2014 LC French - all levels - discussion, predictions, practice your French

linguist · 11-06-2014 9:56pm

@foxymm: What do you think about the 'comme'? It's not entirely extraneous in my view so I'd be hoping it wouldn't attract -1.

foxymm · 11-06-2014 9:57pm

Compréhension auditive: 2014
Sec 1
- her phone didn't have any more battery life.
- bags were too heavy - had to pay a fee / supplementary charge
- had to wait 4 hours as his plane / flight was delayed.
- They weren't on the right train.

Sec 2
- 25 years ago
- mornings: likes to be present / to be at the sunrise above /over the sea
- afternoons: likes to fish on lake Corrib
- that he's the laziest man in the world when he's on holidays.
- water's too cold
- produce a new album for children
- little outings into the woods looking for mushrooms (as he's interested in gastronomy)

Sec 3
- his French teacher
- his father did theatrical classes when he was at university.
- The story's about a group of criminals
- the action takes place at the beginning of the last century.
- it's his first time (getting up) on stage
- His sister is coming home from the US that day (20th December) and his mum has already promised to pick her up in Toulouse.

Sec 4
- waiter in a restaurant
- (restaurant located 60km from his home )and he turned it down due to price of petrol - wasn't worth it.
- politicians who do nothing
- not too affected by the economic crisis
- ask for help from charity organisations in town when they arrive.
- 2 doctors stopped working last year.
- one who continues to work is 92 years old.

Sec 5
- because of a huge / big flood.
- €30,000
- in the bin of the café
- he was driving a tractor on the motorway.

foxymm · 11-06-2014 10:03pm

linguist wrote: »

@foxymm: What do you think about the 'comme'? It's not entirely extraneous in my view so I'd be hoping it wouldn't attract -1.

Comme should be fine in or out

In because it highlights the fact she doesn't fear heading off AS she's dreamt about travels and faraway lands

Out too as it states the fact of wanting to do this didn't frighten her, duly fulfilling the " Pourquoi"

There could indeed well be battles about this at conference!

linguist · 11-06-2014 10:03pm

Your listening is well aligned with me. Just a couple of things: there's no way they can insist on Lough Corrib as it simply wasn't clear enough. It took me until the third listening to be sure. Also, yes I heard the 'grande inondation' but I'm hoping they won't insist on the adjective. I think it refers to the phenomenon of flooding rather than a flood in the Biblical sense or even a big puddle in the road, so there's an awful lot of possible translations (severe, major, bad etc...) I'm hoping they're lenient on that and just stick to flooding. 'Big flooding' just doesn't sound great in English!

foxymm · 11-06-2014 10:05pm

The more I think about that the more it sounds better IN.
Lol:D

ave123 · 11-06-2014 10:13pm

just hoping i passes this exam to be honest. i felt like my grammer was awful in the written production, i didnt study grammer much before the exam, more essay type answers...i felt like i did better in the listening than i would normally do, but im afraid my answers were abit vague and i wont get marks....i found the comprehensions were moderately difficult, both question 4,5 on both comprehensions caught me...and i hope my english bit was up to scratch....just praying i pass it..

foxymm · 11-06-2014 10:14pm

I wasn't at all trying to formulate a marking scheme but everyone seem's to have found today's aural very easy so if that's the case across the board they will be insistent on certain specifics for full marks I'd imagine e.g. Sect 4 Q2: according to Alain, what are people fed up with...? Politicians WHO DO NOTHING ( qui ne font rien).

I wonder will they insist on the sunrise being ABOVE/OVER THE SEA (au-dessus de la mer). This is where the parameters could get interesting.

linguist · 11-06-2014 10:18pm

I'm in agreement with you virtually all the way - my point on the flooding was the fact that 'grande' would be better translated to other adjectives in English and from a marking point of view that could get complex.

