Tips for French B HL

[Ziadbar]

Hey guys, 

I happen to take French B at Higher Level, and was wondering if you guys have any tips which helped you speed through learning a B language and really ace it (like getting a 7)?

Any help would be greatly valuable!

[terribletouw]

The most useful thing will be to do as many past papers as you can. 

Paper 1s are good because it's just comprehension so it's not difficult to sit down and do a bunch - so do those when you're sick of IB and not bothered to do something that requires effort. It's a good way to pick up vocab as well.

Personally I'd focus on Paper 2 more, since I tended to neglect practicing for that because it required a lot more effort. Try writing a response without a dictionary then afterwards look up some vocab related to the question. If you then work on memorising that vocab you will be better prepared for whatever question you get in the exams. Also, get your teacher to mark your work - you'll be able to see what grammar points you need to fix. Make sure you learn what they want in each text type since that's a super easy way to get 5 marks - read through past mark schemes and look for resources on the internet, there's a document somewhere with everything you need.

Learn a couple of subjunctives - especially conjunctions - and how to conjugate the basic ones - i.e. être, avoir, vouloir, aller - as that will get you marks for using sophisticated grammar. Also si clauses, the conditional tense and the fancy future tense are good to know. 

Learn the format they want for the individual oral - like how to say in the foreground, background, etc. and practice on photos beforehand. Then if you get nervous in the real thing it's less of an issue if you've got a series of things you know you should mention. 

The written assignment is a gift, honestly, since you can do it from home (unless they've changed that) - choose an easy text type and double check every word.

Edited December 5, 2016 by terribletouw

[Gabz]

I agree with what was previously said about learning the exam formats, but I think what will help you the most is learning as much vocabulary as you can, and making sure that you improve your fluency. 

I learnt four languages by the time i was half way through high school, and here are the things that helped me the most:

1. Try to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible. Watch movies and tv shows in the language when you can, and listen to native music. It will improve your speaking and comprehension 

2. Read books/magazines/news in the language. This not only improves your vocabulary, but will also increase the speed at which you are able to read the texts (a considerate advantage for paper 1)

3. You can't learn a language over night. Try to revise verbs or vocab for maybe 15 min every night. Over time, it will feel like second nature. 

Best of luck!