GCSE French Speaking Exam

Hello, I'm due to take my French speaking exam on Wednesday. I have tried to prepare as best as I can but does anyone have any useful tips?

So far I have been:
- Practising role play cards and picture descriptions
- Learning vocab/grammar
- Looking at forming tenses
- Preparing my conservation topics. I have memorized all of these and I've tried to include at basic list of tenses, persons and structures in each one.

I've never done a proper speaking exam before and I don't really know what to expect so I would be very grateful for any advice or help. Also does anyone know what the average mark would be in a speaking exam?

Reply 1

SagaciousSag

Here are some tips:

- For the roleplay, make sure the answers are as basic as possible. If it tells you to comment on a single problem with your room, say, “Ma chambre est trop chaude/froide.” If it asks for 2 details, say, “Ma chambre est trop chaude et le lit est très petit.” Spend about 1/3 of your preparation time on this, as brief but accurate answers will give you all the marks.

- For the photocard, spend 2/3 of your preparation time writing developed answers. Write at least 3 points (verbs) per question and try to answer every question apart from “Qu’est-ce qu’il y a sur la photo?” with an opinion and reason. These answers should be longer and contain a wider range of structures and vocabulary. Focus on the tense for each question as well.

- For the general conversation, listen to the question carefully (as it likely won’t be in order) and respond with your prepared answer. You will be asked a few surprise questions relating to what you’ve said. For example, if you say you would like to go to France in the future, you might be asked why. If you say you went to the cinema with your friends, you might be asked how often you go to the cinema. A basic response to these questions is fine.

You might also be asked a question related to your planned questions, like “Will you get married in the future?” if you’re answering T1 questions. To help with this, remember a few phrases relating to each theme that can be applied to almost any question, and try and rehearse these so that they come to mind quickly if you get spooked in the exam.

Finally, to answer your average mark question, it depends. Referring to the 2019 AQA grade boundaries (assuming you do AQA), a grade 9 is 53, an 8 is 48, a 7 is 44, a 6 is 39 and a 5 is 35. If you follow the advice I’ve outlined above, remain calm and answer every question, I believe you can get at least a 7 on the day.

Hope this helps!

Reply 2

A2324

Thank you, I didn't realise that they would ask unexpected questions