• Best of luck to the class of 2024 for their HSC exams. You got this!
    Let us know your thoughts on the HSC exams here
  • YOU can help the next generation of students in the community!
    Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page
MedVision ad

French continuers - how'd you go (1 Viewer)

LaCe

chillin, killin, illin
Joined
Jan 29, 2005
Messages
433
Location
Where am I?
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2005
French was sooo good!

band 6 for sure now! im so happy :D

such a good exam in terms of questions and everything
 

latin_desires

[Вєauтіful.Ѕσul]
Joined
Jul 23, 2004
Messages
3
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
I thought the exam wasnt as difficult as I was expecting it to be. Listening is always a killer - the hardest skill in all languages I reckon. There was times in my french tasks or trials that i didnt get a word! but i did understand at least sumthin this time. Even for my native language [spanish] I find it quite hard!! I have to say..whats with all the language techniques in every language exams nowadays? i was doin it and then i thought, man! this seems like an english exam paper 1!!! lolz i think that makes it a bit harder but if you're good in english, you'll be fine with those questions.

Section two, the job application was ok...first i thought it mite have to look like a resume but then i just did it in a different way.
Section III, was actually easier than I expected. I had seen past papers with questions like talk about bullying, or world peace...i actually had prepared essays about them but I hadnt revised them so I was stressing. But when I saw those questions I chose the easy ones...the note to host mother and the letter to your best friend. Just wanted to be safe! Overall I did alright =)

good luck everyone with the rest of your exams!!!
 
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
154
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Besides asking us to go to a higher standard than mere translation, surely the point of english-esque questions is to prevent native speakers to have even more of an advantage over aussie candidates?
 
Last edited:

LaCe

chillin, killin, illin
Joined
Jan 29, 2005
Messages
433
Location
Where am I?
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2005
yrtherenonames said:
Besides asking us to go to a higher standard than mere translation, surely the point of english-esque questions is to prevent native speakers to have even more of an advantage over aussie candidates?
Yes that is true but then you have ppl like me who have been doing french for over ten years and are basically fluent in it, and even the extensioners, we all do english, and those who have a working knowledge of english and a good level of french would find this pretty easy, as did i.

("gloat")

But yeah thought it was good, better than last year's one. Well french... didnt do much work for it, looks like it paid off! haha
 

MarsBarz

Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2005
Messages
282
Location
Nsw
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
So what mark are you expecting? This is probably the worst french exam I have done to date...

Speaking - 19/20
Listening - 25/25
Reading and responding - 30/40
Writing - 11/15

Total: 85/100
I usually get 90+ :(
 

saaaaarah

New Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2005
Messages
3
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
I don't think it's that strange that the question relating to the title of the article in the reading responding section was worth 5 marks.

I thought it was quite involved because you had to talk about how it was a clever title in general, and also talk about how it was relevant to the content of the article.

Finding examples of how it links to the content of the article took up a fair bit of time and thought.
 

oldbearmanly

New Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2005
Messages
10
Yehhh...

i found the listening sooo hard... but the eassy questions were suprisingly easy...they are fucking with us again...

Don't you think its wierd one of the comprehension questions was worth 5 marks.....and one of the eassy questions was worth 6 marks...

Does that mean that we would have to write 100 words on that 5 mark questions, as we were asked to write 100- 150 words on one of the eassy...its bullshit...

I just hope the scalling helps me..haha
 

Skip

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2004
Messages
85
yrtherenonames said:
Besides asking us to go to a higher standard than mere translation, surely the point of english-esque questions is to prevent native speakers to have even more of an advantage over aussie candidates?
But that doesn't make sense.

A greater understanding/knowledge of the French language should equal more marks.
 

danni8u

New Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2005
Messages
4
French was ok

yea listening was hard especially that freaking jules verne question what the?
the r and r was good coz i wanna do forensic science so it appealed to me...and that was weird how the principal in the second one cared so much about his students so much as to ban discmans, etc.
the writing was so weird...i did the host mother one but i misread it initially and started writing to my mother...with 30secs to go i quickly changed the "Maman"s to "Mme" but when the woman said pens down i saw another maman i didnt change...but im sure the markers will get the jist...i hope
so yea 3 down, 5 to go...booya...i have four this week which is sad but i finish on the 2nd nov so i cannot wait!!
good luck children...and dont forget...if we fail, centrelink is a nice place, or if u wanna go to uni, we can do yr12 at tafe again...i'll join you!
bonne chance!
daniella
 
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
154
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Why skip?
How can they even attempt to mark us on merely our 'understanding' of French?
How can you gauge that? What they mark us on is our ability to communicate our understanding, so the english question imho are justified.
 

