VCE French Question Thread

[scout]

Bonjour à tous!

AN has a few French resource threads, but not a question thread, so here it is at your disposal for you to shoot any random questions to past French students who have been there, done that! 

(Don't know if this'll become a sticky post. Maybe depending on popularity).

[K888]

Great idea scout!

I'll be here to help if needed, but there's several past French students floating around on the forums and contributions from anyone currently studying French would also be wonderful!

[VinnyD]

This will be so useful thanks scout, I'll be posting on this throughout the year

[MissSmiley]

Hello everyone!
Thanks so much for starting this thread!!

1. Would anyone be able to give an indication of what SAC and exam results you'd need for a raw 40 in VCE French?

2. Also, how did you guys deal with a really fast recording (for listening) ? Obviously, practice, but do you think practicing the topic specific vocab is really helpful for listening? For example, if the topic is about immigration, would collecting and memorising vocab for refugees, citizenship and so on, would be one of the greatest practices?

3. If anyone has some tips about how to write notes from the audio on the day of the SAC, that'll be really appreciated!! (for e.g. how do people sift info and how to deal with important info that sort of jumps back and forth throughout the audio?) Or any tips on how to set out your note taking in the small margin they give you when you're listening? Sometimes it's just hard for me to write fast and at the same time understand what I've written later!!

4. Also, is there any trick to remember what accents (grave, aigu, circonflexe, etc) need to go on words?

Thanks a lot to everyone once again for helping out! 

[sophomania]

Hello everyone!
Thanks so much for starting this thread!!

1. Would anyone be able to give an indication of what SAC and exam results you'd need for a raw 40 in VCE French?

2. Also, how did you guys deal with a really fast recording (for listening) ? Obviously, practice, but do you think practicing the topic specific vocab is really helpful for listening? For example, if the topic is about immigration, would collecting and memorising vocab for refugees, citizenship and so on, would be one of the greatest practices?

3. If anyone has some tips about how to write notes from the audio on the day of the SAC, that'll be really appreciated!! (for e.g. how do people sift info and how to deal with important info that sort of jumps back and forth throughout the audio?) Or any tips on how to set out your note taking in the small margin they give you when you're listening? Sometimes it's just hard for me to write fast and at the same time understand what I've written later!!

4. Also, is there any trick to remember what accents (grave, aigu, circonflexe, etc) need to go on words?

Thanks a lot to everyone once again for helping out! 

Hey there, I got a raw 40 in French so here are just some of my experiences.

1. I'm not completely sure what sort of marks you may need. My SAC marks were all low A+ but it's possible that they may have been moderated. I have no idea what I got in the exam. I don't think I full-marked it or anything - I definitely lost some marks here or there.

2. I think it would be useful to learn some specific vocab - not just for listening, but also writing and reading. To make sure that the vocabulary you are learning is relevant and may be more useful, I think there is a section in the study design which tells you what topics the exam may refer to, so I think you should check that out. Also, if you want to improve listening, I think it is important to revise basic vocabulary such as colours, animals, clothes etc. These are vocabulary that are very likely to appear, and you don't want to be wasting time trying to find it in the dictionary. That said, if you know what topic your listening SAC may be on, I think it would be advantageous if you did revise some specific vocab.

3.
- First of all, write your notes in french. You may waste some time trying to translate in the middle of a recording. If you don't understand a word, just write in phonetically and come back to it later.
- Try and develop a shorthand that will save you time whilst taking notes in the middle of a recording - for example "tous les jours" can become "tlj". Make sure you understand your own shorthand!
- If you want, you can organise your information so that the info in the margin can align next to the corresponding question. Personally, listening always stressed me out. So what I did was just wrote down everything that I heard that seemed relevant and then organised the information later.

4. In terms of memorising accents on letters, you pretty much just have to remember them. However what does help is learning how the word sounds when you are learning its spelling. Over time, you will recognise what a é sounds like compared to a è, and hence if you know what the word sounds like, you can make an educated guess.

Best of luck for french! 

[MissSmiley]

Best of luck for french!

Thank you! and congratulations on getting a 40!! 

[MissSmiley]

Bonjour à tous!

Hope your break is going well!

I wast just wondering if someone could listen to the 2014 VCAA Text 2 Listening for the French exam and tell me if for part (c) if you could say that 'living is expensive'? I heard the lady saying it is expensive and the currency change is unfavourable at the moment, so I wrote that the lifestyle is expensive.

My answer wasn't there on the examiners' report, so that's why I thought to check with you guys if my answer was acceptable.

Also, for part (d) would you mind please explaining me why the second part of the answer is that so that Jacques can 'experience two aspects of the French speaking world?" (this is what it says on the report). I heard the lady saying "coast" at the end of her talk, and so I wrote "so that it will give him an experience of the Francophonies that are near the coast."
Also, I'm unsure for what Jacques said about beaches at the end. Could you help me out?

And sorry just another question, does it matter if you misspell something for the English sections of the exam? I do it rarely when I'm in a hurry  but would that mean marks are deducted?

Thanks a lot guys!! 

[jaygatsby]

Hello everyone!
Thanks so much for starting this thread!!

1. Would anyone be able to give an indication of what SAC and exam results you'd need for a raw 40 in VCE French?

2. Also, how did you guys deal with a really fast recording (for listening) ? Obviously, practice, but do you think practicing the topic specific vocab is really helpful for listening? For example, if the topic is about immigration, would collecting and memorising vocab for refugees, citizenship and so on, would be one of the greatest practices?

