French Revision Tips

Revision Tips - French
Work smarter, not harder. Structure your learning. Keep your revision list handy. Organise
your file.
1. Learn all the question words and the examples of how to use these questions in sentences.
Then look at past papers and exercises where these questions occur and test yourself, to see if
you know what they mean. Use your Bitesize books, BBC Bitesize website and Linguascope
website to help.
2.
Learn high frequency words which come up all the time in exams – see sheet eg. tous les
jours = every day, quelquefois = sometimes etc.
3.
Learn frequency words and expressions of time. Eg. Le samedi – on Saturdays, hier –
yesterday, demain – tomorrow.
4.
When you are learning vocabulary:
a) learn whether the noun is masculine or feminine
b) learn groups of words – eg. modes of transport, illnesses
c) learn synonyms eg. words which mean the same thing –
eg. a job = un métier, un travail, un boulot, une carrière
d) learn opposites of words – eg. facile = easy difficile = difficult
e) try to link the noun, adjective and verb of words
eg. le travail = work, travailler = to work, travailleur = hard-working
la pluie = rain, il pleut = it is raining, pluvieux = rainy
la lecture = reading, un livre = a book, lire = to read
f) Go on the school website to learn the list of vocabulary published by WJEC
5.
When learning verbs, learn all the tenses – see verb grid of most common verbs – and the
infinitives.
6.
Learn negative expressions
eg. ne..pas, ne…rien, ne…jamais etc.
7.
Learn grammar structures in different contexts eg. il faut…porter l’uniforme scolaire, il
faut…aller tout droit.
8.
Go over past papers and find the words which come up over and over again.
9.
Learn abstract words like – l’amour = love, l’amitié = friendship, les gens = people, les
jeunes = young people.
10. Practice pronunciation and intonation and try to write down what you hear on tapes, etc.
11. Read as much French as you can from different resources eg. La Loupe books, magazines,
Bitesize etc.
12. Listen to numbers, prices, dates etc. and practise writing them down at speed
eg. 2025 = deux mille vingt-cinq, 1972 = mille neuf cent soixante-douze.
13. Learn weather in present, past and future tenses
eg. il fait beau – il faisait beau/il a fait beau - il va faire beau/il fera beau
14. Learn different food categories eg. meats, fish, fruit, vegetables and way they are cooked eg.
Roasted, grilled.
15. Recognise different French towns, rivers, mountains and where they are on the French map.
16. Learn about different festivals, celebrations, festivals and special occasions in France and
about the French culture from the notes photocopied from the ‘France Live’ books.
17. The morning before the Listening exam, listen to some French for half an hour to ‘tune-in’
to French.
18. During the exams:
• keep totally focused, and even if you don’t understand a question on the Listening paper, by
listening carefully to the examiner on the tape, you can sometimes understand a lot better
• Predict what might come up/what you might expect to hear
• Read sentences as a whole, not just single words
• Look out for negatives
• Look out for synonyms