50 in French - ask me anything

[Maddie Trinh]

First off, congrats on your amazing score. You must have put in hell of a lot of studying and hard work to get that. ^^

If I may, do you have any tips for writing better in french? I read a lot of french books but I often find it very difficult to synthesize the way authors write, as such any french writing I do tends to sound really strange.

Also, this might be a weird question but how much french slang do you think examiners are fine with? For example from the dropping of the 'ne' to common but incorrect grammatical sentences such as 'tu fais quoi?'

Thanks for any help.

[bingoman]

Hi there Maddie and thanks for your kind words. For your first question, my number one tip would be to improve your writing in English first, paying particular attention to the content and logical structure of your writing. Structure is particularly important in the French exam; the assessors really want to a see a well-ordered piece of writing with meaningful and topic-focused paragraphs. After you have perfected this, the key is to learn a wide range of vocabulary and connective phrases to enrich the content of your writing. Check some of my earlier posts to see the books and other resources that helped me enhance the range and accuracy of the vocabulary that I used.

The second question is an interesting one, and one that I asked my teachers on numerous occasions before the exam. Personally, I dropped the "ne" throughout the exam; it was definitely easier to speak more fluently without it. However, you should make sure that the standard of your oral is at a reasonably high level before doing this, as you don't want it to seem that you don't know the correct grammatical phrasing of negation. You seem like a committed and strong student in French, so you should go with whatever you are most confident with. If speaking without the "ne" comes more easily, by all means go for it. The judicious use of other slang (e.g. idioms) can also make your oral seem more natural, but take care, and don't use words that you don't know the meaning of. Make sure, however, that you always address the examiners as "vous" as opposed to "tu": the exam is still a formal interview, and you don't want anything you say to be misconstrued as disrespect.

All the best, I'm sure you will achieve an excellent result next year.

[dux99.95]

Thanks for your advice I was reading your other posts too and your advice is so helpful. And WOAH, international scrabble player?! You're such a high achiever - congrats on your accomplishments!!

I'm still choosing my in-depth study topic for Hindi. Most people do celebrities(inspirational political figures) or issues/cases (like how you did). I'd like to do something different, so far I've thought of:
- Positive thinking / the psychology behind it (Things like the effect of thoughts on your mind, feelings, behaviour, life, etc and how motivation occurs and why willpower > motivation etc). This I feel is a great topic because it's completely new but also gives me TIME to read inspirational, motivational books.
- The science behind yoga postures (so I talk about the in depth physiological effects of each posture and the effect it has). I prefer the above topic because this is very in-depth and there is vast amounts of knowledge to be learnt. I don't do BIO or PDHPE either.
What do you recommend? ^ And do you say we should map out a path in our oral for the in depth study as well as the general conversation?

[Maddie Trinh]

S'il vous plait, pourriez-vous être mon prof de français?

Hahaha, in all seriousness thank-you very much for your interesting advice. I find that writing is extremely important in second languages but often isn't addressed to the level that it needs to be. Your second advice pertaining to slang is also very reassuring.

Once again many thanks, best of luck for this year but I have no doubt you'll smash it ^^.

[bingoman]

Hi saloni99.95, all the best with Hindi this year and thanks for your kind words! Personally, I would choose the yoga postures topic, but perhaps you could combine it with your ideas on positive thinking, after all, yoga has been scientifically shown to enhance both physical and psychological wellbeing. You definitely seem to have some very creative and original ideas, so I'm sure you will do very well in the detailed study section.

[bingoman]

Apologies excelsior, I missed your last question. As for the questions about personal qualities, it is easiest to talk mostly about the positive aspects of your character: e.g. I am friendly, diligent, hardworking and risk-taking, but I would also encourage you to mention one thing in your personality that you might want to improve: e.g. I find that I get distracted when I am busy with so many things (essentially a negative-positive combination there). The question about expectations for your working life is probably a more complicated way of phrasing the following: what careers are you interested and what are the different aspects encompassed by these professions. Hope that helps.

[JongJong]

Hey I was wondering if you could post the results from your statement of marks?
Thanks!

[rosecookiie]

Hi Anand, congratulations on two amazing scores!! I was just wondering, what was the most effect method of study for you for French throughout the year

[angelopie]

Hello!
Congrats for your results…
I am really finding myself struggling with French listening…The stress in the exam and trouble comprehending however the main problem is that I feel like I do not know whether I am studying for french listening effectively.
I have listened to a lot of french news, songs, movies etc but still feel like that is not enough.
Is the solution to do practice papers over and over? I have heard many things from a lot of different people and would love to know the best tricks/tips from someone who did really well!!
Thanks a lot!

