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Help with A Level French tips PLEASE

Hiya all,

I recently have just done my as mocks for the as levels I sit in May-June time. All my subjects were okay except French🤦*♀️ I received a D in paper 1 and who knows about all the other papers!!

For reference I take A Level Psychology, Politics and History in which I’m thriving in politics and psychology but would love to work on history a bit more to improve my grade. Our school makes us do 4 A Levels and we drop one at the end of year 12.

As much as I like my French teachers, I feel like I’ve really lost my spark for the subject especially because of the A Level and want to drop it since I don’t want the subject to be hindering my other grades (especially history!!) if I am going to be forced to have to sit an AS exam in it. Our head of year is pretty hot on people not dropping subjects as he thinks it’s a good “back up” for if you are doing badly in one subject. However, I feel like French is really bringing me down and it would probably more beneficial to me if I say goodbye to the subject overall.

Please put any tips for helping to convince my head of year/sixth form to drop this subject as he is not an easy person to convince! Or if not, and tips and tricks to improve my French - it’s humbling now since I used to get 8/9’s at GCSE!!

Thank you all :smile:
Original post by 4lys3a
Hiya all,

I recently have just done my as mocks for the as levels I sit in May-June time. All my subjects were okay except French🤦*♀️ I received a D in paper 1 and who knows about all the other papers!!

For reference I take A Level Psychology, Politics and History in which I’m thriving in politics and psychology but would love to work on history a bit more to improve my grade. Our school makes us do 4 A Levels and we drop one at the end of year 12.

As much as I like my French teachers, I feel like I’ve really lost my spark for the subject especially because of the A Level and want to drop it since I don’t want the subject to be hindering my other grades (especially history!!) if I am going to be forced to have to sit an AS exam in it. Our head of year is pretty hot on people not dropping subjects as he thinks it’s a good “back up” for if you are doing badly in one subject. However, I feel like French is really bringing me down and it would probably more beneficial to me if I say goodbye to the subject overall.

Please put any tips for helping to convince my head of year/sixth form to drop this subject as he is not an easy person to convince! Or if not, and tips and tricks to improve my French - it’s humbling now since I used to get 8/9’s at GCSE!!

Thank you all :smile:
fellow A level French, History and Politics student here (year 13)!! honestly, the fact that you're no longer passionate about it or enjoying should be justification enough - it is not worth suffering through a subject just because other people think you should!!
tips for paper 1:

make and review quizlet sets for all your consistent mistakes

listen to podcasts or music in French and try following along to see how much you genuinely understand

consistent grammar practice

frequently practice the types of questions where you lose the most marks

tips for paper 2:

do as much translation practice as possible, both english->French + French->English

don't overcomplicate the points in your essay - the key points of your essay should be clear/concise but still analytical for the examiner

consistent grammar practice

tips for speaking:

go through all past papers for speaking and briefly prepare those questions - all questions essentially follow the same structure

make mind maps to summarise the key trends/facts for each topic

during the 5 mins prep time, use time to prepare 1/2 questions to ask the examiner as well as prepping your discussion about the card

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