French Test Urggg...

[cricketcrazynerd]

Ok so during all my MYP years, every time I had like a french writing test, we were always given the topic we had to write about and so everyone just wrote something at home, memorised it and copied that down during the text. It was awesome. I loved french and life. BUT, now I have a french writing next week (thursday) and am like completely screwed coz this formula won't work. We are only being told that it's on the 1st unit, "Social relationships: moi et mes proches".

So does anyone have any idea about how I should face this?

Thanks

[carpediem]

For this, it's best to revise vocabulary about social relationships (e.g. learn how to say 'mother', 'father' etc...) and grammatical structures you have learnt (e.g. how to appropriately use different tenses, complicated sentences, idioms...). The good yet difficult thing about IB is that it makes you actually learn the language, and you have to be able to construct sentences in a test setting instead of learning fixed sentences. Eventually you'll get the gist of it, and it really helps with spontaneous conversation.

[under-cover]

yeah i agree with the other comment! you have to revise grammer, vocab, tenses, etc. I would suggest attempting to come do a practice paper and test yourself.. so for example.....write about your relationships in French... it would be agood way of putting your knowledge to the test before your exam

[susanne]

oh god how much I hated those generic topics

[Wicquor]

Tip one: Think in English! Yes, it seems silly, but it helps until you can begin thinking in French and the grammar becomes second nature to you. For instance, consider the sentence "My name is Rochelle" which translates to "Je m'appelle Rochelle". Try it with all of your work and if you can't translate something because it's in a tense you haven't learnt or something, trying simplying it so you can do it. Another thing you could try to do is learn more vocabulary as someone mentioned and the most helpful thing I can think of is French media; French songs, French tv shows, French movies ... I watch anime so I'm looking for French dub/subs (though it might be unhelpful for me because I can understand Japanese ;_;; try it regardless) or try to find your favourite songs/movies/shows with Frenchs subtitles. It really helps your vocabulary! I now know weird words like 'gravel' and 'desolate' in French, lol and I know weirder stuff in Japanese, like 'hangover' and a whole host of crime-related stuff.