VCE French Writing & Oral Exam Resources

[MissSmiley]

For the example question you've given, you do need to use first person. In general, there is no right way of writing a story; you can use either first or third person, just as long as you follow the instructions in the question.

The story is often considered to be one of the harder text types because (a) there's the issue of passé simple  (b) stories need descriptive language, which adds another level of difficulty  (c) ...and on top of that, you need to show off your creative flair, in a different language.
Of course, if you're confident with all these, there's no need to avoid story-writing altogether. That's why generally speaking it's not many people's cup of tea.

A diary entry or speech can get pretty repetitive in terms of the vocab and grammatical structures you use, so it might be more straightforward to prepare for them than a story. You could memorise certain idiomatic expressions that you could use in almost any diary entry regardless of the topic, or particular phrases like 'prenons comme point de départ' for any speech. This is possibly what your teacher was getting at.

Personally, I'm more logical than creative, so I committed myself to writing speeches/articles/letters. The most important thing is that you work out which text types suit your skills the most      

Thanks a lot, Scout!
Does your story have to have a complex narrative plot, or can you still get the higher marks for content with a simple story plot?
And do you really have to use the passé simple for informal stories? (just thought to ask because that tense is usually for more heavy French literature ?)
What do you suggest?
Thanks once again!

[scout]

Thanks a lot, Scout!
Does your story have to have a complex narrative plot, or can you still get the higher marks for content with a simple story plot?
And do you really have to use the passé simple for informal stories? (just thought to ask because that tense is usually for more heavy French literature ?)
What do you suggest?
Thanks once again!

Np, happy to help

The story plot itself could be really simple; it's the moral of the story that counts. French people are far more interested in your opinion, so the message you're conveying in your writing (it's a cultural thing ). Of course, including a bit of creative flair helps create a good impression in your assessor's mind. But don't let that compromise the sophistication of your writing.

You don't have to use passé simple for stories, it's just recommended, especially if you want to stand out. But as with anything else, my biggest advice is to follow what you're comfortable with, rather than choosing the 'harder' text type just for the sake of it.

Do you like creative writing?

[MissSmiley]

Np, happy to help

The story plot itself could be really simple; it's the moral of the story that counts. French people are far more interested in your opinion, so the message you're conveying in your writing (it's a cultural thing ). Of course, including a bit of creative flair helps create a good impression in your assessor's mind. But don't let that compromise the sophistication of your writing.

You don't have to use passé simple for stories, it's just recommended, especially if you want to stand out. But as with anything else, my biggest advice is to follow what you're comfortable with, rather than choosing the 'harder' text type just for the sake of it.

Do you like creative writing?

Yeah definitely, no point in choosing the harder one if we're not comfortable!
Yes!! I love creative writing, but it's just that I find it hard to finish the story or somehow bring it all together in 250-300 words!! That word limit is too little for me!
And I don't really like writing in the first person, because then sometimes it just sounds like a diary entry... So third person is always best for me!
I really like story writing because you can use really strong and powerful tenses and really good jargon!
But yeah, hopefully throughout the year I'll be clear about what text type I'll perform better in, with some practice and experimentation!
Did you write stories or where you that analytical smartie with all the articles and the reviews?!! 

[scout]

Yeah definitely, no point in choosing the harder one if we're not comfortable!
Yes!! I love creative writing, but it's just that I find it hard to finish the story or somehow bring it all together in 250-300 words!! That word limit is too little for me!
And I don't really like writing in the first person, because then sometimes it just sounds like a diary entry... So third person is always best for me!
I really like story writing because you can use really strong and powerful tenses and really good jargon!
But yeah, hopefully throughout the year I'll be clear about what text type I'll perform better in, with some practice and experimentation!
Did you write stories or where you that analytical smartie with all the articles and the reviews?!! 

The word limit certainly is a major constraint, isn’t it, especially when a story needs space and time to develop. 
...all the more why you might want to stick to a simple plot, and focus on making that simple plot coherent and well-developed. The word limit is actually a hindrance in any text type - I had the same problem with letters, articles, speeches, etc. So by the end of the year, I was really trying to make every. word. count. Literally.

