French

Akeno

Higher Level

Coláiste an Chroí Naofa, Cork

Salut, mes camarades ! Some of you may be relieved to know that I did not arrive late to any more exams. The French exam was my most difficult exam as of yet. My predictions for the written paper were horrendous. Last night I had a final look at topics such as the environment, racism, remote-learning, and Brexit. The only topic that appeared in its entirety was the environment. COVID-19 made an entrance, as it does to every event as of late. The written paper was much different than usual, besides the changes. Usually, the French paper consists of literary and journalistic written comprehensions. This year both comprehensions seemed to be formatted as in a journalistic style, with one being an interview, and one was an article. Section B, the composing section, offered a good choice but the questions seemed strange to me. One diary, a story, and many opinion pieces, if I remember correctly.

The listening section of the exam was tough, especially Section E, which is usually quick-paced and an easy piece to earn marks. For a moment, the CD track seemed to skip a beat during one of the sections. Much like the CD, my heart also stopped momentarily. Luckily, the wee skips went away and left me doing the rest of the exam in peace and slight confusion.

I have no regrets regarding the exam, but oh boy, it was my worst exam yet. Oh well, c’est la vie!

Racheal

Higher Level

St. Leo’s College, Carlow

Eiman’s video starts at 1:31

I have to say I’m pretty happy with how the French exam went today. As it is one of my stronger subjects I wasn’t too worried going in. I found the first reading comprehension was lovely and quite easy to understand. I attempted the second reading comp which was a bit more difficult, but seeing as we only had to do one I’m not too worried about it. 

In Section B, there was a nice choice for the compulsory written piece. I was happy to see one on technology, as I had some vocab learned off. I chose to do the email as my other written piece and I actually had fun writing it (never thought I’d say that about an LC exam). The aural had some slightly difficult parts as per usual, but I found that the audio kept cutting off before sentences were finished. This didn’t  greatly affect HL students, but I’ve heard it did for OL students. All in all, I’m delighted to be done with the French exam, it was my second to last LC exam, so with 9/10 papers done, the end is finally in sight!

Matthew

Higher Level

Piper’s Hill College, Kildare

Quelle journée! The last of the French LC took place this morning, consisting of the written and aural section, with the orals having already taken place over Easter.

The comprehensions weren't too difficult, and I managed to brush through them in 20 or so minutes each. After that were the dreaded written production pieces.

The options for the first written pieces weren’t too bad either. I have an opinion on technology and how it affects us today etc. I had an essay prepared on technology so I had a good basis to go off of. After that, I answered the opinion piece on clothing and protecting the environment. I picked out the words for environment and something about buying things that “moins cher” (cheaper) so I did an opinion piece on the effect of fast fashion on our environment - let’s say a quick prayer that I answered the question correctly!

I had about an hour and a half left over at the end so I did an extra piece on the pleasures of reading. I had prepared something on why I like reading from the orals in Easter so I was relying a lot from memory for that one.

Lastly, the aural (listening) took place from 12:10 - 12:50. I don’t know about any other student, but that was definitely the hardest listening I had done in a while. Still, it’s over now, and what’s done is done.

Overall, I’m happy with how today went, and with French today being my penultimate exam for my LC, it was nice leaving the exam hall with the end in sight!