One of the biggest issues with learning languages is motivation, since a lot of students think the only way to get better is to repeat textbook examples and drill exercises. Once you have a firm grasp of what you need to do for the exam, the anxiety surrounding exam day should lessen. Since you want to give yourself every advantage possible, studying past papers is crucial - but we’ll get to those a little later on. Fortunately, in the higher French exam you will be able to use a dictionary. The piece of writing will be on a topic revealed only on the day of the exam, and usually between 200-250 words in length. Please note: Understanding Standards materials are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain up to date. The higher French exam in Scotland is made up of several components, and each one requires a solid amount of revision if you hope to pass with flying colours.

Like with any modern foreign language, this French exam is broken down into the four key competencies of a language: listening, writing, speaking, and reading. As a result, it isn’t enough that you can talk a good game in French or read texts without using a dictionary. Versions of the Answer Booklet PDF have been created for printing. If this is required please print this double sided. Listening is one of the two passive skills in language-learning (along with reading), in that it doesn’t require you to actively produce the language in any way. Instead, listening is an exercise in receiving information and correctly decoding it and translating it into your native language.

Resources

This isn’t true, though, as you are free to write about whatever you want. That’s right, we encourage you to let your imagination run wild and write anything from a short story about aliens to a poem or a newsletter. Remember within your speaking you should include a range of tenses, even if it is just a couple of phrases. This section provides information on marking instructions and/or the coursework assessment task(s). It includes information that centres need to administer coursework and must be read in conjunction with the course specification. Submission of Advanced Higher Modern Languages Portfolio For now, we’re going to focus on the two papers of the sqa higher French exam, and what to expect, which includes the four competencies that you’ll cover. We’ll also dive into a few useful resources you can draw upon, as well as tips for each competency. Listening

While the second paper has the listening, speaking, and writing tasks. This paper is worth more points, with 80 in total up for grabs. If you’re sitting there scratching your head, wondering how to pass higher French, you’re not alone! By holding court with yourself in a foreign language, you can develop a rhythm with sounds, words, and sentences. If you only ever speak with native speakers, it’s going to take you a very long time to get comfortable unless you live in a French-speaking country.That’s why we’re big believers in building confidence by freestyling off the top of your head, and this can be everything from singing, talking, or actually freestyling. Resources Advanced Higher Gaelic (Learners) Listening and Discursive Writing (Recording) Specimen Question Paper For grammar, there’s no substitute for a textbook - as boring as that might sound. Focus on the tenses that you need to learn for the exam, making sure you can identify present and past competently. To practise, you can find simple French texts or articles and highlight words or phrases and indicate which tense they are in. Writing

Yes, that’s right, one of the best ways to get better at speaking is to purposely talk into a mirror. Better still, you should record yourself as you do so. And the link below to access a number of past papers (2015, 2014, 2013, 2012) from the old Higher Reading and Listening and with marking keys.Below you will also find access to the directed writing tests that we did in class to test your phrases. If you want to give them another go – feel free! Reading is the other passive skill in language-learning, and for many it’s the easiest competency to master.