Alliance Francaise//VCAA oral exam discussion

[Vermilliona]

Hello to the like four people on the French board! Wondering if anyone did the Alliance Francaise writing/oral competition, as results came out today... I'm fairly happy with how I went, even though I freaked out in the oral a bit and definitely could have done better (well at least I hope I can do better for my study score's sake). What about you guys?

[Ya Habibi]

Yes! I did do it
I scored an excellent for my oral (19-19.5/20) so I just missed the finals.
Not too sure about my written section though!

Good luck!

[bonjour]

Pour la première fois durant mon temps au lycée j'ai reçu un "excellent" pour cette competition, mais ce n'était pas assez bon >.<
J'ai récité le poème "rappelle-toi Barbara"

[howlingwisdom]

I made the finals (I was really surprised because I stumbled during my general convo, messed up the recitiation of my poem and the examiner seemed completely emotionless and almost bored while I was speaking). I didn't end up placing though haha. But honestly, I think that the competition is somewhat biased and not an accurate indication of your French level because the examiners are not actually teachers, but natives and I don't think they were marking according to the VCE scheme? Nonetheless, I think it's excellent practice for the oral exam and it's given me some exposure with communicating with natives.

[Vermilliona]

Yeah, agreed that it's not really like the VCE, it's annoying that you get no feedback on the oral. I ended up doing the written final but wrote a piece that was way too long/probably full of mistakes/about cannibalism, so no place for me  C'est la vie.

Since we're all here anyway, when are everyone's actual orals? Mine is on October 8th and I'm just sitting on atarnotes and procrastinating. Have to keep reminding myself that it's worth as much as some of our SACs were, so it's not even that big a deal. Right? (right).

What's everyone doing to prepare/what's your detailed study/where is yours/should we be doing this in French.

(come procrastinate with me on here please)

[bonjour]

Wow your's in 3 days? Bon chance! Mine's on the 16th ~~

I guess all that you can do is talk to yourself in French so that you can be prepared for the oral exams.
+ watch a lot of French movies! I recommend watching Largo Winch 1 & 2 and la nuit blanche

[ras]

I've got my oral on the 7th (only having a minor freak out). But it's exactly right that it's worth a similar amount to some sacs, so I guess it shouldn't be utterly terrifying. To prepare I've just printed out a bunch of random general convo questions and put them into a hat. I pull them out and just practice answering 

We should get a list together with good french movies to watch before the exam, or useful websites and things like that.

[Vermilliona]

Same, I've got q cards with questions on my phone, so I just came back from an hour's walk where I muttered to myself in French about la condition des femmes françaises and les matières qui m'ont plu cette année.

I've posted about this before, but podcasts are the shit, at least if you're current affairs/humanities enclined, but even if you're not there's french radio shows about news in the science world and other fascinating stuffs, so get on it. I just finished listening to one called Remède a la Mélancolie, which is very French, because il s'agit de parler avec les writers/artists/people about how they battle depression/just feeling sad in their daily lives, which is so applicable to me rn, because VCE, but anyway there's some really interesting stuff in there. I think I posted a list of podcasts I listen to on another thread on this board.

Also, ras, are you studying the Chinese revolution by any chance?? There's this great podcast series en francais called 'La Chine dans l'ombre de Mao' which is basically about evaluating Mao's impact on China which is basically AOS 2, so if you're doing China I highly recommend. And even if you're not doing China, watch documentaries about your revolutions in French! It's not really procrastination if you're studying for two subjects at the same time (at least that's what I tell myself).

For movies, SBS has a lot of good French films on their website, I watched one yesterday called Les Beaux Gosses which was umm, tres francais, in its sense of humour. But good.

I also recommend the Memrise app to spruce up your vocab. And just watching the daily French news! Secretly hoping my oral will just consist of complaining about how the extreme right wing got into the French Senate for the first time this year and how Francois is un meneur faible.

This post is long because I don't want to do work.

[vox nihili]

Bonne chance à tous

J'ai bien aimé l'examen oral et je suis certain que il vous passera très bien.

[ras]

Bonne chance à tous

Merci beaucoup

Vermilliona, I'm not doing the Chinese Revolution but I am doing the French and it's never crossed my mind to watch some docos on it French (how did I miss that?). You're right, it's the perfect way to revise (or convince oneself that it is revision) for the two. I've never tried listening to podcasts either, but I'll definitely get on that (I need allllll the listening practice I can get).

Watching the French news everyday is a step up from what I'm doing (watching French youtubers go on rants about stuff that will never, ever appear on a VCE exam).

[Vermilliona]

Guys mon dieu vie de merde, apparently someone today got asked 'What would you change/do if you were principal of your school for a day' if I was asked that out of the blue without hearing about it before je creverais

[vox nihili]

Guys mon dieu vie de merde, apparently someone today got asked 'What would you change/do if you were principal of your school for a day' if I was asked that out of the blue without hearing about it before je creverais

Getting asked that is brilliant! They tailor questions to how well you're doing, so in that case, the student has done exceptionally well.

[Vermilliona]

Yeah, you're probably right.. I guess it's best to hope you get a question like that then, at least you'll have some indication that you did semi-well. Mine's tomorrow, at the Tudor Hotel in Box Hill, it's going to be the best feeling when it's done (i hope)

[alondouek]

Yeah, you're probably right.. I guess it's best to hope you get a question like that then, at least you'll have some indication that you did semi-well. Mine's tomorrow, at the Tudor Hotel in Box Hill, it's going to be the best feeling when it's done (i hope)

Good luck! You'll be totally fine (it's actually really, really fun if you get past the nervousness haha)

[Vermilliona]

Thanks!! Does anyone know if 'avoir la gueule de bois' is too informal too use in an oral?