[K888]

And do you really have to use the passé simple for informal stories? (just thought to ask because that tense is usually for more heavy French literature ?)

I don't think I have to answer anything else because scout has done an amazing job already, but I'll just clarify this one
You don't have to write in the passé simple. You have to be able to recognise it, but they don't expect you to write in it. You can refer to page 14 and 15 in the French study design to see the verbs you have to be able to recognise and use.

[MissSmiley]

I don't think I have to answer anything else because scout has done an amazing job already, but I'll just clarify this one
You don't have to write in the passé simple. You have to be able to recognise it, but they don't expect you to write in it. You can refer to page 14 and 15 in the French study design to see the verbs you have to be able to recognise and use.

Thanks so much!! Definitely will have a close look at the study design!

[MissSmiley]

The word limit certainly is a major constraint, isn’t it, especially when a story needs space and time to develop. 
...all the more why you might want to stick to a simple plot, and focus on making that simple plot coherent and well-developed. The word limit is actually a hindrance in any text type - I had the same problem with letters, articles, speeches, etc. So by the end of the year, I was really trying to make every. word. count. Literally.

True!! Short, but really strong!! That's the ultimate message I think!
Thanks a lot Scout!

[smamsmo22]

Hello,
Thanks for this helpful thread! My oral is a few days away so I've been doing lots of practice, I was just wondering if you could give some examples of the questions you were asked? In particular, any that threw you? I'm just somewhat worried I've been practicing too narrowly. Of course every examiner and situation is different, and you don't need to give a detailed response but just generally how both parts of the conversation went in terms of the types of questions/ideas discussed?
Thanks so much!! Anything is helpful (:

[K888]

Hello,
Thanks for this helpful thread! My oral is a few days away so I've been doing lots of practice, I was just wondering if you could give some examples of the questions you were asked? In particular, any that threw you? I'm just somewhat worried I've been practicing too narrowly. Of course every examiner and situation is different, and you don't need to give a detailed response but just generally how both parts of the conversation went in terms of the types of questions/ideas discussed?
Thanks so much!! Anything is helpful (:

The questions I got asked were pretty similar to ones mentioned in my opening post. Generally you get asked reasonably broad questions as the examiner probably isn't very knowledgeable about your topic for the detailed study. Just figure out a way to get those details you want to say in there when they ask you a more general question - use it as a springboard

For general convo, it was mainly along the lines of tell us about yourself, who's in your family, what subjects do you study at school, what do you want to do when you leave school, do you have a part time job, what hobbies do you have?
They'll link on from what info you give them. For example, I said I had a part time job, so they asked me what I liked to use the money I got from it for

[scout]

Hello,
Thanks for this helpful thread! My oral is a few days away so I've been doing lots of practice, I was just wondering if you could give some examples of the questions you were asked? In particular, any that threw you? I'm just somewhat worried I've been practicing too narrowly. Of course every examiner and situation is different, and you don't need to give a detailed response but just generally how both parts of the conversation went in terms of the types of questions/ideas discussed?
Thanks so much!! Anything is helpful (:

General: at first, I was asked a couple of obvious questions, e.g. what are your interests, what career options are you looking towards... but then my examiners latched onto my response to the 2nd question (career pathways) and we went off on a tangent, so my conversation took quite an abrupt turn away from the 'generic' kind of conversation. More specifically, they asked me very detailed questions such as how I thought gender inequality affected my career area, etc. which was when my pre-existing knowledge about my career area came into play, rather than any answers I had memorised.

It was unexpected, but I took it as it came, and it wasn't that bad because I knew how to express my views on the particular topic that was being dealt with.

So I guess the take-away is: don't get too caught up on memorising answers to as many questions as possible. As long as you have a bank of appropriate expressions for different topics, especially topics you're passionate about, you can use them when the need arises.

Detailed Study: got obvious questions that I'd anticipated. The questions were very broad, open ones, because examiners are really wanting to know your  views on your topic so they tend to give you a fair bit of freedom for this part of the oral.

What I got out of my oral: be prepared for the expected, and be prepared for the unexpected 

[JONEL114]

Merci beaucoup. C'est vraiment utile!