French Extension 2015 Thread! (2 Viewers)

[panicatthehsc]

Hey guys!

I'm currently studying French Extension for the HSC but am in a class of 1 and therefore find that I have no one to share work with or any way of knowing whether I am up to where I need to be. So, I thought that I could bring us students together in order to share work, tips, practice work, ideas etc.

Personally, I'm getting extremely confused with the concept of the essay as I don't have any examples of past essays to know what to write and in what style. Does anyone have any that they have found useful that I could possibly look at? It would be a great help

Feel free to post whatever is on your mind in relation to the course!

 

[oceans]

I'm in a class of 3. Where are you up to? We're up to Extract 11, but I'm a bit worried because we've not actually gone much in-depth into any of the extracts - we just translate it, and chat about the three different issues (how they're evident in the extract) for a bit. Most weeks we also get given a magazine article relevant to the prescribed issues.

We've done barely any monologues either. And for the few that we have done, I find it reallllly hard to have a sustained argument that lasts for 3 minutes. I'm really terrible at expanding from my brief notes.

For the essays (I'm assuming you mean the written questions at the end of the exam that are quite similar to a monologue-type question?), I basically just approach them like I would a monologue - talk about for/against arguments, have about 3ish points, back each up with evidence. But I don't really know either because we haven't done many of them.

How do you approach study for French Extension? That's the thing that I'm bad at. I basically just complete all readings/translations/other homework. I didn't do much extra study for this subject last term, but hopefully I'm about to start going through lots of past monologues/essay questions (also looking in other language's past exams) that relate to our issues; and trying to formulate opinions on as many issues as possible that they could potentially ask us about. I've also got to start making notes on Neuilly Sa Mère, including making connections between specific extracts and other parts of the film. Another thing that I think might be a good thing to study, is looking at the extracts from every character's point of view - eg. how they react, what their emotions are, etc. - because that would help the responding to the Prescribed Text (where we have to write a response/composition in French from a character's POV).

Side-note: Don't you reckon that the Charlie Hebdo events in Paris will be such a major example that they'll expect us to talk about if we get asked anything about tolerance. Because it's basically the most significant, massive current event in France recently.

 

[panicatthehsc]

Unfortunately due to working out whether the class would run in the first place I'm only up to extract 4 (we started very, very late into the term). However we go very deeply into the extracts. Every week for that side of the course I have to answer multiple long response questions as well as talking about the extract in class and translating it. I have 2 teachers so my other teacher (who looks at the monologue side) goes through multiple articles with me each lesson. We've only just started looking at essays (or whatever you prefer to call them!) and haven't even thought about monologues, so I know we need to speed things up. What sorts of things do you use as evidence in your essays? Statistics or just more generalised facts?

For me, my study is chosen by my teacher - each week we do an extract so I have to do the questions for those, and then I write essay plans. Seriously, I'm starting to get worried about the lack of work that I'm being given about the monologue. There's no way I'll be prepared for the exams if we keep going at this pace. I'm definitely preparing to start going through past exams and trying some questions but my first extension lesson isn't until Tuesday and that's when we'll go over the essay.

I'm sure that at some point the Charlie Hedbo story will come up somewhere. It will be really interesting to see what sorts of questions that they ask considering recent events.

 

[oceans]

My essays/monologues are basically just filled with my opinions, and also general things like examples of large-scale situations from the past that are relevant (that makes no sense sorry). It'll be great to have a few statistics that can be applied to a variety of essays, but I haven't done any of that extra research yet. I shouldddd soon. I'm the worst procrastinator

 

[SuchSmallHands]

Good luck everyone! I just finished the HSC French Extension course with a much higher mark than I or my teacher expected. My main advice to you all is to watch the film and notice film technique and visual elements. Acknowledging the visual medium accompanying the extract shows you really know the text (for example, in the extract 'Charles' which we got in 2014 I noted that he was wearing an NYPD shirt when he first met Sami- implying his respect for authority. Little things like that really help!) Bonne chance!

 

[panicatthehsc]

(for example, in the extract 'Charles' which we got in 2014 I noted that he was wearing an NYPD shirt when he first met Sami- implying his respect for authority. Little things like that really help!)

Thanks for the tips!!! I finally am starting to feel a little bit of confidence with my French (thank god) so things are looking up. I'm going to write an essay this week so I will try and get around to posting it on here

 

[SuchSmallHands]

Thanks for the tips!!! I finally am starting to feel a little bit of confidence with my French (thank god) so things are looking up. I'm going to write an essay this week so I will try and get around to posting it on here

That's great! I always knew that my knowledge of complex grammatical constructs was never going to be up there with the many native and background speakers who take the course. So I really worked on making sure I maximised the marks I could get in the reading in French/responding in English section. But it's great that this early on in the year you're already feeling quite confident with your French, I'm sure you'll do very well!