Yes, I think the 'au dessus' will be in there for the 3 and I think you're right on the politicians too.

foxymm · 11-06-2014 10:23pm

On the job offer refusal I'd imagine a lot of students would have answered that it was 60km away without hearing and mentioning specifically "à cause du prix de l'essence".

Flooding will be awarded the marks no doubt without the need for the supplementary adjective 'grande'

Correction Q4 (ii) of second comp: should be

"Comme Lisbeth rêvait de voyages et de contrées lointaines."

Alannahokl · 12-06-2014 12:18am

I have just finished my last leaving cert exam which was French. I did horrific its scary! I shouldn't have sat the higher level paper:( my oral was ok.. What's the chances of me passing? I need reassuring please:(

linguist wrote: »

Do you know at this point which mock paper you did? Examcraft was generally regarded as very challenging this year.

My hunch would be not to drop if you got a D1. How did the oral go? As with any exam, there are sections on the ordinary, particularly the written, that would require practice and the chances are you've done nothing specific on it. Moreover, As on ordinary level French are very rare since very high precision is required on the postcards/notes etc.

I sat it anyway at HL. I don't know how to feel. I think I did around the same as the Pre! I litteratly only want to pass it anyway so I can get into university. Just hate that bad feeling you get when I think you failed:( chances of failing are slim though are they?
Thanks for your help

Dee15 · 12-06-2014 7:41am

I actually thought this exam went really well until I looked at the marking schemes that people posted!

yoajing · 12-06-2014 8:25am

Dee15 wrote: »

I actually thought this exam went really well until I looked at the marking schemes that people posted!

lol i know right? I'm the exact same

Dee15 · 12-06-2014 8:34am

yoajing wrote: »

lol i know right? I'm the exact same

Hopefully I'll get marks, even 3 out of 5 per question in the first reading comprehension otherwise I'm in trouble! I wanted a high B in french!

Alannahokl · 12-06-2014 12:00pm

Dee15 wrote: »

Hopefully I'll get marks, even 3 out of 5 per question in the first reading comprehension otherwise I'm in trouble! I wanted a high B in french!

Could you tell me where the marking scheme is please?:O

Alannahokl · 12-06-2014 12:21pm

mec1 wrote: »

You have 4 pieces written so they normally correct all 4 and choose your best 3. First of all you did the obligatory question 1. Then you did one each from q2, q3 & q4. These will be corrected and the best ones chosen. Examiners understand that mistakes like this can be made. You won't be penalised.

Do you get any marks if you misunderstood the question but still wrote something?

Dee15 · 12-06-2014 1:47pm

Alannahokl wrote: »

Could you tell me where the marking scheme is please?:O

I haven't seen it yet, that's why I said I hope I'll get the marks! But someone put up the right answers a few posts back so you could look at that

linguist · 12-06-2014 1:58pm

The key point here is the difference between a solution such as the one I posted and a marking scheme.

A solution aims to give the 'right' answer - the one that should carry five marks. However, there will be many partial mark answers. One of the difficulties on the reading comprehension this year was the fact, in my view, that more questions required manipulation rather than direct quotation than in previous years. The general penalty for failing to manipulate where required and just lifting your answer from the text is one mark. However, I've spoken to a few colleagues about this, and Q.5.(i) on the journalistic comprehension is so complex that I can't see a way you can arrive at a correct answer without substantially manipulating along the lines I and others have suggested. That said, there will always be one or two really hard ones because the exam must discriminate between candidates of different abilities.

Here is what anybody worried needs to take by way of reassurance. At the end of the marking process, the same broad spread of A1, A2, B1... grades will be arrived at as in every other year. So the marking scheme will have to be developed and adjusted until it achieves that. Every year in August, people stress the night before their results about that horrible Maths/Biology/French exam, and every year the fears are dispelled because the same overall results have to issue. So if you've always been a C, the chances are you'll still be a C after yesterday. And if you finally got a B3 in that extra mock you did in May, you've every chance of holding it.

mec1 · 12-06-2014 2:24pm

My understanding is that the examiners are sympathetic to students. If what you write or part of it even can be understood to address the question in any way, the benefit of doubt will be given to the student. A good examiner will always try to see things from the student's point of view. Remember that the majority of examiners are teachers themselves. They are acting on behalf of the student believe it or not. What you write has to have some relevance to the question asked as you can imagine so as long as some effort is being made to tackle the topic, marks will be awarded accordingly.

