French B and ab initio tips

[El :3]

Hey everyone -

 

I've been giving heaps of tips lately for people's French studies, so I've decided to make a master post, filled with everything that I can think of which has helped me over the past two years

 

(sorry for my lack of accents, my laptop doesn't like inserting them in!)

 

So firstly, get hold of a past exam (SL/HL/ab initio - whichever you're doing). Look at paper 1, and the sort of language you need to understand, and the type of questions you're going to have to answer. Then look at paper 2, and see what you need to write about, how much you need to write, and the sort of language (vocab/grammar etc.) you might need to know. That way, you know the sort of level you'll need to be at by the end of the IB.

 

Vocab and grammar

 

Quizlet is a great place to start for vocab and grammar - there are literally thousands of flashcards, and some are even dedicated to IB vocab! Additionally, if you don't have one already, buy yourself a French grammar book, complete with exercises (a good one is Schaum's French Grammar http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/0071828982 - it covers everything, from the basic to the advanced). Set yourself a challenge to do 40 mins every night, just to make sure you cover heaps of grammar, and that you're maintaining constant practice of the language. Also, with the Schaum grammar, it gives you heaps of vocab as well, as it makes you write out sentences, so make sure to translate any words you don't know, and learn them. Any words you're unsure of? Dedicate a notebook to writing down the French word and the English translation (make your own vocab list), and revise as much as you can. What I do is I browse http://www.wordreference.com to find French translations for any English word that I want to use. I also do this in my spare time to boost my vocab (yes, this is essentially just reading a dictionary but trust me this helps so much!).

 

Paper 1

 

To practice for paper 1, literally just do heaps of past papers. When you read the texts, translate any words you don't know (obviously you can't do this in the real exam, however this helps you to learn useful vocab). Keep in mind, it's not expected that you understand every single word, you mainly need to know the general gist, and understand the grammar.

 

In the actual exam, read the text once through, slowly, making sure that you understand all you can to the best of your ability. Once you've done that, read each question carefully, and make sure you understand exactly what they're asking of you (there have been cases where I have misinterpreted a question because I skimmed through it without actually realising what it's asking). With the vocab questions (e.g. trying to find an equivalent word), look at the tense of the word, whether it is a verb or a noun, and that will help you to narrow down to the answer. With the grammar questions (e.g. filling in the blanks with a connecting word), see if the next word begins with a vowel, then you know that if it's something like "bien que", the IB will actually put in "bien qu' " in the list of phrases to choose from, so you know that it's definitely that answer.

 

Paper 2

 

I suggest to do your best to write a piece (even if it's only 50-100 words) and hand it up to your teacher to get it marked with feedback. Maybe try to increase your responses by 25-50 words every month or every few months so you can eventually get to that  word limit (250 minimum for SL, 100 for ab initio (I think, don't hold me on this)) The feedback from your teacher is priceless because it allows for you to learn even more grammar in the context of your own work, as well as seeing what you're good at, and what you can improve on. Take their feedback, and rewrite your response, incorporating all the feedback and advice they're given you, that way it sticks in your mind.

 

For the actual exam, make sure you read the question extremely carefully, and make sure you address everything that needs to be addressed. Incorporate as much from the question as you can in your response (e.g. if they want you to talk about what you've learnt from a bad holiday, make sure you describe a bad holiday, and interweave things you've learnt throughout your response).

 

Proofreading is key: when you're under stress, you'll make heaps of silly mistakes. Make sure you allow 5-10 mins at the end of the exam just to read through your response, check your tense, accents, and spelling in particular. Make sure you've included connective phrases where possible, and try to include some French idioms too (but don't force them, only use them to enhance your response).

 

Individual Oral

 

I personally loved the individual oral, as I'm strong with my fluency and pronunciation. So, the best way to improve on your pronunciation is to read aloud as much French as possible - read extracts from your textbook, read aloud your written responses. When you're speaking, speak slowly at first, and make sure you're pronouncing it right - to 100% make sure you're doing just that, record yourself and play it back, so that you can hear what you sound like, if you're speaking clearly enough, and you can pick up on any slight mispronunciations. Additionally, try to listen to as much recorded French as possible - find some YouTube videos in French, watch them, listen to how they're speaking, and try to mimic their pronunciation. That will guarantee an improvement in your oral work for sure!

