JC French: How long to spend on each question

carrig2009

I'm just looking for advice on how long people think I should spend on each question in the Junior Cert French written exam. How many minutes should I allocate to the letter/postcard/note as opposed to the comprehensions?
Here's the actual marks break down, can anyone give me advice on how long to spend on each question?

Junior Cert French
320 marks
Total time: 2hours 30 minutes (150 minutes)

Section I - Listening Comprehension (140 marks) 40-45 minutes.


SECTION II - Reading Comprehension (100 marks)
N.B. This section must be answered in English – except for Q. 4 on page 11


SECTION III - Written Expression (80 marks)
N.B. This section must be answered in French. Answer both (a) and (b)

Eims14

carrig2009 wrote: »

I'm just looking for advice on how long people think I should spend on each question in the Junior Cert French written exam. How many minutes should I allocate to the letter/postcard/note as opposed to the comprehensions?
Here's the actual marks break down, can anyone give me advice on how long to spend on each question?

Junior Cert French
320 marks
Total time: 2hours 30 minutes (150 minutes)

Section I - Listening Comprehension (140 marks) 40-45 minutes.


SECTION II - Reading Comprehension (100 marks)
N.B. This section must be answered in English – except for Q. 4 on page 11


SECTION III - Written Expression (80 marks)
N.B. This section must be answered in French. Answer both (a) and (b)

Idk how long but my grinds teacher.said start from the.back and do the letter and stuff.first because it should.take less time to answer the.easier comps if your in a rush

Liordi

Eims14 wrote: »

Idk how long but my grinds teacher.said start from the.back and do the letter and stuff.first because it should.take less time to answer the.easier comps if your in a rush

Doing the letter first is probably the worst advice you could give someone.
If you read the comprehensions, you've already got some vocab in your head for the letter.

@OP
I'd spend approximately an hour on the reading comprehensions leaving you a decent amount of time for the letter/postcard.

Generally, whenever I do a French/German exam (Christmas, Summer, Mocks)
the first thing I do is write out all the verb endings in each tense and self correct my letter ensuring endings are correct - using a highlighter is probably useful.

VG31

Yes, definitely to the comprehensions first. Timing should not be an issue in French.

Make sure you get the first question in the exam (the signs question) correct as that is worth more marks than the than the other comprehensions!

Eims14

Sorry if that was bad advice but I could see where she was coming from like if your a slow writer its easier to tick a few boxes rather then formulating sentences-but really time shouldnt be an issue as VG31 said so whatever suits you..

mayogirlie1

french isn't really an exam where you'll be stuck for time. I left with 30 minutes left and got an A!

Mr Rhode Island Red

VG31 wrote: »

Yes, definitely to the comprehensions first. Timing should not be an issue in French.

Make sure you get the first question in the exam (the signs question) correct as that is worth more marks than the than the other comprehensions!

I second that. Our teacher said all too often people rush through the first few comprehensions, under the illusion that they are easy, and make costly mistakes because of it

carrig2009

Thanks guys! Yep I think that's good advice... I'm thinking I'll start by reading the written questions, so that they'll be in my head, and possibly make a short spider diagram of things I might want to say. Then I'll do the comprehensions, giving myself an hour to finish them, which should be loads. Then I'll do the writing with should still give me a good 40 minutes for the letter/postcard/note etc.
And then I'll go back and read over the whole paper. Thanks!