Alannahokl · 12-06-2014 2:28pm

mec1 wrote: »

My understanding is that the examiners are sympathetic to students. If what you write or part of it even can be understood to address the question in any way, the benefit of doubt will be given to the student. A good examiner will always try to see things from the student's point of view. Remember that the majority of examiners are teachers themselves. They are acting on behalf of the student believe it or not. What you write has to have some relevance to the question asked as you can imagine so as long as some effort is being made to tackle the topic, marks will be awarded accordingly.

Thanks. I made a fairly big mistake tho!:( it said Irish sport n I saw 'admire' n I thought it said Irish sportsman r woman u admire n started talking about soccer! That's bad:o hopefully I get something ?:(

mec1 · 12-06-2014 2:37pm

Fair enough. However, the question is in 2 parts. You are asked to answer 2 questions posed by Claudine. First of all, it's talk about a sport that you are doing at the moment and then it asks about an Irish sports star that you admire the most so if it's any consolation, you will still be on track for the first 15 marks and may get some of the remaining for the second part of the answer also. 15 marks is 3.75% of the total 400 and you may even pick up some of them?

curlyclodagh · 13-06-2014 1:38pm

For the listening comp, do you think they'll let me get away with saying "he was driving a tractor on the motorway TO Calais" and "he had to pay a FINE because his bags were too heavy?

AtomicKoala · 13-06-2014 3:45pm

curlyclodagh wrote: »

For the listening comp, do you think they'll let me get away with saying "he was driving a tractor on the motorway TO Calais" and "he had to pay a FINE because his bags were too heavy?

Well, given the first is a 2 marker I'd say you'll get the 2 marks.

I think you may only get 2 of 3 though for the second one (assume they don't mess around with the marking scheme). But sure who knows!

curlyclodagh · 13-06-2014 4:04pm

AtomicKoala wrote: »

Well, given the first is a 2 marker I'd say you'll get the 2 marks.

I think you may only get 2 of 3 though for the second one (assume they don't mess around with the marking scheme). But sure who knows!

Gaahhh so frustrating because I was going to write supplement, but I thought they'd be looking for a less direct translation

hopefully they'll see 'fine' as a synonym! Thanks!

Flickka · 13-06-2014 4:14pm

curlyclodagh wrote: »

Gaahhh so frustrating because I was going to write supplement, but I thought they'd be looking for a less direct translation hopefully they'll see 'fine' as a synonym! Thanks!

That's what I thought too except I translated supplément as "extra". Not sure if I'll get the marks for that either...

Did anyone else give the line "Les animaux de la ménagerie font partie du spectacle" for the question about ferocious animal in the 1st comprehension? I just assumed that Ménagerie meant household but can't find a translation... It was a kind of a stupid question though because exotic animals aren't necessarily ferocious and then Lions and Tigers aren't the only ones that are!

Dee15 · 13-06-2014 8:39pm

Flickka wrote: »

Did anyone else give the line "Les animaux de la ménagerie font partie du spectacle" for the question about ferocious animal in the 1st comprehension? I just assumed that Ménagerie meant household but can't find a translation... It was a kind of a stupid question though because exotic animals aren't necessarily ferocious and then Lions and Tigers aren't the only ones that are!

I wrote the same thing! Yeah it seemed like there was more than one answer for some parts of it!

robman60 · 13-06-2014 8:50pm

Flickka wrote: »

That's what I thought too except I translated supplément as "extra". Not sure if I'll get the marks for that either...