 

[nomieee]

I'm really concerned now, we're only up to extract 4 as my teacher just wants to focus on the prescribed issues/monologues and we only did those extracts bc she was away for a few weeks and had to give us work to do.

 

[Tsonga]

I'm currently up to extract 9 which is our last extract before half yearlies. They don't really take too long to go through so I'm sure you won't have any problem catching up, and on the bright side you will have less to cover for your exams so you should take advantage of that and aim high
We haven't focused too much on the issues which I feel is my weak point as I'm not very opinionated and struggle to come up with strong arguments but I've already made progress and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year. Good luck with the rest of this term!

 

[panicatthehsc]

Oh wow okay so I'm pretty similar to you guys. We're just finishing extract 7 and I've done tons of practice essays now but we haven't looked at the monologues. How are you guys all feeling about the coming few terms? I'm actually enjoying extension a lot more than continuers - continuers just seems basic and boring now

Also, how is the workload going with trying to keep up with extension as well as every other subject?

 

[nomieee]

I'm doing a lot better in Extension than I am at continuers atm lol. I just find extension so much more interesting.

I've just found out that my half yearly is in a month so im freaking the heck out about this damn monologue even though i've been practicing for a while now. My teacher doesn't seem to be worried about any other section in the exam other than the monologue so i trust her judgement. My only problem is i get so fricken nervous for Oral exams. I just had my continuers Oral and i was literally hyperventilating going into the room and i spoke wAYYYY too fast. And that was with knowing the questions and having prepared for five weeks in advance so yeah my only issues is gonna be the monologue.

Basically i'm putting a lot of work into Extension right now because i really enjoy it and if i can do well it will literally make my life!!

It works well with other subjects as I don't have to do much revision during the actual term for any of my other subjects, just in the lead up to exams it becomes a problem, but i'm making sure to start early so i don't have 6 subjects to study for at the last minute.

 

[oceans]

How's everyone going with Frext? How were your half-yearlies (if you've had them yet?) - my monologue is on Friday, and writing is Monday. I'm pretty freaked for the monologue, as well being able to analyse the film well (I haven't concentrated on heaps of Neuilly Sa Mere study yet). ahhh.

Also, random question, but: why are you guys studying french extension (apart from wanting to improve continuers / wanting more of a challenge)? Do you plan to keep studying french at uni? (I definitely do). Or do any of you see your future self in a job that incorporates french/other languages? I reckon languages are so valuable, I'm so glad that little year 9 me decided to study french instead of just choosing the electives that sounded funnest at the time.

Good luck if you haven't had your half yearlies yet!

 

[nomieee]

Ive got my oral and written on the 30th and I'm pretty confident with written but eff me if I can do this monologue!!! I do Ext at another campus because of lack of interest at my school and I asked my continuers french teacher (who can also teach extension but isn't this year) to go through practices with me and we did the first one today and hOLY HELL I SUCKED SO BADLY. Literally got out the first sentence like je suis d'accord jusqu'à un certain point avec la déclaration "notre classe sociale décide notre destin" car and then I BLANKED COMPLETELY AND JUST STOOD THERE LIKE "what the hell is the word for likely" thank the lord that wasn't the actual exam I would've got like an 0.3/10.

I'm doing extension because I want to improve at Continuers and wanted to move into a more fluent style of french lesson but now I just do it because I really enjoy it

 

[oceans]

I did my monologue half yearly today and even though I think I spoke okay, I literally spoke for less than 2 minutes (normally I pretty easily make 3) so I'm pretty annoyed. And it felt like I was talking for ages, like 4 minutes, but it wasn't even half that!

And don't worry, I am sure you'll improve in monologues! I have to practice so many more too, but practice makes perfect I guess! I reckon the best things you can do are (i) brainstorm as many types of possible questions that relate to the issues, so you have an opinion on everything, (ii) memorise the trickier vocab that specifically relates to those brainstormed questions, and (iii) just practice heaps!! I'm considering after half yearlies trying to get into the habit of recording one practice monologue every night, because in all truthfulness, it only takes about 10 minutes.

And also, make sure to play back the recordings a few times and get used to your recorded voice, even if you think it sounds sounds crap, with a billion mistakes (I'm sure it's not, though!) - because I think one of the best ways we can improve is by being able to laugh at ourselves, and accept that we're not going to be perfect at grammar or fluency, but we just gotta shake it off and keep improving!

Changing the subject, it sucks because as of this week I'm the only person left in my class, we started out with 4 It's bad because it means there's much less ideas to discuss about all the issues, because I just say my few opinions on the topic, and then I don't have anything else to talk about. Last year's class had about 9 people in it, so my teacher's always making me feel compared to them because they obviously had 1000 different ideas to discuss. Ahhh.

