learnfrench
LOST IN A SEA OF WORDS! Students at this stage of the year usually find themselves lost in a sea of words. They have pages and pages of vocabulary, without a real knowledge of how to use them correctly. The first thing that students need to realise, is that the leaving cert French exam is […]
I find that reading comprehensions contain an absolute wealth of information that students could use to great effect. If reading comprehensions were really used to their absolute potential, they would provide a very rich training ground for our students. I know that in the Leaving cert exam, students must read a text for understanding, but […]
PART 5 LEAVING CERT FRENCH ORAL EXAM – STRUCTURE AND COMMUNICATION This is the final blog in a series of 5 about the Leaving cert French exam. In this blog entry, we have taken the Chief Examiner’s Reports from both 2010 and 2016 and looked at how candidates performed in both the Structure and […]
20% of the Oral Exam – VOCABULARY In this blog entry, we have looked at the chief examiner’s report and have drawn from our own experience, to show you the vocabulary that students are currently using, and more importantly, the vocabulary that students are finding confusion with. Vocabulary: Most candidates had sufficient vocabulary to […]
EXCLUSIVE FRENCH NOTES GIVEAWAY To celebrate the success of our Revision Workshops in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, we are going to give away one of our exclusive revision workshop booklets. Each booklet contains approximately 30 pages, and covers you for the four linguistic skills required for the French Leaving Cert exam: Reading, Writing, Speaking & […]
Joyeuse fête de Pâques! A lot of students have asked me for a sample question on both my Snapchat and Instagram accounts, so here you go… Pâques est la fête la plus importante du christianisme et elle tombe juste avant les épreuves oraux. C’est certain à mon avis, qu’il y aura une question sur cette fête […]
LE BREXIT Après un référendum qui a lieu le 23 juin 2016, Le Royaume-Uni s’apprête à quitter l’Union européene en mars 2019. After a referendum which took place on the 23rd of June 2016, The United Kingdom is preparing to leave the European Union in March 2019. Les Britanniques ont voté à près de 52% […]
The Narrative Question or Récit In order to do well in this type of writing, students need to have a very clear understanding of the use of “Past” tenses such as the passé composé, the Imparfait and the plus-que-parfait. According to the 2016 Chief Examiner’s report, the narrative or récit question is generally not a […]
This is the 2nd part of a five part series of blog entries on the oral. please check through the blog for our other entries. https://frenchnotes.ie/french-leaving-cert-oral-exam-part-1/ GENERAL POINTS TO REMEMBER AND THE DOCUMENT The oral examination is common to both Higher and Ordinary Level. It consists of a conversation of approximately twelve minutes duration. Candidates […]
Preparing well for the leaving cert French oral exam is extremely important! As you are all aware, the leaving cert pre or mock exams are a vital preparation for the “real thing”. If you are a member of our Leaving Cert plan, you have access to more than 600 sample sentences on a wide range […]
Tips for the Oral Exam Remember that this is a conversation and not an interview. The examiner is trained to a very high level, and is there to help you reach your highest potential. Marks are awarded for Structure, Communication, Vocabulary and pronunciation. Structure applies to how you use your tenses. Using pronouns and […]
Are you going into secondary school in September and taking French? In 2016 over 31,000 students sat the Junior Cert French exam. So in any one year there are approximately 30,000 students meeting French as a subject for the first time. Whenever I go into a first year class, I explain to the students that […]
WHEN TO USE THE PRONOUN ‘ON’ The 3rd person singular pronoun ‘on’ is an indefinite pronoun and means: One They We People It is used with the il/elle form of the verb. Si on étudie, on reçoit de bonnes notes – If we study, we receive good marks. ‘ON’ MEANS ‘WE’ IN MODERN FRENCH […]
Nous sommes le 1er avril, et c’est la journée du poisson d’avril. It is traditionally the day of the year when playing pranks on people is a vital component to the day. En France il faut accrocher un poisson en papier dans le dos des personnes (In France, you must pin a paper fish on […]