitor and take the Manchester Grammar School's entrance exam and then pass.

Thirdly go to school, and make sure in third and fourth year you get a teacher called Mr. Cittanova.

Fourthly do no revision till the night before, cram cram cram.

Fifthly do the exam, but remember to stand on the table and piss on it (it awards twenty three and a third extra marks).

Sixthly sacrifice a newborn lamb in the centre of a funeral pyre piled up 10 metres tall in the centre of PICCADILLY CIRCUS.

Seventhly pick up your results !

OMG A* in French writing (and French), be proud.

cheers

Reply 12

Cataclysm

2

ChubChub, often you will find for the first question the letter one if you use simple vocabulary (you can add more advanced vocab) you can gain high marks easily by developing and then moving on. Don't spend too long on that question - you can easily get 18 or 19/20 with little effort if you use the past, present and future and answer all the questions quickly for Question 1. Don't start on Q2. straight away, read slowly and plan for 2-3 minutes, this planning will save you a lot of time later on because you know exactly what to do next and won't babble, in my mocks 5 minutes of planning meant I could write a 150 word essay for Question 2 without having to stop and think a lot and finishing before time to check for mistakes.

Good luck and don't feel daunted by huge lists of what you must include, a few here are there will go a long way.

Reply 13

ChubChub

OP

1

Cataclysm

ChubChub, often you will find for the first question the letter one if you use simple vocabulary (you can add more advanced vocab) you can gain high marks easily by developing and then moving on. Don't spend too long on that question - you can easily get 18 or 19/20 with little effort if you use the past, present and future and answer all the questions quickly for Question 1. Don't start on Q2. straight away, read slowly and plan for 2-3 minutes, this planning will save you a lot of time later on because you know exactly what to do next and won't babble, in my mocks 5 minutes of planning meant I could write a 150 word essay for Question 2 without having to stop and think a lot and finishing before time to check for mistakes.

Good luck and don't feel daunted by huge lists of what you must include, a few here are there will go a long way.

Thanks a lot. I have had the trouble of not knowing what else to write in the middle of an essay, so yeah, I will do that

Reply 14

Scottish_Expatriate

Hmmmm I do Edexcel French and have never learnt nor used the pluperfect tense!
Great advice on this thread though. For an A* I'd definitely suggest using past present and future (including conditional) if possible. It's also impressive if you can use the reflexive past tense- ie je me suis lavé.
Another tip my French teacher told me is to minimise the use of 'je' all the time and use 'on' more-in particular when you are trying to use 'we' as nowadays most of the French prefer to use it to 'nous'.
It's also a good idea to use 'le plus ....' when describing stuff..eg...
'Puis, on a vu La Tour Eiffel, le plus celebre monument a Paris' (missing accents!)
Perhaps shove a few of the other past tense in to sound descriptive if you can..
ie Quand j'avais petite.. and c'etait. (again missing accents!)
Good luck! :smile:

Reply 15

Theorist

10

Does anyone do Edexcel French? How important is it to stick to the world limit?

Obviously you shouldn't go overboard but we were told that if the word limit is 150, they'll stop marking at around 175-200. Vague, I know.

Does anyone know specifically what Edexcel's policy is?

Reply 16

Scottish_Expatriate

I do Edexcel and don't even bother counting how many words I've done...I think if you fill the space, regardless of how many more words you have done it should be OK...though I wouldn't recommend going WAY over the limit!
I think it's always better to do the same number of words or more that they recommend-and isn't the second question meant to be longer?
I've never had a real issue with the word limit and I don't think the examiner will be counting how many words you have specifically-just perhaps if you write waaaay too much or too little, which would be evident just by looking at it.
Good luck! :smile:

Reply 17

PrinceOfCats

12

Actually, it's very important to keep to the limit. If the examiner suspects you are over, they will count and then stop marking once you're over the limit. Probably not too bad at GCSE, but it's best to learn now, because I've seen a script at A-level that should have been A but went to C because their conclusion was cut off.

Reply 18

Scottish_Expatriate

Ooh I see. Hopefully GCSE isn't so strict. Probably best to keep to the word count roughly!

Reply 19

lucy_locket88

DEFINATELY stick to the word limit. You need to answer all the bullet points in the word limit as if you go over 250words to answer a part, the examiner may just not mark it. If you go over make sure it's not an essential part of your answer.

Also, you don't need all of them tenses for GCSE! Past, present, and future are enough! plus, lots of opinions! i didn't even learn the subjunctive until Year 12!

How do you get an A* in french writing?

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