French is a subject that many people struggle with for the Leaving Cert. I think a lot of people find it hard to get a grasp on a foreign language which is very understandable due to the new words, new grammar, new rules, etc. Hopefully, this guide will make your life a little easier when studying French and help you become more prepared for the exam come June.
Guide
How to get a H1 in Leaving Cert French
By Eimear Dinneen - 15 minute readEimear got a H1 in Leaving Cert French and in this guide, she shares her advice on succeeding in this subject.
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Introduction
The oral exam
The oral exam is worth 25% of your overall mark and is marked out of 100. If you’re anything like me, the idea of speaking this unfamiliar language to an expert is quite daunting but they’re not there to intimidate you and everyone gets through it in the end. Just remember that you’re not the first and you won’t be the last student to feel nervous about an exam (you’re not alone and you will be fine). Here's some useful information and tips for the oral:
Starting off
The exam begins when the examiner calls you in and starts the tape. When you walk in, I would recommend greeting the examiner by saying something like "Bonjour Madame/Monsieur, comment allez-vous?". They will appreciate kindness and respect. They will generally start off by asking some simple questions about you, your family, where you live, etc. so have your answers for this prepared and learned off if you can because they are easy marks to get.
General topics
From there, the examiner will have a normal conversation with you about a range of general topics such as school, your pastimes, your friends, your plans for next year, etc. Sometimes, depending on how they judge your capability, they can lead on to a harder subject such as alcohol, drugs or politics. Don’t freak out if this happens because it’s their way of seeing if you’re as good as they think, so prove them right. Always have something prepared for all the likely topics so you won’t be left speechless.
Weak topics
If you know you’re weak at one topic, try to avoid it by making sure you don’t say anything that leads to that subject. For example, if you hate talking about alcohol but the examiner asks you what you did for your 18th birthday, don’t say that you went out to nightclubs with your friends as this could lead to a question like, "buvez-vous?".
Lead the conversation
Try to lead the conversation. If you know one topic really well and have a lot to say about it, keep talking about it as it shows competency. Also, try to have some impressive vocabulary learned for that topic if you know you’re likely to talk about it. If the examiner asks you a question on something you’re not too confident with, change it to suit yourself. For example, if you hate books but love sports and the examiner asks you "Aimez-vous des livres?", you could say "Non, ça ne m’interesse pas, mais j’adore le sport…" and so on. Your ability to control and continue the conversation with fluidity will gain you a lot of extra marks.
Useful phrases
If the examiner asks you something you’re unsure of, there are several sentences that you could learn to accommodate for this. For example, the "ça ne m’interesse pas" example I used above or "je ne sais pas beaucoup au sujet de...". If he/she asks you something you don’t understand you will not lose marks for not understanding so merely say, "Desolée. Pouvez-vous repeter la question si vous plait?" and they will rephrase the question in an easier way for you.
Bringing a document
Some students choose to bring in a document with them which, if they do, takes up about 5 minutes of the conversation. If you are undecided about whether to do one or not, I recommend doing one. It’s something that you can be almost 100% prepared for and you’re guaranteed to spend a good portion of the exam on it. As long as it is in French, the document can be one of lots of things, like:
A picture
A poem
A newspaper clipping/heading
Try to have it on a topic that the examiner won’t be seeing all the time from other students such as homelessness, poverty, sports, etc. They will have seen a lot of these and therefore may want to change things up by asking you strange questions. If you do it on an obscure subject, however, there’s a good chance that they’ll just ask you general, easy questions on it because they won’t have seen anything like it before.
Where the marks go
Regarding how the exam is marked out, it’s divided into 4 sections:
Pronunciation (20%)
In order to gain high marks here, you should make sure not to fall into common traps that students make when speaking French. For example, many students lose marks for pronouncing 'trop' as ‘trohp’ instead of ‘troh’. Know how the language is meant to be spoken and how different letters are meant to sound. I think the exam is about being dramatic and theatrical so don’t feel embarrassed about putting on a French accent or using little French filler words like ‘alors’ or ‘eh bien’.
Vocabulary (20%)
Vocabulary is very important and like I said earlier, learn some impressive words for the topics which you’re confident you will be asked on so that you can show off your ability to the examiner. This especially goes for those doing the document.
Structure (30%)
Structure refers to grammar. I know your mind can go blank in the exam but try your best to use the right tense when speaking to the examiner. He/she will probably try to test you on the past/present/future/conditional tense so listen carefully to the question asked so you can distinguish which tense you should be giving your answer in. Try to perfect your other grammar points too such as the right prepositions and the right adjectives, etc.
Communication (30%)
Communication is the fluidity of your speaking and how well you can keep up the conversation, so keep talking. A lull in the conversation will show incompetency so do your best to avoid silences.
In order to gain high marks here, you should make sure not to fall into common traps that students make when speaking French. For example, many students lose marks for pronouncing 'trop' as ‘trohp’ instead of ‘troh’. Know how the language is meant to be spoken and how different letters are meant to sound. I think the exam is about being dramatic and theatrical so don’t feel embarrassed about putting on a French accent or using little French filler words like ‘alors’ or ‘eh bien’.
