FRENCH MOCKS – A GUIDE

FRENCH MOCKS – A GUIDE

A lot of students are asking us how or what to cover for the mock exams, which are going to be starting in the next couple of weeks. Here at French Notes, we have put together a few ideas to tackle each part of the exam. We will look at the Leaving Cert Honours paper, the Leaving Cert Ordinary paper and the same for the Junior level. Remember that the companies in charge of the mock exam papers provide excellent material, which replicate the layout of the actual exam papers. Students sometimes think that just because a particular topic is on the pre-exam, that it will appear in the real thing. This is incorrect and any similarity is just down to coincidence.  At French Notes, we suggest that you consider the pre as a test drive for the real exam.

FRENCH LEAVING CERT REVISION COURSES 

If you would be interested in attending one of our French Leaving Cert Revision courses, please follow the link below for more information. All of our monthly courses take place from September to May and are held in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Our Courses begin at 1pm and ends at 5pm. The cost is €60 and includes a 30 page booklet with exclusive French Notes content. During our revision courses, students learn how to write opinion pieces, Diary entries and/or the narrative (récit),   learn active listening methodology, practice speaking and reading French comprehensions. They also do Translation exercises and study a specific area of grammar.

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HONOURS LEAVING CERT FRENCH EXAM

WRITTEN SECTION  – 100 Marks or 25% of the total marks allotted.

You have 3 written tasks to complete: Q1 is a compulsory question and then you choose from Q’s 2, 3, or 4. If you answer the (a) part in one question, you cannot do the (b) part of the same question. So really you must have a strategy before you go in. Q1 generally relates to the reading comprehensions in some way, so you are required to answer either (a) or (b) in question 1. Also bear in mind that Question 1. carries 40 marks.

Question 2. Historically Q2 is where you will find the diary entry or the letter/e-mail/fax type task. Both Question 3 and 4 are generally topic-based questions and carry 30 marks each.

In the honours paper, the written section accounts for 100 marks, which equate to 25% of the entire paper. This is a sizeable portion of the exam, so it would be imprudent not to give it the time it deserves, while remembering that the listening, reading and speaking combined account for the other 75%. What we are staying is not to get fixated on one area of the exam to the detriment of the others!

While it would be foolhardy to suggest that you learn oodles of opinion questions off by heart, it would be worthwhile having a strategized plan for the written section:

Go over your past papers and notice themes rather than particular questions. The following is a list of general themes which have appeared in the exams:

Sport, Health, Technology, Youth, Culture, School, Environment, Politics, etc…

What you should have at this stage is a copybook divided into segments. Each segment should deal with a particular theme, where you have lists of vocabulary pertaining to this theme. You should also have grammatical phrases and constructions which will facilitate your writing. Please refer to our blog entry on How to Correctly Frame an Opinion Piece for more details on this.

LISTENING SECTION  80 marks or 20% of the total marks allocated.

At honours level, the listening section accounts for 20% of the entire paper. How you do in the listening depends on how well you can pronounce words, as you hear correctly what you can pronounce correctly. You really need to be going over at least one section of each paper every night and checking to see if you have understood exactly what is being asked. The listening is considered by many to be a challenging component of the exam. I would suggest that you try to listen to French every single day, and attune your ear to French sounds. French is a language that students consider to be very fast. While a trained ear can make out what a French person is saying with ease, this can be a daunting prospect for a student grappling with the language. I am of the opinion that both listening to French and reading French is key to doing well in both the reading and the listening parts of the exam.

READING COMPREHENSIONS 120 marks or 30% of the total marks allotted.

30% is a huge chunk of any exam! It is sometimes not recognised how important these reading comprehensions actually are. Please refer to the “TIPS” section of www.frenchnotes.ie and read our piece about the reading section, where you will gain valuable insights.

The key thing to remember in the reading comprehension is to plan your answering strategy. I will do a separate blog entry on typical questions asked in the reading comprehension.

ORAL EXAM 100 marks or 25% of the total marks allotted.

Not all students do a mock oral. Please refer to the “TIPS” section on www.frenchnotes.ie  where we have two documents pertaining to the oral exam.

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Please follow the links below to view some of our sample revision notes for both Junior and Leaving Cert

https://www.frenchnotes.ie/free-leaving-cert/

 

https://www.frenchnotes.ie/free-junior-cert/

Please click on these links for more information on our 3 different plans, which will give you 365 days peace of mind, whatever stage you are at.

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As a member of the Leaving Cert or Teacher Plan, you would have immediate access to:

• Over 500 sample topic sentences on a wide-range of topics
• Approximately 60 sample opinion pieces.
• Diary Entries
• Narrative writing technique & Phrases
• Grammar section
• Grammar exercises
• Reading comprehensions
• Verb drills
• Study guides
• Comprehensive oral section with videos
• Expressions & key constructions
• Letters and much more…

To see some of our sample revision notes, please follow these links:

/https://www.frenchnotes.ie/free-leaving-cert/

If you were to sign up for our one year Junior Cert plan, you would have access to:

• Worksheets
• Audio section
• Oral questions & Role-plays
• Powerpoint presentations
• Comprehensive vocabulary lists
• Verb drills
• Grammar section
• Reading Section
• Written section with postcards, notes & letters

Please see some of our sample Junior Cert revision notes here

https://www.frenchnotes.ie/free-junior-cert/

Members of the Teacher Plan have automatic access to both Leaving Cert & Junior Cert revision notes. Also we are constantly adding new files to the site, so whatever is put up for the duration of your membership, you have access to it. While we do put up some of our material on social media, it is only a fraction of what you will find on our site.