 

[nomieee]

What was the question you got if you don't mind me asking? I'm trying to gather as many prac questions as i can before the exam haha.

I did another practice with my teacher today and i managed to speak for most of the three minutes but there was literally no structure haha it was kind of like one big blob and i was like pfft what conclusion? and she said I was sitting around the 6/7 out of 10 mark which is HELLA FINE WITH ME BECAUSE MY AIM IS FIVE. I have three days off before my exam (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) so I'm gonna just non stop practice monologues then because I feel confident for the writing as I used Neuilly Sa Mere as my related text for English Mod C and I've been handing in writing pracs all term so I have the whole three days to build confidence in monologues.

Ahh dude that sucks! I'm in a class of 6 atm with three seriously considering dropping depending on their half yearly marks. The other three are me, a native speaker and a girl that's been doing extension tutoring since the beginning of year 11. If you ever want to we can discuss opinions and exchange notes on here?

 

[oceans]

My question was something along the lines of "Do you think that young people are just as intolerant as adults?", and the second question (which I didn't choose) was "should Australia continue welcoming migrants?"

Using Neuilly as a Module C related text sounds like such a hilarious idea, but it's so smart!

Wow, what's it like having a native speaker in your class? I've always known I'm up against quite a few of them, it's a good reminder to step up my game!

Sharing opinions/notes here would be good! I haven't actually done complete NSM notes yet, despite having had an exam on it, because I've found it really easy to remember everything about the extracts - plus it helps that we have the entire transcript of the extract in our exam paper! But over the holidays I'll definitely make some more extensive notes, plus continue making vocab lists for the issues.

 

[nomieee]

argh there's no way i would've been able to answer the one you did! We did a whole lesson on asylum seekers and stuff like that so i would've been alright for the other one. I'm starting to feel sick at the thought of this monologue, mostly because it's right before my written exam so i'm petrified that if i stuff up the monologue it's going to throw me off for the written. PLS MONOLOGUE GODS LET ME GET A QUESTION THAT I HAVE LOTS OF VOCAB ON!!!

Well he doesn't really say much and he only talks in French when he's asked or if the teacher doesn't know a slangy type word but he's really nice and quite humble about the fact that he's probably going to ace this monologue with no study.

The only extensive notes i have on NSM are the Miroir Magique sheets with the extracts, scene analysis and questions. I've done extracts 1-4 in detail and am working on 5-8 atm just in case we need to reference another scene (like they did in last years HSC) and for Section 2 i have articles that i can use as examples if need be.

 

[nomieee]

Not sure if this thread is still active but I thought I'd post an update...

my overall percentage for my half yearly was 75%, not great but better than what I was expecting (my friend got 93% like wtf)

I got 7/10 on the Monologue which was really fracking generous because i totally choked (The question was L'echec scolaire est la cause primordiale de la marginalisation)

for written I got 10.5/15 for Neuilly Sa Mere part A and 7/10 for Neuilly Sa Mere part B

and then 12.5/15 for the issues question. So overall I'm pretty happy, could've done so much better in NSM part A tho.... such easy marks lost because of stupid mistakes.

The only thing that's getting me down right now is that I'm last in my class... to be honest It's really to be expected - everyone in my class handles exams better than I do and we have a native speaker so like my chances weren't good to begin with. I had a chat with my Extension teacher and she said I should definitely continue because while it's the worst mark in the class, it's not like i'm failing so If I enjoy it, I should continue. I reckon I'm gonna keep it and just work at it because being last is a really shitty feeling.

 

[oceans]

definitely keep doing french ext!! it's such a good subject! and if you stay at least near to their marks, then you'll get pulled up heaps (i don't know how scaling works but that's probably right? besides, apparently it just scales pretty well regardless) and 75% is still super good! i got 84%, but we'll both improve so much more in these next few months.

also, i'm so happy because in the exam timetables, i have an exam on monday week 3, and then the only 2 remaining ones are french/ext, on fri week 3 and wed week 4 (last day sob). so hopefully with all that time to spend on french i'll be able to get into total french mode haha!

also, is anyone going to that NAFT french study day at Macquarie Uni?

 

[nomieee]

I think I'm going to continue with it because it is a lot of fun despite the workload and I love the issues we're studying. Yeah scaling will hopefully work in my favour due to Native speaker and also since I do the course at a selective school (not my normal school - we had to go cross campus due to lack of interest) which is ranked relatively high in the state so hopefully that works in my favour too!

My timetable is literally beautiful everything is spaced so nicely!! I have Modern on the Monday of week 3 and then the same as you just Cont and Ext to go! As soon as Ext is over I'm probably going to cry for joy and idk get drunk or something hahaha.

Yes I am going to the Macquarie day!! That's the one on the 16th right?? I'll see you there!