All in all, the time flies in the oral and before you know it, the examiner will be saying, "Merci, vous êtes fini" and you may leave and you can breathe a sigh of relief.
The aural exam
This part is worth 80 marks and has 5 different sections. Like in the Irish aural, the sections are comprised of interviews, conversations and news pieces. Here's some advice for this section:
Highlight keywords
You’ll get time to read through the questions before the tape starts so if I were you, I’d highlight the keywords in each question and make sure you know what they’re looking for. If you see a word in the question that you know the French word for, write the word above it so that you know to listen out for that word in the tape.
Writing down your answers
I recommend writing out only keywords in your answer when you first hear the tape and then coming back to it when you have time to fill in the rest of the answer because you may miss out on another question while you are writing out another answer.
Don't leave anything blank
If you haven’t a clue what the answer should be to a question but you did understand a word or two in the sentence, write down those words because you never know what could get you marks.
Written exam breakdown
This exam consists of 2 sections: Section 1 (compréhension écrite) and Section 2 (production écrite). Let's have a closer look:
Section 1
There are two comprehensions to do (each worth 60 marks) and you must answer every question from both comprehensions. The first comprehension is usually an article or an interview and the second one is usually an extract from a story. In both cases, your job is straightforward: answer the questions using words from the text. Here's some useful information and advice for approaching this section:
Look for clues
Usually, there will be clues in the questions asked. For example, the word in the question can often be found in a sentence in the given paragraph so you know immediately where to look for your answer.
Common question words
The questions are in French so make sure you know what the question terms commonly used mean. For example, know the meaning of words like ‘relevez’, ‘trouvez’, ‘pourquoi’, ‘oú’, ‘citez’, etc.
Don't just quote from the text
Sometimes, merely quoting the text word for word isn’t enough so I would recommend being able to manipulate and change sentences to suit the question asked. For example, let’s say the text is an interview with Marie, a girl who is moving house. The question asks why Marie wasn’t to move house but if the text has Marie’s answer in first person, e.g. "je veux démenager car je n’aime pas mes voisins" (I want to move because I don’t like my neighbours) for example, then you can’t quote that because it’s not answering the question correctly. Instead, you should change the sentence into answer form by saying "car elle n’aime pas ses voisins (because she doesn’t like her neighbours).
Grammar points
One question in each comprehension nearly always asks for you to find a grammar point within the text. For example "Trouvez un adjective feminine dans la quatrième section" (find a feminine adjective in the 4th section). This is very much like in the Irish comprehensions and the same goes for studying for it. Pretty much the only way around it is just to know and learn off all the different grammar points and know what to look for with each one. For example, if they ask for an adjective, more often than not it will appear after a noun or if they’re looking for an adverb, you’ll know to look for a word ending in ‘ment’.
The last question
The last question in the comprehensions is one which you must answer in English/French and usually you must give your opinion of the character/topic/text or whether the topic/character was good/bad/clever, etc. These are easy marks to get once you understand the text and know what they’re looking for. The marking scheme is usually quite broad for this question and almost any answer is correct (so long as it makes some sense and relates to the text). Make sure you reference the text in your answer to show you understood it. Quoting the text can also help.
Top tip
Learning little tips and tricks for recognising the grammar points will help a lot. I recommend setting aside a day or evening of French study to focus on this alone as it’s a guaranteed question.
Section 2
This section is worth 100 marks overall and you must do a total of 3 essays. Here's what you need to know:
There are four sub-sections within this section and each sub-section has two essay titles or prompts to choose from.
You can only do one essay from each sub-section, e.g. within Q.3, you can’t do (a) and (b).
Question 1 is obligatory so you must do one of the options within that question and it’s worth 40 marks.
Then, you need only choose 2 questions from Q.2, Q.3 or Q.4, each worth 30 marks.
You’ll need to write a bit more for Question 1. They say about 90 words but in reality, if you want to get high marks you’ll write more than that. That being said, don’t overdo it either. If you start writing out extra sentences just for the sake of it, there’s a chance you could make a mistake and lose marks. So, if you’re writing something extra but you’re unsure of a spelling/grammar point, I would advise you to leave it if it’s not essential to the essay.
Short story (récit)
An option for Question 1 is often the récit. This is where you can write a short story (real or imaginary) on the topic given. If you choose to do one, it’s important that you know the typical sentences that are used in short stories, such as:
Tout d’un coup = all of a sudden
Je venais de… = I had just...
It’s also important that you write emotionally for the récit as the prompt usually asks for your recollection of a moment in time or a situation you were in so you need to know different emotions in French to describe your feelings in that moment, for example:
Ma coeur battait très vite = my heart beat very fast
J’étais fou de joie = I was overjoyed
Je n’en croyais pas mes yeux = I couldn’t believe my eyes
Finally, if you’re doing the récit, it’s essential that you know the difference between the imparfait and the passé composé. When writing the récit, people often use the imperfect tense a lot because they are describing a continuous action in the past (this is the imparfait and the past tense is a singular action). It’s therefore essential that you know when to use what tense.