[bingoman2000]

Hi all, apologies for my inactivity on this thread, mainly due to how busy I was in the second half of 2017. I am happy to revive this thread for the next few weeks before the university term starts to answer any questions that anyone might have about French.

[MissSmiley]

Hi all, apologies for my inactivity on this thread, mainly due to how busy I was in the second half of 2017. I am happy to revive this thread for the next few weeks before the university term starts to answer any questions that anyone might have about French.

Hi Anand
Firstly, a big big congrats on your tremendous achievements ! It's amazing how you've achieved great perfection in every single subject of yours, which has contributed to the whooping ATAR!! You certainly have a fantastic and bright future coming your way!! 

Could I just ask Anand, how did you approach reading comprehension in terms of extracting relevant info and then did you find synonyms for all the words? Obviously you're likely to get credited for your originality in writing, but can you still use words from the text? I seem to be all right with exams, might be because of a shorter text,  but sometimes I find it hard to structure my French response in an effective way which will ensure I cover all the important information from the text.
Could you suggest anything specific for this, or just practice?!!

Also, do you think studying a film, a documentary and an article about the film are acceptable for the three texts for Detailed Study? (our topic is French Cinema)

Thanks Anand!

[bingoman2000]

Hi there MissSmiley Thanks so much for your good wishes, I'm definitely thrilled with how everything went last year and am excited for what the future holds. In terms of how to approach the reading section, I highly recommend having a read of the passage first without looking at the questions. This can often help you to be more attentive about the content and not just focused on finding the required information to answer the questions. Following this, I would look through the questions and highlight the key words and phrases in the passages that will help you answer them. Make sure that you are aware of the number of points required for each question; I remember that occasionally, under the pressure of an exam-style situation, I would accidentally forget to write down a piece of information. Particularly in the first part of the reading section (respond in English), be aware that there are often holistic theme-based questions that will require to synthesise the passage(s) as a whole. In other words, be detail-oriented but also focused on the broader ideas inherent in the text.

As for responding in a French, I personally think the best way to show your command of the language is to use a variety of sophisticated sentence structures (for example changing verbs to nouns or active voice to passive voice, or converting sentences in the indicative given in the text to the conditional or the subjunctive). Using synonyms can also help, but my personal opinion is that there is no need to use more than a few of them. The assessor basically want to see that you can go beyond merely copying the text, and you can assure a strong mark for your writing skills in the reading section by enriching your writing sparingly and judiciously with some advanced vocabulary and grammatical structures. Often, overusing synonyms can lead to a loss of precision and clarity in your answers, which in turn can lead to you losing valuable content marks, so it's essential that you are able to convey the desired meaning in your response regardless of the exact approach that you take.

Just to add to this, I recently lead authored the newly released Cambridge Checkpoints book for French 3/4. If you want even more detailed advice on how to approach each of the sections of both the oral and written exams as well as access to my detailed written answers and annotated essays for all of the VCAA exams for the past ten years, I highly encourage you to consider this resource. It is available from both Cambridge itself, as well as all the other major textbook and general online retailers (Campion, JP Books, Amazon, etc.) The book also contains ample topic-based grammar and vocabulary revision, all of which will help you continue to refine your skills in the lead-up to the exams.

As a final note, it's great to see that you are already planning for the Detailed Study. Your choices for the resources are definitely appropriate, but I'd suggest narrowing down your theme a bit (French cinema sounds a bit too broad to me). Perhaps try focusing on a specific genre of film, a particular actor or a given period when French films were particularly innovative or creative, for example, the 60s. You can find more information about French films in the 60s in a reading text in the 2015 VCAA paper; the text certainly gives a lot of insight about this sub-topic. Again, if you want some more advice on how to approach the oral, feel free to ask me any other questions that you might have or consult Chapter 2 of my Checkpoints book, which is dedicated to providing detailed advice and some sample responses for both parts of the oral.

I hope this answer helps you in getting started for the year ahead. All the best for everything and keep up the hard work.

[snowisawesome]

Did you finish vce in year 11 Anand?

[MissSmiley]

I hope this answer helps you in getting started for the year ahead. All the best for everything and keep up the hard work.

Thank you so much for this highly detailed response I must say, Anand! 
I'm definitely looking forward to purchasing your Checkpoints!

And yes, French Cinema was just the 'umbrella' term, but personally I'm thinking to focus on the impact of crime in French cinema on social life in the 1950s-60s France. Would that be all right?

Thanks a lot Anand! You've given some great and valuable advice!
All the best to you too!

[TheSapaInca]

Year 9 Methods - 46
Year 10 Specialist 48/ UMEP 5.0
Sorry but this just isn't believable to me...