ElGronko

Not premium
Joined
Sep 12, 2004
Messages
1,034
Location
Yes
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
I found the listening harder than most listening exams.

This year i have not dropped a mark in listening, but in that exam i think i was grasping at straws in a few answers.

I mean, i pretty much understood every word, but i was applying it to the questions that i found difficult.

Ohh well, hopefully my school mark will moderate me well.
 

_melissa_

New Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2004
Messages
16
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
i thought the exam was just generally a bit wierd.

R&R A was very language-based, usually there's more of just direct translation. and what was with that justify the title question? what does that have to do with french?!?!

i didn't like any of the writing questions, i thought they were limited and didn't allow for much creativity at all. i feel like what i wrote was quite standard, and i'm disappointed that the questions didn't give me more of an oppurtunity to show off a bit. writing's my best part usually. oh well.
 

belleree98

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
55
_melissa_ said:
i didn't like any of the writing questions, i thought they were limited and didn't allow for much creativity at all. i feel like what i wrote was quite standard, and i'm disappointed that the questions didn't give me more of an oppurtunity to show off a bit. writing's my best part usually. oh well.
I agree I didn't like the writing.

Compared to Italian, french kids were dodged!!
 

belleree98

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
55
No technique questions (not even in the listening)

The hardest question was a 4 marker in the listening that said "What is the value of this announcement?" as opposed to a describe question

and in R+R the hardest question was a 5 marker which said "explain the author's attitude to the lifestyles of young people in Italy"

the rest were all basic comprehension questions

the writing tasks were easier too - both choices for each question were do-able and the R+R part B was respond to an ad for a job but it was easier in the sense that it was a personal profile (it didn't specify a letter or anything but most people probably did) and the information was very general and easy to respond and expand
 

Skip

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2004
Messages
85
yrtherenonames said:
Why skip?
How can they even attempt to mark us on merely our 'understanding' of French?
How can you gauge that? What they mark us on is our ability to communicate our understanding, so the english question imho are justified.
I totally agree that some questions should be in English.

My problem is with the weighting of the questions. A questions asking about one heading shouldn't be worth 5 marks if when you're asked to write a whole passage (heading included and in French!) is worth only 6 marks.
 

ElGronko

Not premium
Joined
Sep 12, 2004
Messages
1,034
Location
Yes
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
knobblett said:
Scaling at its best for French Continuers is only 6.x%.. not really a lot if you think about Extension being 14% :p
That's not how scaling works.
 

lourai*87

~"*_*"~
Joined
Jun 30, 2004
Messages
745
Location
in the wigwam of a Marsh-wiggle
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
I think i understood the majority of it. I finally got the basic idea of Jules Verne on the second listening. THe hacker one screwed me over. All i got was that he was doing it because of the threat some sites pose to national security. I had no idea =p

For writing i did part A for both. I did the same thing...i started writing to my mum instead of host mum, got half way through and realised. So i just went and put Maman in inverted commas. If it was meant to be formal i screwed it by calling "tu" all through it. =(

A french buddy has just confirmed that this would not be very appropriate. Oh wells, contextual error might be made up for by content. However that was a bit lacking as well. I said that i was at a friends house to study and then we were going to the beach. I took a joking sort of tone though..so i dont know...


The letter i was happy with. I think i wrote 4 pages on that and what just whingeing about my non-existent brother "chou-chou Paul". It is so hard to write about sibling stuff when you are an enfant unique lol.


The application letter...well that was ok. I left it to last because i didnt like it and i started it off poorly and not very realistically. Seriously...i dreamed in French all night the night before from stress. I had been trying to prepare myself for responding cos that is my weakness..and when i woke up on Wed morning i had the notion of formality in my head and the phrase "un expression de mes sentiments distingués" on my lips. Woot.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top