French - Higher
The most popular LC foreign language that tests aural, oral, written & comprehension skills.
You'll find some advice on preparing for your French Oral on our blog. Many students forget to prepare for the Listening Comprehension (Aural) exam which takes up the first 30 minutes of the exam – however, you can find all the past recordings along with questions and answers in the Studyclix Aural topics.
Higher Level Course Content:
- AURAL - Conversation
- AURAL - Interview
- AURAL - News Pieces
- Literary/Novel Comprehension
- Newspaper/Magazine Comprehension
- Opinion - Animals, nature and the environment
- Opinion - Education
- Opinion - Health
- Opinion - Ireland, travel, tourism and culture
- Opinion - Politics, social issues and equality
- Opinion - Sport
- Opinion - Technology and media
- Opinion - Youth, teenagers and families
- ORAL exam
- Write a Diary...
- Write a letter...
- Write a Note...
- Write an eMail...
- Written Production (récit)
Ordinary Level Course Content:
- AURAL - Conversation
- AURAL - Interview
- AURAL - News Pieces
- Fill in a Form...
- Fill in the Gaps...
- ORAL exam
- Reading Comprehension - Article
- Reading Comprehension - Book Extract
- Reading Comprehension - Interview
- Reading Comprehension - Other website & magazine extracts
- Write a Diary...
- Write a letter...
- Write a message...
- Write a Postcard...
Assessment
Higher level:
- Oral Exam (25%)
- Listening Comprehension (20%)
- Reading Comprehension (30%)
- Written Production (25%)
Ordinary level:
- Oral Exam (20%)
- Listening Comprehension (25%)
- Reading Comprehension (40%)
- Written Production (15%)
Future Careers
Having one foreign language is a requirement for hundreds of CAO courses so it is unwise to drop your language unless you are certain it will not make you ineligible for a course you may choose in the future. French is useful for travel and a wide variety of careers such as Politics, Public Administration, Tourism & Hospitality, Media, Education and History.
Download the leaving cert French Syllabus
Download the leaving cert French Chief Examiner's Report (2016)
Higher Level French - Exam Advice
1. The reading comprehensions
There are two parts in this section :
Part 1 – The Journalistic Comprehension : This means that the text is either a newspaper or a magazine article. The topic of the journalistic comprehension is therefore rather ‘current’ as opposed to topics dealt with in literary comprehensions. This section often has a TITLE that you must read and try to understand as it will give you a hint regarding the contents of the text.
There are 6 questions to answer : 5 in French and the 6th one in English.
Marking scheme – [ 5 x 5] for questions 1 to 5 + [1 x 10] for question 6.
Part 2 – The literary comprehension : this is an extract from a novel (1 page or even half a page sometimes). There MAY be some kind of introduction before the text in order to give you some details regarding the characters, places, times...etc... This occurs only if it is absolutely necessary for students to understand the text. Bear in mind that the structure of sentences and the vocabulary used in this section can be a little more difficult than in Section 1. There are 6 questions to answer : 5 in French and the 6th one in English.
Marking scheme –[ 5 x 5] for questions 1 to 5 + [1 x 10] for question 6.
Understanding the questions is just as important as understanding the text, therefore, make a note of the following key words, which will help you answer the questions properly :
Trouver – Citer – Relever = When the question starts with either of these verbs, you MUST quote i.e. re-write a sentence or just the relevant part of a sentence word for word from the text (Careful with spelling mistakes when quoting)
However, any time the question does NOT begin with any of these verbs, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO QUOTE from the text. This means that you must change as little as possible from the original sentence i.e. one word is enough !You can also add a word (if it’s relevant) to the original quote and not change anything else.
La raison pour laquelle = the reason why
Décrire – une description = describe – a description
Expliquer – une explication = explain – an explanation
Pouquoi = why
Comment = how
Quel / quelle ...etc... = which / what
Quand = when
Qui = who
Qu’est-ce que = what
Answering question 6 – Question N° 6 is the ONLY question that you must answer in English. There is one in each comprehension. This question is based solely on the text and the understanding you have of it. The question is designed to show the examiner that you understood the gist of the text.
The question will refer to a particular aspect of the text, on which you have to give your opinion, based on the text i.e. any statement you make must be taken from the text (no personal opinions allowed). You generally have to make 2 Points, which means 2 statements in English, based on what you understood, followed by 2 quotes from the text ‘to justify your answer’.
Try to organize your answer logically :
- Statement in English (5 marks)
- Quote in French to prove your point
- Statement in English (5 marks)
- Quote in French to prove you point
Total marks for Reading Comprehensions = 120 (2 x 60)
2. The Written Productions
You must complete 3 tasks in this section. You should always read ALL the questions before you make your choice, section by section. Make sure that you don’t overlook any of the questions and read each one very carefully and slowly (it is not uncommon to misread a question, especially if you were hoping for a certain topic to come up. You might read what you would like to see but not what’s actually on the paper). Make your choice and highlight key words in each question that you’ve decided to do. Again, this will stop you from missing any important instructions.
Section 1 – The Compulsory Question : You have a choice of 2 questions in this section. You MUST pick one, the one that appeals to you the most. In this section, you must tell ‘a story’ (true or not), based on the question that you are asked.
Question a) will refer to the first reading comprehension and section b) to the second one. However, your answer must not be based on the text at all. There will be only a very distant connection between your answer and the text (a feeling experienced by the author and also by yourself under circumstances that you will describe in your answer, a similar experience...etc...)
Total marks for this question = 40 (10 more than any other written task)
Section 2 – In this section, you will have the choice between 2 questions out of 4 possible types of tasks :
- Informal letter
- Formal letter
- Message writing
- Diary entry
Total marks for this section = 60
Section 3 & Section 4 - If you didn’t pick anything in section 2, you must then choose one question in section 3 and another one in section 4, to get your quota of 2 written tasks. But if you chose a question in section 2, then you must choose only one question in section 3 OR section 4 (which gives you a choice between 4 different questions).
Both these sections give you a choice of essays based on any of the following:
- advertisement or short text (agony column, quote....)
- picture or cartoon
- diagram
- table, chart ...etc...
Total marks per question answered = 30
Remember Always keep 10 minutes at the end of the exam to go over your written work and check:
- verb endings
- tenses
- plural / feminine agreements (adjectives, past participles, nouns...)
- spelling
ESSENTIAL – Timing
Here is approximately how you should divide your time, to make sure that you don’t run out of time at the very end and that you can complete all questions before handing back your paper. It is also essential that you practice working in accordance with the following timeframes, coming up to the exam:
5 minutes to read Paper and choose written tasks
30 minutes for each reading comprehension (2 x30 = 60)
30 minutes for written task 1(1x 30 = 30)
20 minutes for two last written tasks (2x 20=40)
15 minutes to go over everything.
Total of 150 minutes – 2h30.
