Mathemagician Posted July 12, 2014 Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 Hi, I'm going to be starting SL French B this September. I just wanted to know how hard is it to get a good grade, such as a 6 or even a 7? I've been taking French since Grade 4, but I completely suck at it. I can read, but cannot understand what I read. I can barely write French. In terms of speaking, I am almost zero. When others speak to me in French, I can barely understand them. So, as you can see, in terms of reading, writing, understanding, and speaking French I'm not that good. That's why I'm a bit worried. Thanks. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
insomniac writer Posted July 12, 2014 Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 Hey there, I take French B HL and am entering grade 12 in August. My French classes are a mixture between higher level and standard level students and depending on your teacher, you'll do a lot of revision work and will be studying lots of texts. You'll do some text comprehension (reading a text, then answering questions, gathering evidence to support statements, filling in words in sentence related to a text given, etc...). The students in my French class who take standard level usually get 6s and 7s for this paper, but you will have to know exactly what you read, what it's about since you have to pick out the most important sections from the text. For paper 2, you'll be writing a lot. So here again, you'll have to expand your vocabulary and know what you're talking about, especially when in the exam you're given a broad sentence with a topic and text type. You'll have to stick to the topic and know a lot about it. In terms of choosing the subject, I'd recommend talking to your previous French teachers and your IB coordinator about choosing the subject for the IB. Sorry if I'm not much of a help, but if you have any questions feel free to message me. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ossih Posted July 12, 2014 Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 French B SL really doesn't build as much on the language as much as it builds on how to use it. If you're French base is bad, I wouldn't recommend you to take it. It also depends on your teacher, and how the course is taught to you, but as such, its more of exploring the language rather than learning it. That's not to say French B doesn't teach you new stuff. On the contrary, you'll learn a lot of new things. But if you're not able to comprehend what you read, that's a huge obstacle because Paper 1 is a lot of guessing the words in context. They expect you to figure out meanings. And Paper 2 is only writing dude, along with the written task. You'll also have to speak and respond instantaneously once you do orals s yeah I'd recommend you not to. Why not go for Ab Initio ? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathemagician Posted July 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 Unforunately French and Spanish are the only second languages offered at my school, both at B. I'm not taking Spanish because I have zero experience in it. So I have to take SL French B. I'm really worried about it though. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
by.andrew Posted July 12, 2014 Report Share Posted July 12, 2014 That was me four years ago. I still can't speak or understand French very well (I'm decent in writing though), but I got a 6. A lost of my classmates were in the same position and got 6s. Personally, I don't think it's a hard course. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
insomniac writer Posted July 13, 2014 Report Share Posted July 13, 2014 What you could always do is take the class, stay in it for a week, or two and if you still don't feel comfortable in it, you could change your class. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.