Letter
Sometimes, another option for Question 1 is a letter which you must write. They usually give about 5 or 6 points which you must mention in the letter. Some people choose this option because it seems easy and all laid out for you but to be honest, it’s actually one of the hardest options you can choose. They tend to catch people out by throwing in a hard point that students might not know how to phrase or might not know the vocabulary for. So, unless you’re very confident and know that you could write something on each point, I would steer clear of it.
Questions 2-4
As far as questions 2, 3 and 4 go, they’re all generally the same in terms of layout. You should write about a page on whatever topic is given. A wide range of topics can come up so it’s hard to be fully prepared for this section. I would recommend knowing what’s in the news the year you’re doing your Leaving Cert so you know what could come up in terms of current events. The following themes are always good to have studied and prepared because they often come up:
Alcohol
Racism
Unemployment
Smoking
Violence
Media
Poverty
Try to have a wide range of vocabulary that could suit different topics so that if something comes up that you haven’t studied for, you can still write a good essay.
Useful information
Here's some more advice for this section:
Learn some useful phrases
Have general phrases learned off and prepared that could suit any essay. I had many different sentences like "il ne se passe pas une journée sans que..." (a day doesn’t go by that...) and "il va sans dire que" (it goes without saying that...) learned to fill any essay that I didn’t know that much about.
Agree/disagree
A lot of your essays may need to start with you agreeing or disagreeing with a statement given so I recommend you learn off different ways of saying that you agree/disagree such as "Je suis tout à fait d’accord avec cette déclaration" (I am in total agreement with this statement) or "On ne peut pas nier que..." (one cannot deny that...), etc.
Read questions carefully
It’s essential that you read and understand fully the question/statement/prompt because if you write an essay on something irrelevant or if you skip a certain part of the question, you’ll lose a lot of marks.
Use proverbs
Finally, if you want top marks and want to show the examiner that you have a high standard of French, I recommend learning some French proverbs to put at the end of your essays. For example, "Paris ne s’est pas fait en un jour" (Paris wasn’t built in a day) or "Qui vivra verra" (time will tell). Make sure it suits the essay though, otherwise, it will make no sense.
The subjunctive
Another thing that would show off your French competency is the subjunctive. It’s very difficult but if you can get a grasp on it, it shows that you have a high standard of French. What I did was, I had several general phrases with the subjunctive in them learned off so I could use it in almost any of my essays. For example, "il faut que le gouvernement fasse…" (it’s necessary that the government makes/does...) or "il est imperatif que nous soyons" (it’s imperative that we are/be...), etc. Of course, you need to know how it works properly to be able to use it so if you choose to tackle it, learn when, why and how it’s used.
Final tips
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Duolingo
If you feel you’re struggling with French or even if you just want to improve or practice it, I recommend downloading the app Duolingo. It’s free and there are different levels for you to complete. I found it helpful when studying French because it was fun, easy and it kept me up to date with my practice so my grammar never went rusty. Plus, it’s a source of handy vocabulary that you might not get in school.
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Immerse yourself in French
Another big help for me, especially for the oral and aural exams, was listening to
French radio, watching French TV and reading French books. Listening to the radio will accustom your ears to the French language and you can pick out words easier in the aural exam. You can download an app called TuneInRadio that lets you listen to any radio station in the world so you have many French stations to choose from. You can download French books off iBooks if you have an Apple phone and there are many French books in libraries across the country too. Reading books will help you interpret the comprehensions better and will improve and widen your range of vocabulary.
Be organised
Finally, organisation is key. It’s hard enough to learn a new language without having your notes completely scattered and messed up. Try to organise a French folder that has different sections for oral, aural and written work. This will make life easier when you’re studying later on.
Some final tips
for Leaving Certificate French.
Duolingo
If you feel you’re struggling with French or even if you just want to improve or practice it, I recommend downloading the app Duolingo. It’s free and there are different levels for you to complete. I found it helpful when studying French because it was fun, easy and it kept me up to date with my practice so my grammar never went rusty. Plus, it’s a source of handy vocabulary that you might not get in school.
Immerse yourself in French
Another big help for me, especially for the oral and aural exams, was listening to
French radio, watching French TV and reading French books. Listening to the radio will accustom your ears to the French language and you can pick out words easier in the aural exam. You can download an app called TuneInRadio that lets you listen to any radio station in the world so you have many French stations to choose from. You can download French books off iBooks if you have an Apple phone and there are many French books in libraries across the country too. Reading books will help you interpret the comprehensions better and will improve and widen your range of vocabulary.
Be organised
Finally, organisation is key. It’s hard enough to learn a new language without having your notes completely scattered and messed up. Try to organise a French folder that has different sections for oral, aural and written work. This will make life easier when you’re studying later on.
Hope these help - happy studying!
Best of luck! You'll be great.
Want more tips on how to get a H1 in French? Check out Gabrielle's advice below:
By Eimear Dinneen
Having spent previous years contributing to content creation, sales and communications, Eimear now manages the customer support and communication teams. Her enthusiasm for culture, travel and languages means she's lived in France, Germany and Scotland to date, and her favourite thing to do is try new food.