Did anyone else give the line "Les animaux de la ménagerie font partie du spectacle" for the question about ferocious animal in the 1st comprehension? I just assumed that Ménagerie meant household but can't find a translation... It was a kind of a stupid question though because exotic animals aren't necessarily ferocious and then Lions and Tigers aren't the only ones that are!

I just knew menagerie because it's an (uncommon) English word. It just means a place where wild animals are kept, I think.

It was a stupid question though. I got the correct answer because I wasn't sure even though I understood all of the surrounding text. The absence of lions, tigers and elephants doesn't prove there weren't any ferocious animals there.

scareyc · 13-06-2014 9:05pm

robman60 wrote: »

I just knew menagerie because it's an (uncommon) English word. It just means a place where wild animals are kept, I think.

It was a stupid question though. I got the correct answer because I wasn't sure even though I understood all of the surrounding text. The absence of lions, tigers and elephants doesn't prove there weren't any ferocious animals there.

I said 'ni lion, ni tigre' cuz in my head they're ferocious, but it was a pretty vague question..

AtomicKoala · 13-06-2014 9:31pm

Yes, I thought the questions in general on the first comprehension were badly worded. I hope it doesn't cost me my grade

Flickka · 13-06-2014 9:49pm

robman60 wrote: »

I just knew menagerie because it's an (uncommon) English word. It just means a place where wild animals are kept, I think.

It was a stupid question though. I got the correct answer because I wasn't sure even though I understood all of the surrounding text. The absence of lions, tigers and elephants doesn't prove there weren't any ferocious animals there.

Aww damn. That's so frustrating. I bet that's going to cost me my A

robman60 · 13-06-2014 10:08pm

Flickka wrote: »

Aww damn. That's so frustrating. I bet that's going to cost me my A

Well it'll cost you 5 marks maximum, so 1.25% of your total grade. I won't be too concerned about one error like that.

On a side note; one can't underestimate the value of a good English vocabulary for French. The reading comprehensions are loaded with words that are very similar to English words. In many cases, they aren't common English words so a wider vocabulary can be necessary. The "menagerie" case in our exam exemplifies this.

I remember doing one recently where it was necessary to know the word "nonchalant" in order to get the correct answer.

Allision2343 · 14-06-2014 3:16pm

Does anybody know where I can get really old French higher level leaving cert exam paper like from1980 s or 1990?They don't have them back that far on examinations.ie and I really need them for study for the leaving cert next year.im looking to get a really high grade in French possibly an A.

Canard · 14-06-2014 3:22pm

In that case, why not go a little more advanced than what you usually find in LC French? Read real French articles online the way you'd read a comprehension, it's really helpful. There are also books out there with English on one side and French on the other.

As for the written pieces, to get some more of those you could look at the Spanish/Italian/German exams and just use those questions instead. They're usually quite similar.

Allision2343 · 16-06-2014 11:23am

Does anybody know where I can get really old HL French LC exam papers like back in 1990 or 1980.I know I'm probably digging to deep here...I really want an A in French for leaving cert and I want to be prepared and I need to look through all reading comp for any words that came up.Id be SOOO grateful.someone has to have them!

linguist · 16-06-2014 11:49am

There are one or two of the old exams on examinations.ie - the current syllabus was examined for the first time in 1997. However, I fully second Canard's advice. If you're looking to really better yourself in French, go to the source. Read authentic materials in French and get yourself to France. Btw: Disneyland doesn't really count!:)

linguist · 16-06-2014 11:56am

As regards reading comprehension 1, I see the light is dawning on people that this wasn't such a sound paper after all. I'd say there'll be some interesting discussion at the conference on those ferocious animals. I really think the lions, tigers and elephants sentence is the one they're after, but as I stated earlier elephants, it could be argued, are not naturally ferocious in the way the other two are. I entirely agree with robman regarding the menagerie - it does not imply dangerous or ferocious animals in any way. However, cancelling the two answers out, that sentence may well be allowed.

