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French iin 5 days... how do i study?


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Vocabulary that the IB said is needed - learn that and any other related vocab to 'impress'

Make sure you know the basic grammar rules; again the IB give you a list of grammar rules. If you wanted to impress you could include another.

I'm only revising on sunday and a little of saturday as I have German HL, I hope that'll be enough!

Oh I forgot to ask do you have the list? :D

Edited by slizzie
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There are a few things that you can do that will really help.

Make sure you're familiar with the exams and the questions asked

Make sure you've gone over your grammar. It won't take too long, but you need to do it! Revise the different tenses, the prepositions followed be "de" and "a" etc.

Make a list of "must includes", this entails: good grammatical structures to show off your language (si clauses, different verb tenses, "je viens de...infinitif..."etc), find and memorise some "meaty structures" that you can use in your writing. This is good because A) it means you don't have to think much and B) you know it's grammatically correct (if correctly memorised). For example: "Tout le monde s'accorde a dire que..." etc. For my exam, I had a list of 71 things that I wanted to try and include in my essay (of course I wouldn't use all of them because only half or so would be relevant for my essay/time limits).

Make sure you quickly go over some of the basic, and frequently tested vocabulary. So topics like education, environment, and technology (I am assuming...I did SL, not Ab initio).

If you have to write letters (potentially) in your exam, then memorise the structure and formalities of French letters. Such as the opening line, and most importantly the closing line, for example: je vous prie, monsieur le director, d'accepter l'expression de mes sentiments distingues (accent ague)" or something like that etc.

Bonne Chance!!

P.s: You can learn SO SO SO much in 5 days and if you dedicate yourself, you will improve extraordinarily in these next few days. I know I did just before my exams because I sat down, focused, and studied for French.

Also, DON'T leave the exam early!! Stay there and keep going over your answers and especially your writing to check for errors. As a final check, translate your work (in your head) back into English and you might pick up on some things. Read ALOUD in your head. It's important it's in your head or else you will get into trouble :P haha. You will pick up on stuff this way.

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although I'm a big "vocab" guy, unfortunately for French you need to know your Grammar and conjugations like a King. Otherwise you sound like an illiterate Somali pirate trying to negotiate with 5 year olds.

1)Get your conjugations right. And use this one sentence to demonstrate knowledge of the subjonctive : "Il faut que tu sois"

Je suis allé(e), and not je suis aller.

2) Get your grammar right. When you you used the past participle of "to have" don't conjugate the verb. "Elles ont tous mangé" and not "Elles ont tous mangées"

3) Learn the essential conjugations of the most useful verbs. Like prendre, partir, aller.... (Don't Get these wrong!)

4) Maximise your vocab, IMO being an English speaker is cheating because a very large proportion of English words come from French so you can get away with loads.

5) Target your vocab learning. Learn around the crucial topics. Learn about the environment. Global warming is le réchauffement de la terre, greenhouse gases is l'effet de serre.

Travel. a train to go and come back is un ticket allé-retour. However most of the times ticket is billet but for transport it is different for some reason.

Holiday. Un voyage, un séjour, une excursion.

The big 2 are Vocab and Conjugations.

Sample phrase

Il aurait du sans doute réserver son vol hier soir car le lendemain à l'aéroport, les places étaient déjà belles et biens prises.

He definitely should have booked his flight yesterday evening because the next day at the airport, the seats were are already "well and truly" taken. Belles et biens is idiomatic.

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Vocabulary that the IB said is needed - learn that and any other related vocab to 'impress'

Make sure you know the basic grammar rules; again the IB give you a list of grammar rules. If you wanted to impress you could include another.

I'm only revising on sunday and a little of saturday as I have German HL, I hope that'll be enough!

Oh I forgot to ask do you have the list? :D

thanks, but what list are you talking about?

Edited by Summer Glau
no text speak
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Vocabulary that the IB said is needed - learn that and any other related vocab to 'impress'

Make sure you know the basic grammar rules; again the IB give you a list of grammar rules. If you wanted to impress you could include another.

I'm only revising on sunday and a little of saturday as I have German HL, I hope that'll be enough!

Oh I forgot to ask do you have the list? :D

thanks, but what list r u talking about?

To answer the question, there isn't really any list given to you by the IB. The IB provides the subject outline and that's about it. The syllabi are school-specific for language B from what I understand. So if there are any lists, it would be your teacher who gave you them.

Edit = I only did B SL, so as slizzie (below) says it's different from Ab initio apparently.

Edited by Matthew Sinclair
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No, for ab inito Matthew, I got a subject outline as everyone else was doing SL. And it included the recommended vocabulary and grammar that are presumed to be knowledge after the ab initio course. It was not a teacher made list as ab initio wasn't really taught in my school, plus it was on IB subject outline paper :P I started off attempted SL (because my school wouldn't offer ab initio originally) and they did not have a list in the subject outline I reccommended grammar and vocab to know, but for ab initio there is; I suppose the IB wanted to ensure the standard that ab initio students need to be at.

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pleeease does anyone know where i can find 'the list'.... any list is good. i have the worst teacher in the world... and im the only student in the class so she puts no effort :( .....

Butters, it's called Google. I have found you your documents (which appear school specific?) after no more than 4 seconds on it.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxoaWxsYnVycm9pYnxneDo3NzBiZThhNDdlMjc0ZTBi

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxoaWxsYnVycm9pYnxneDo5MmVmYThiN2RiYTMwNmM

I don't mean to sound rude, sorry, it's just it was that easy to find the document.

Edited by Matthew Sinclair
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  • 1 month later...

The list, which is done by the IBO, is called a 'Langauge specific syllabus', in this case for French ab initio. As the others have said, it includes the topics you would need to know with related vocab. Then there's a list of general vocab, conjunctions, prepositions, quantities and verbs to know (including reflexive).

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The list, which is done by the IBO, is called a 'Langauge specific syllabus', in this case for French ab initio. As the others have said, it includes the topics you would need to know with related vocab. Then there's a list of general vocab, conjunctions, prepositions, quantities and verbs to know (including reflexive).

The OP has taken the exam.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The list, which is done by the IBO, is called a 'Langauge specific syllabus', in this case for French ab initio. As the others have said, it includes the topics you would need to know with related vocab. Then there's a list of general vocab, conjunctions, prepositions, quantities and verbs to know (including reflexive).

The OP has taken the exam.

Other users (who haven't done their exams yet) might find this information useful. :)

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