3. If anyone has some tips about how to write notes from the audio on the day of the SAC, that'll be really appreciated!! (for e.g. how do people sift info and how to deal with important info that sort of jumps back and forth throughout the audio?) Or any tips on how to set out your note taking in the small margin they give you when you're listening? Sometimes it's just hard for me to write fast and at the same time understand what I've written later!!

4. Also, is there any trick to remember what accents (grave, aigu, circonflexe, etc) need to go on words?

Thanks a lot to everyone once again for helping out! 

@sophomania did an amazing job answering the questions
Just to add to your first question, since there's such a wide variety of schools who do their own French SACs, for this subject it is the exam which is the true driver. My school made the SACs so tough that barely anyone gets high scores, but then they use your exams to judge truly how well you do and scale SACs accordingly. So it's quite difficult to say what marks you should aim for, of course, as high as possible would be my best answer. As for the actual exam, my teacher said for writing, aim for 12-13 and spend less time on that, instead focus on reading and listening sections, and try to aim to not drop a mark there. The way to do that is to CRAM info - they can't deduct you but you will lose marks for not having ENOUGH info. That being said, if they specify for example "Give TWO pieces of information that suggests..." then they can only accept your top two answers, even if they're wrong but your third is right. So put the two you're most confident with, and maybe sneak in the third next to one of them or below - you never know the examiner might just be generous.

Bonne chance est je crois que tu vas faire très bien!!

[MissSmiley]

The way to do that is to CRAM info - they can't deduct you but you will lose marks for not having ENOUGH info. That being said, if they specify for example "Give TWO pieces of information that suggests..." then they can only accept your top two answers, even if they're wrong but your third is right. So put the two you're most confident with, and maybe sneak in the third next to one of them or below - you never know the examiner might just be generous.

Merci beaucoup pour votre aide, jaygatsby!
Thanks for bringing up the 'pieces of information' point, I just thought of a question that I wanted to ask for so long!!

Do you lose the mark if you write the correct answer but then expand on this answer and write something which was not expected or necessary for that question?
I tend to mark myself harshly and not give that mark even if my answer was right and then I had expanded on it.
But just wanted to ask if I really needed to stress about this so much? How do they go about this for exams?

I know you should be pretty concise with your 'answer in English' section (because you don't really need to write full sentences like you do with the French section), but still, sometimes I fear not writing enough or comprehensively and then I find out I've written extra!

Thanks for helping once again!

[sophomania]

Do you lose the mark if you write the correct answer but then expand on this answer and write something which was not expected or necessary for that question?
I tend to mark myself harshly and not give that mark even if my answer was right and then I had expanded on it.
But just wanted to ask if I really needed to stress about this so much? How do they go about this for exams?

I know you should be pretty concise with your 'answer in English' section (because you don't really need to write full sentences like you do with the French section), but still, sometimes I fear not writing enough or comprehensively and then I find out I've written extra!

Thanks for helping once again!

From what I understand, if you write extra unnecessary information, they will not deduct marks for that. The examiners are given a marking criteria and they will give you that mark as long as you provide the points they are looking for. It doesn't hurt to write too much. It's much safer to write more than too little.

[MissSmiley]

From what I understand, if you write extra unnecessary information, they will not deduct marks for that. The examiners are given a marking criteria and they will give you that mark as long as you provide the points they are looking for. It doesn't hurt to write too much. It's much safer to write more than too little.

True!

Thank you, sophomania!

[MissSmiley]

Bonjour tout le monde!

I have my writing SAC tomorrow, so would really appreciate a reply to my quick question

I searched up in my dictionary how to say "I'm dreaming"
and there were so many translations!! (obviously for different contexts, but still)
and I found this one really interesting: "j'étais dans les nuages" or "j'étais dans la lune" Now I get how it's metaphorical and how it's a nice expression, but if I wrote that in my SAC to say I was dreaming, would it be clear?
Would my teacher deduct marks for not saying "je rêvais" ?

I really wanted to sounded metaphorical and have that colloquial feel to it with that expression, but if it's gonna compromise clarity, should I just stick with "je rêvais" ?

Thanks so much everyone!

Really looking forward to a reply!

[smamsmo22]

Hello, I'm aware that this forum isn't super active but I was hoping for a bit of assistance!
I'm approaching a listening SAC and frankly, listening has always been my least favourite and weakest aspect of VCE French. I know I'm not the only one, but I always manage to mishear/ get lost in/ misinterpret/ freak out during the text, even if the vocab/content is at a manageable level in terms of my French knowledge etc.

If anyone has ANY tips that could help me out, that would be much appreciated!! There is an extended response as part of it so I will have to be collecting as much information as possible (i.e. not limited to what the short answer questions are asking) which I also find difficult when trying to keep up with the text.
I've read tips before but if anyone has anything in particular, maybe about note taking, dealing with the situation where you've heard the text and feel lost, just staying focused and prepared in general? IDK, anything helps and is much appreciated!

Merci beaucoup!

[vox nihili]

Bonjour tout le monde!

what score would you need to get a 30-35 raw in french. I'm treating it as one of my bottom 2 subjects and have been putting very little effort into the subject as i have very little motivation. Any tips/suggestions to get motivated would be appreciated!

What score on what?

[vox nihili]

sorry, i meant what score on your sacs and exam would you need to get a 30-35?

Couldn't really say about SACs, because it really depends on your class. But you'd be looking at a B or so on the exam (it's a bit higher in French), and probably a B or a C+ on SACs.