Ab Initio Put off French ab. Initio for 2 years. Strategies for the last month.

[Arkansin]

Hi Everyone!

Okay so I have a major Issue I wanted some help with. For the past two years I haven't really put much effort into french ab. initio. The reasons don't matter anymore (though if you must know, four HLs). I somehow, with the help of a dictionary, did my WA and crawled through the IOP relatively well as well (just had problems in the last "General Questions" which I think should not affect the final marks too much ). Now, I need to get a 7 in practically all my subjects because I don't want to take any chances with the EE/TOK marks and need a 41 for my dream school.

This brings me to my problem. I need to know enough french to get a 7. I am aware that its mainly vocab and conjugations I need to concentrate on but I just wanted to know if you guys have some good strategies for the next month or so. I am planning out the days to the finals and am ready to put in as much time into this as required (an upside of concentrating on my HLs so much is that I'm pretty well set on 4/6 subjects ) I have set aside 4 hours for French every day but need help to use that time effectively.

I would really appreciate some good tips or strategies or even your experiences of the last month scramble for an ab initio language and how well you did on it!

Edited March 26, 2014 by Arkansin

[Blackcurrant]

Try this for starters.

You have everything there, in all its beautiful variety. And it is tons of fun. Tell me how it goes.

My own technique for packing in more French vocabulary, phrases and idioms ( I am already proficient, so not sure if it makes a diff,) is to imagine all the conversations I want to have, all the things I'd like to write ...then .... mine the dictionary. Not everyone's thing, but something that works wonders for me.

Edited March 26, 2014 by Blackcurrant

[Arkansin]

Thank you for you reply Blackcurrant!

I must say I was looking for a slightly different answer but I'll take all the help I can get! Yes, I know about french.about.com and though well organized, I often find it too spread out to be very useful. As far as I know, it has only little bits of information on each page and to study a sizable amount going through a lot of pages is almost always necessary. I personally find this quite annoying as I like my study matter condensed. http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/ is a much better site according to me as it has more condensed matter and TONS of excercises to immediately help cement what you have learned.

As for your dictionary technique, let me first say I think its brilliant. I say this because I used this exact technique to learn the tiny bit I have been able to so far over the two years and it has brought me to a 4 by not putting in too much time into it at all. However I do believe that the "dictionary mining" if I may call it that, is not the most practical method when so little time is left. Though it will undoubtedly help me grasp the language better, I don't believe it will be the best use of my time as it will be a very slow process.

So, To be a little more clear, I would like some advise on what the main topics (eg. vocab, conjunctions, verbs etc.) I should concentrate on are and would like strategies to pick those topics up very quickly. And as I said, I'm ready to put in as much effort as required, but would like a better approach

[r1111]

French Ab Initio exams are towards the end. You have two papers Paper 1 and Paper 2.

For Paper 1: It is very important to revise vocabulary. 4 hours a day is more than enough time to memorize some vocabulary lists.

For Paper 2 you actually need to know how to write. First, be sure you are familiar on how the write the format of the different text types you could be asked (journal entry, formal/informal letter, speech and so on). Know how to use different verbs (regular and irregular) in different tense. Also know a few simple grammar rules.

Considering how much time you are allocating to French AB Initio you should be fine. You will find some great resources to help you with above steps online.

[Arkansin]

Thanks for your reply r1111!

I'm sorry for my late reply, had the last couple of papers for my Mocks

So from what I gather, your suggestions are to mainly concentrate significantly on vocab, tenses and verbs. Can you point me to some of the resources you have mentioned?