If any of next year's Leaving Certs are looking in, can I absolutely second robman's comment about the role your English vocabulary has in French. Read widely and read quality material in English and don't just content yourself with a good passive vocabulary, enrich your active vocabulary too. It's time we got ourselves up off the floor in this country regarding our dire standard of everyday English and got over the nonsense about the greatest English in the world etc. As someone who sees the effects of what Rob is getting at, as a French teacher, it's a real issue. There - rant over:)

dazzy123 · 24-06-2014 9:16pm

Flickka wrote: »

Aww damn. That's so frustrating. I bet that's going to cost me my A

I've seen on some of the old papers that there's more than one accepted so don't worry it's probably the case her as it was not a very clear question

mec1 · 24-06-2014 10:28pm

Got to agree here with Linguist. The system in 1980s was completely different in a lot of respects. Emphasis was placed on reading short stories etc. and adopting a very literary approach towards topics.

TV5 has a good website which can be used. It's up to date topically speaking. frenchrevision. co. uk is now, I think, pay for use but is good for revision. Educationscotland. gov. uk has good revision practice for listening. BBC bitesize is handy for very basic revision in 5th year over certain topics.

Hitting the forums on various websites based in France is good also except that the grammar and spellings leave a lot to be desired.

A lot of work needs to be done on the Listening section. Think about it. 20% of your total goes on this section. It's easy to work on. There is so much material out there and yet, it is the one section that students often do the least amount of work on.

linguist · 18-08-2014 6:19pm

Hi all, reopening this thread for one last spin. May I ask if anyone was disappointed with their higher French result or if it was at the lower end of their overall marks? I realise that this isn't scientific but I'm a little disappointed with some of mine and would appreciate a sense of whether people are planning to view their French etc. Feel free to PM me if you don't wish to divulge your circumstances in the forum. Thanks!!

a0ifee · 18-08-2014 6:25pm

linguist wrote: »

Hi all, reopening this thread for one last spin. May I ask if anyone was disappointed with their higher French result or if it was at the lower end of their overall marks? I realise that this isn't scientific but I'm a little disappointed with some of mine and would appreciate a sense of whether people are planning to view their French etc. Feel free to PM me if you don't wish to divulge your circumstances in the forum. Thanks!!

I got a b2 which was kind of disappointing, I think my oral really saved me though because it went really well while the aural went awful for me. It was my lowest grade, I'll view it but I have a feeling I was on the lower end of a b2

Sucette! · 18-08-2014 8:13pm

linguist wrote: »

Hi all, reopening this thread for one last spin. May I ask if anyone was disappointed with their higher French result or if it was at the lower end of their overall marks? I realise that this isn't scientific but I'm a little disappointed with some of mine and would appreciate a sense of whether people are planning to view their French etc. Feel free to PM me if you don't wish to divulge your circumstances in the forum. Thanks!!

I got an A2, would have been borderline A2-A1 all the time.
Towards the end I thought I had brought myself up to an A1 standard, (my teacher agreed). I was a little dissapointed, but got the points I needed and more for my course so I cant really complain.

In general we would have had a class with an extremely high standard. Yet there was only one A1, 4 A2's and the majority gathered in the B1-B3 area. Compared to more or less the same class for Irish where there was at least 6/7 A1s. I thought I was better at French than Irish, but obviously not!

linguist · 18-08-2014 8:18pm

I now know only too well that I'm among the high achievers here. I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate you all on your performance and I know that many of you here really excelled. I'm putting my 'ordinary teacher's' coat very much back on this week so I'm really looking to get a sense of how much actual disappointment there is out there with French. You'll know from the stats that the national percentages are down at the higher end. What I'm interested in is how that's translated into people's actual result versus what they expected. Your answers so far are very helpful.

