French

Leaving Cert Student

So my teacher doesn't help me a whole lot. Anyone that can answer these questions it would be greatly appreciated.

- For comprehensions, in replying do I write full sentences or only ever quote directly?
-For written pieces, how many words should they be?
-is it advisable to do the letter or the diary entry?
- In general which is more important, rich vocab or precise grammar.

Thanks to anyone who can help

007driver

1. Depends on the question, some will ask for words, some phrases . Sometimes it will say take out or find where you can quote straight out of the piece others might need a bit of minupulation.Q6 in english dont forget to make reference to the piece you can quote in french for the reference.

2. It tells you on the paper, Q1 around 90 , the other two are 75. You can write more but you might make more mistakes so try stay close to 90 or 75.

3. Which ever one you think is easier, I would do the diary because I don't have to remember the format.

4. know your grammar, keep sentences easy dont try anything difficult unless you know it. Its mostly about not making mistakes.

bonne chance

Leaving Cert Student

007driver wrote: »

1. Depends on the question, some will ask for words, some phrases . Sometimes it will say take out or find where you can quote straight out of the piece others might need a bit of minupulation.Q6 in english dont forget to make reference to the piece you can quote in french for the reference.

2. It tells you on the paper, Q1 around 90 , the other two are 75. You can write more but you might make more mistakes so try stay close to 90 or 75.

3. Which ever one you think is easier, I would do the diary because I don't have to remember the format.

4. know your grammar, keep sentences easy dont try anything difficult unless you know it. Its mostly about not making mistakes.

bonne chance

Thanks so say I write 75 words for a 75 word essay and the french, in terms of vocab is OK but there are no mistakes, should that merit an A?

little sis...

I'm in 5th year but we already started doing reaction pieces/diary entries/letters and comprehensions at higher level and our teacher is brilliant so I'll try to answer your questions.

1) well firstly, your reply in comprehensions is dependent on the question. Sometimes you will have to quote a full sentence directly e.g. if it asks 'citez la phrase...'

Sometimes you need to give one word answers and also you must only give a certain amount of info as you will be penalized for every extra, unnecessary word.

Other times you will have to quote from the text but make a few changes e.g. changing 'ma' so 'sa' or 'mes' to 'ses'....

And it is best to never try and show off your french in the comprehension as it just tests your ability to read french and answer the questions BASED ON THE TEXT. Try not to alter the text where possible unless needed.


2) I know the question says around 90 words but this is the trap that most people fall into. People think you only need 90 words but my teacher (who goes to the meetings about marking schemes for french papers and corrects exams) says that it is almost impossible to get an A with just 90 words. she says between 150-250 is sufficient. She even went to the trouble of complaining about this and how it misleads the students but they just replied by telling her that the key word is 'AROUND 90 words'.


3)

whichever you're better at is the real answer to that I guess!

4) well if I had 2 essays in front of me, one with good grammar AND rich vocab and then another one which is just average because it just has good grammar although there are no mistakes, I'd give the first one an A1 and the other a high B borderline A2.... remember you're competing with people who probably would include both to be on the safe side.
Personally I just learn a few general phrases with rich vocab that can be used everywhere.

Hope that helps!

Leaving Cert Student

little sis... wrote: »

I'm in 5th year but we already started doing reaction pieces/diary entries/letters and comprehensions at higher level and our teacher is brilliant so I'll try to answer your questions.

1) well firstly, your reply in comprehensions is dependent on the question. Sometimes you will have to quote a full sentence directly e.g. if it asks 'citez la phrase...'

Sometimes you need to give one word answers and also you must only give a certain amount of info as you will be penalized for every extra, unnecessary word.

Other times you will have to quote from the text but make a few changes e.g. changing 'ma' so 'sa' or 'mes' to 'ses'....

And it is best to never try and show off your french in the comprehension as it just tests your ability to read french and answer the questions BASED ON THE TEXT. Try not to alter the text where possible unless needed.


2) I know the question says around 90 words but this is the trap that most people fall into. People think you only need 90 words but my teacher (who goes to the meetings about marking schemes for french papers and corrects exams) says that it is almost impossible to get an A with just 90 words. she says between 150-250 is sufficient. She even went to the trouble of complaining about this and how it misleads the students but they just replied by telling her that the key word is 'AROUND 90 words'.


3)

whichever you're better at is the real answer to that I guess!

4) well if I had 2 essays in front of me, one with good grammar AND rich vocab and then another one which is just average because it just has good grammar although there are no mistakes, I'd give the first one an A1 and the other a high B borderline A2.... remember you're competing with people who probably would include both to be on the safe side.
Personally I just learn a few general phrases with rich vocab that can be used everywhere.

Hope that helps!

Hey cheers, ya I have heard this same thing about the length of pieces, it is ridiculous that a guideline is effectively throwing you off... Nobody seems certain on it either, have heard people saying that by writing 200 words you piss the examined off big time and make way more mistakes anyway...

As for the quality of french, I think I am the same, precise language and a couple of rich phrases. Have a hard time finding universal phrases that apply to lots of topics though, what ones do you use yourself?

007driver

That can't be true about the 90 word essay, if 90 words is what they ask for it should be enough to get an A. I think what most people do for it is that they don't give two points.

idomatic french is needed for the top barrier, so learn some idioms.

Leaving Cert Student

007driver wrote: »

That can't be true about the 90 word essay, if 90 words is what they ask for it should be enough to get an A. I think what most people do for it is that they don't give two points.

idomatic french is needed for the top barrier, so learn some idioms.

What is an idiom, can you give an example? To be honest I have heard quite a lot that 90 words is no longer really sufficient, crazy really

little sis...

Leaving Cert Student wrote: »

Hey cheers, ya I have heard this same thing about the length of pieces, it is ridiculous that a guideline is effectively throwing you off... Nobody seems certain on it either, have heard people saying that by writing 200 words you piss the examined off big time and make way more mistakes anyway...

As for the quality of french, I think I am the same, precise language and a couple of rich phrases. Have a hard time finding universal phrases that apply to lots of topics though, what ones do you use yourself?

Really? Never heard that... They can't really do that because they have to follow the instructions given when correcting the paper, unless they're just downright mean
The mistakes thing is just about perfecting your grammar and practicing. Did a test on reaction pieces last week and got 29/30. I had around 10-15 mistakes (of a page and a half of writing) but that was overlooked by my vocab and rich phrases.

I use ones like 'C'est en vaut la peine' (it is worth it) and 'Ça me prend la tête' (it does my head in) and 'je pense partager l'avis de beaucoup en disant que..' (I think that I share the opinion of a lot of people by saying that....)

Gael23

Leaving Cert Student wrote: »

So my teacher doesn't help me a whole lot. Anyone that can answer these questions it would be greatly appreciated.

- For comprehensions, in replying do I write full sentences or only ever quote directly?
-For written pieces, how many words should they be?
-is it advisable to do the letter or the diary entry?
- In general which is more important, rich vocab or precise grammar.

Thanks to anyone who can help

Always write full sentences at higher level, if you don't you simply will not get the marks.
You are always told its quality over quantity, and to an extent it is but you need to write a certain amount of words to achieve that. If it says say 75 words then you should be aiming for 65 minimum, they won't count but don't just write 3 sentences!
I'm going to say do the letter, you learn off the format by practising as many letters as possible so then you just have to expand on the points given. I would say vocab and grammar are both important at higher level but that vocab would be just that bit more important.

007driver

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056877958

theres a good few there.

Je parle francais comme une vache espangole. I speak french like a spanish cow.