French extension (2 Viewers)

[carmichael]

hmm... well let's say they make the exam 3 hours long, enough time for the slow coaches (meeeee) to catch up and make a much more sophisticated arguement, except the requirements of the question may specify 1000 or 1200 or 1500 words etc etc.

Imagine you encounter two questions that you've got no idea about. You have to write an essay potentially up to 1500 words long on something you're clueless in, and in a sophisticated register in another language. The person next to you may be much more clued up on the topic (eg economics, cause he studies it) yet you aren't because you chose art . In the scope of 300 words you would still prove your ability to write in a sophisticated manner, and possibly b/s enough to pull you through to an A range. That becomes **muuuch** more tricky to do in 1500 words, even though you may be as fluent as the boy/girl next to you in French.

So yes u'd be singing and dancing if u knew the topic back to front for 1500 words cause that'd be like 50/50, but if you didn't u'd prob be asking the presiding officer for a Kleenex lol.

Let's face it, it's french, not philosophy, not psychology, and not economics. The topics we study touch on the issues but we frankly don't have enough periods (and time @ home to study in between the other 11 units) in the year to be able to go on for that many pages...

 

[-sophie-]

wow you have 9 people doing french extension? We have 5 and i thought that was alot.

Wow, everyone's classes must be tiny. Our class has like 20 people.
I thought the exam was quite good. I liked the Marius et Jeannette section. The extended answer question of Section I part A - i forget the exact wording, but it was along the lines of how fear and anxiety have affected M+J's ability to cope with change - was so similar to the 2003 question, "In your opinion, which of the two characters, Marius or Jeannette, copes more successfully with change?" I brought up so many of the same points. I'm amazed the board of studies put such a similar question in...
And Section II, hm. I wrote about the male teachers, I don't think it was very good. I wish I'd had more time, I finished about twenty seconds before she said pens down, so I didn't get a chance to improve it.

 

[ElGronko]

Don't worry about it. If you did over 3 pages you did way too much. In fact read the examiner's comments next to the past papers on BOS. They always say that you're wasting your time by writing over the given limit.

I'm pretty sure my grammar and spelling was fine. I am relatively good at it anyway, but as i said, i had 25 minutes to check over everything, so I think it all went well.

I didn't plan to write that much, just when i saw the question, I thought of some key points and wrote about them. I wasn't even thinking about how many pages i was writing, and i wasn't intentionally drawing it out, it was a total surprise for me when i turned the page and it was the last in the booklet.

I just thought of it as an English essay, and structured my speech and topics accordingly, making sure every point was supported and what-not.

I don' think it is a good idea to consciously think about the time as you either restrict yourself, or draw your shit out too much. I just wrote what i wanted to write, and it turned out to be quite long.

As long as my grammar and spelling are alright, I shouldn't be significantly disadvantaged.

 

[jazzi_jess]

i did that exam on my own, with a couple of textiles girls in the next room. i did it through open high school though, so i have 7 classmates out there somewhere.