French A level

Does anyone have any advice on how to get your A-level French grade up ( I’m in year 12 rn and want to revise during the summer holidays )

Reply 1

purplepengu1n

Hi,
This is kinda hard to explain - take all this with a huge pinch of salt because I’ve just sat my French a level and I don’t know if it worked!

Here’s what I did over year 12 and 13

1. Speaking. Created mindmaps on all the key themes (eg we did work, music, the far right) with bits of information I could remember for the exam. Talking out loud to myself was also useful to work on making my language flow a bit more.

2. Listening and reading. I wish I’d done more general vocab learning. A girl in my class read lots of books, which can be useful to expand your understanding and knowledge. I tried listening to podcasts and French music.

3. Translation. These are so hard (you probably know that by now ahaha) but you can practice with past papers, plus the special material made in 2016 (« sample »?) and from other exam boards too

4. Writing. I think the more familiar you are with your book/play/film, the easier it will be to write an essay comfortably.

In terms of general vocab learning, there was a good book called mot à mot for edexel. It had a lot of useful essay phrases too, which can boost your mark. You could also take some time to review grammatical structures you find tricky (for example, it took me a good few times to figure out that depuis uses the present tense even though in English it would be with “have been”)

Reply 2

_mangosmoothie_

Thankyou so much for this. I'm most stressed for the translation because there will almost always be verbs/nouns you don't understand. Year 12 wasn't the best for me and I'm hoping to turn this around in the summer Original post by purplepengu1n)Hi,
This is kinda hard to explain - take all this with a huge pinch of salt because I’ve just sat my French a level and I don’t know if it worked!

Here’s what I did over year 12 and 13

1. Speaking. Created mindmaps on all the key themes (eg we did work, music, the far right) with bits of information I could remember for the exam. Talking out loud to myself was also useful to work on making my language flow a bit more.

2. Listening and reading. I wish I’d done more general vocab learning. A girl in my class read lots of books, which can be useful to expand your understanding and knowledge. I tried listening to podcasts and French music.

3. Translation. These are so hard (you probably know that by now ahaha) but you can practice with past papers, plus the special material made in 2016 (« sample »?) and from other exam boards too

4. Writing. I think the more familiar you are with your book/play/film, the easier it will be to write an essay comfortably.

In terms of general vocab learning, there was a good book called mot à mot for edexel. It had a lot of useful essay phrases too, which can boost your mark. You could also take some time to review grammatical structures you find tricky (for example, it took me a good few times to figure out that depuis uses the present tense even though in English it would be with “have been”)

Reply 3

_mangosmoothie_

Also- I wanted to ask- did this revision that you did in the summer improve the grade you got in year 12 in the beginning of year 13?

Reply 4

Muttley79

Original post by _mangosmoothie_

Also- I wanted to ask- did this revision that you did in the summer improve the grade you got in year 12 in the beginning of year 13?

Anything useful here: https://www.languagesonline.org.uk/Hotpotatoes/frenchindex.html#gsc.tab=0

Scroll down for AS and a level

Thanks so much! 🥰

Original post by _mangosmoothie_

Also- I wanted to ask- did this revision that you did in the summer improve the grade you got in year 12 in the beginning of year 13?

Yes, though whether that was as a result of revision, pure fluke, or signs of a gradual improvement as I learned more and more I'm not sure...

For the translation, it's difficult but at least you can be sure that it's difficult for everyone. When I did past papers, I would make a note of vocab that I didn't know in the hopes that it might come up again. A study set of vocab you find particularly challenging could be useful.

Reply 7

tealpencil

Original post by _mangosmoothie_

Does anyone have any advice on how to get your A-level French grade up ( I’m in year 12 rn and want to revise during the summer holidays )

Duolingo French podcasts are very useful. Use Duolingo if you don't already have an account.
Also if you search 1 jour 1 actu, you can find French news videos which are for children which can defo help with listening and reading practice! The website also has articles for you to read.