HelenAnn · 18-08-2014 8:23pm

I was happy with mine - I managed an A1. French has always been one of my best subjects though and I was hoping to get that. I wonder if the marking schemes for the listening and reading comprehensions were particularly strict this year because a lot of people seemed to find them easy?

FHB · 18-08-2014 8:28pm

Despite doing some real scrutinising of the reading comprehensions and listening comprehensions and panicking a little bit as I realised how many things I didn't get fully correct(You may remember this linguist

) I ended up with an A1 in the end. I was really aiming for one, so I'm happy. I thought it could have gone either way between an A1 and A2, but luckily I must have done just enough to get over 90%. I'd say the written pieces and oral really helped me out.

AtomicKoala · 18-08-2014 8:58pm

I was really worried I had gotten an A2, but in the end I got an A1. I wasn't particularly fantastic at French (I got a B in the JC), but I worked hard at it once I scraped into the top class in 5th year. I never felt I had a particular flair for it, but I wanted to be able to speak another language

I made mistakes in the comprehension section and the listening, but I was more worried about the Oral than anything else. Anyhow, I was very happy to get an A1 in the end - I gave myself about a 40-50% chance of doing so

mec1 · 18-08-2014 9:06pm

linguist wrote: »

Hi all, reopening this thread for one last spin. May I ask if anyone was disappointed with their higher French result or if it was at the lower end of their overall marks? I realise that this isn't scientific but I'm a little disappointed with some of mine and would appreciate a sense of whether people are planning to view their French etc. Feel free to PM me if you don't wish to divulge your circumstances in the forum. Thanks!!

Not a large concern but one C1 will be looked at when the papers arrive back as thought she would get at least B1.

A number of years ago we did have an issue in the school. The Oral marks appeared to be lower in many instances than those received in the written paper so would not be surprised to see this as a worry for some schools.

The written section can be marked differently from examiner to examiner so slight variations can result in differences. For example, if I give 20/30 for one and you give 23/30 for the same one, multiply that by 3 answers and its 5 or 6 marks.

linguist · 18-08-2014 9:16pm

mec1, Thanks very much for this. Yes, the oral is a real issue and I have specific concerns about this year's one which I won't detail here in public view. All candidates need to know that only a sample of their recordings will have been listened to at this point and that the marks awarded by each examiner will have been altered in the light of that process. As a result, it is highly desirable for candidates who feel the oral brought them down to appeal on that basis. It is the only guarantee that your recording will be listened to and that you will be credited with the exact mark you deserve. Your oral mark will not appear on your script and you will have to calculate it. Thus, if your written + aural come to 62pc and your final grade is a C3, you know that your oral would be down between 55-58/100.

Daniel2590 · 18-08-2014 9:26pm

I knew my chance of an A1 went out the window after my oral - the examiner was interrupting me every sentence I spoke (asked me my daily routine and interrupted before I got to breakfast), so I ended up getting quite annoyed during the oral and may then have made mistakes. Ended up with an A2 in the end but I'm having a look at my paper just to see :P

linguist · 18-08-2014 9:30pm

In fairness Daniel, s/he may simply have realised they were dealing with a very good candidate and sought to move the conversation along in order to maximise the level of your knowledge you were able to demonstrate. Having examined the orals, I can assure you that is entirely possible. Don't draw any conclusions until you've looked at your written and aural. If they're safely in A2 territory, it'll be difficult to find the marks on the oral.

IrishLoriii · 06-06-2015 5:19pm

BUMP This may be a very helpful for 2015 LC French

Peregrine · 06-06-2015 6:12pm

IrishLoriii wrote: »

BUMP This may be a very helpful for 2015 LC French

I don't think having both threads open will be practical. I'll leave a link to this one in the 2015 thread.

If you want to speak in French, you could always do it the 2015 thread too

** 2014 LC French - all levels - discussion, predictions, practice your French **

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2014 LC French - all levels - discussion, predictions, practice your French