Higher French Revision
Information about exam:
Listening and Short essay (120 -150 words) (1 hour)
Reading and Directed writing (150 words) (1 hour and 40 minutes)
Listening
All students have been issued with a listening pack containing a CD containing 9
past exams, question papers, transcripts and answer sheets to help prepare
them for this exam. Each listening paper should only take about 30 minutes to
complete. Students should then mark their own answers using the answer sheet.
They should then read the transcript while listening to the tape again. New words
should be noted and their meaning looked up in the dictionary.
The listening exercise should be repeated again but at a later date and the
improvement in achievement should be noted.
In the run up to exams at least three of these should be done each week. During the
rest of the year one per week would be sufficient to maintain and improve listening
skills.
Reading and Translation
Students should revise frequently from their own exercise books. Work covered in
class such as new vocabulary, essay phrases, verbs and tenses and new
grammar points should be reviewed and learned so that students are able to use
them in their own work as required. New vocabulary is introduced for each new topic
covered.
Students will have completed past reading papers which they should revise.
In the translation exercise at the end of the reading paper students must
concentrate on accuracy, be aware of tenses and use good English. They must
make good use of the dictionary for any new words or phrases which are unfamiliar.
The Leckie and Leckie Higher French course notes has many short passages which
can be used for translation practice.
Directed Writing
A large number of advice sheets have already been issued to pupils on this topic.
Pupils write in past tenses: perfect and imperfect. They must be clear about when
each tense is appropriate. (See exercise book for class notes on this)
The last bullet point is often in the present or future tense.
Address the bullet points. Read the advice given on P84 (Leckie and Leckie)
Page 58- 76 of this book gives excellent advice, vocabulary and phrases to cover to
enable students to ensure all bullet points are well covered. Students must take time
to learn these phrases thoroughly to enable them to tackle the directed writing with
confidence. They should tackle the last two scenarios on Page 76 for additional
practice.
Websites for Revision
www.bonjourdefrance.com
www.diplomatie.gouvfr/jeunes
www.realfrench.net
www.tv5.org
www.lemonde.fr
www.languagesonline.org.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcse bitesize/french/listening/
I wish our students much success in the forthcoming exams.
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