 

General tips for the IO - I find that in the preparation time, I just practice the oral itself, and write down any key points I want to discuss, so that I don't forget. Usually, I end up running out of time to say everything, so I prioritise my key ideas, to make sure I cover the most important ones first. When it comes down to breaking up your time for the actual oral, this is what works for me:

1. Start with something along the lines of "J'ai choisi cette photo car la legende dit que (state the caption) et ca montre la theme de (state the theme e.g. Loisirs)
2. Describe the photo, but don't spend more than 2 mins all together on steps 1 and 2
3. Come back to the legend - restate it, and if possible, state whether or not you agree with it. Then, relate it back to the theme, and basically talk about what you've learnt about it. I usually apply it back to my own life, and try to say things like "j'avais trouve une texte du bac qui a mentionne que..." and link it to the option. This should take up the bulk of your oral, and maybe talk for about 4 mins about this.
4. Always (ALWAYS) say "en conclusion" once you've finished (yes, it's kinda lame but trust me it makes life for the examiners so much easier, so they know that you're finishing up, and they can prepare to ask you questions at the end) and summarise the points you've made, and come back to whether or not you agree with the legend.
5. Enjoy the questions from the examiner, they may ask you "nasty" questions, but seriously consider them a blessing, because there's a whole section in the mark scheme dedicated to your ability to expand on complex ideas, and your teacher is trying to boost your mark for that.

Make sure you include connective phrases and idioms where relevant - the IB loves that so much (but don't just put them in for the sake of it).

 

I hope I've helped a bit, and feel free to expand upon anything that I've said, or let me know if there's anything else you find helpful. Feel free to send me a message if you ever need help with anything - I'm always happy to help

Edited September 20, 2015 by El :3

[turtle turtle]

Nice guide! I was reading the IB study guide for French B and it said we're allowed to bring 10 dot point notes in. Is this right? And also, are you told in advance what part of the syllabus the photo will be connected to, and if so, how specific is it? Thanks again for the tips!

[El :3]

Nice guide! I was reading the IB study guide for French B and it said we're allowed to bring 10 dot point notes in. Is this right? And also, are you told in advance what part of the syllabus the photo will be connected to, and if so, how specific is it? Thanks again for the tips!

 

Thanks!!

 

What happens is that in your prep time, you prepare your 10 dot points that you can then bring into the oral. My teacher told me that it would either be loisirs or sante, and we had one photo of each. I had no idea what subtopic in particular, as it's unethical for your teacher to give you so much prep If you practice the oral enough beforehand, you should be confident for whatever is thrown at you! Feel free to message me if you need anything extra

[f0xes]

just to add to quizlet which you mentioned briefly - I'm a big fan of memrise, because I feel like their algorithms are better than quizlet's, even though they don't have such a huge selection of courses.

 

Other than memrise and quizlet, there's also: duolinguo (pretty well-known; has an app + website), livemocha (I haven't personally tried it, but it's been recommended to me, and has lots of language courses), fsi (foreign language institute - big collection of workbooks/audio files), lang-8 (where you can put up your writing to be corrected by natives) and forvo (has words pronounced by natives, and can be a life saver)

[El :3]

just to add to quizlet which you mentioned briefly - I'm a big fan of memrise, because I feel like their algorithms are better than quizlet's, even though they don't have such a huge selection of courses.

 

Other than memrise and quizlet, there's also: duolinguo (pretty well-known; has an app + website), livemocha (I haven't personally tried it, but it's been recommended to me, and has lots of language courses), fsi (foreign language institute - big collection of workbooks/audio files), lang-8 (where you can put up your writing to be corrected by natives) and forvo (has words pronounced by natives, and can be a life saver)

 

There's also Language Perfect which I've heard is quite good