GCSE French Exam Tips

For students facing their French GCSE exams, revising and preparing can feel overwhelming at times. But if you know how to study properly, and how to go about tackling the separate assessments, getting top marks suddenly becomes a lot more achievable.

We’ve prepared some tips and tricks to help students achieve top marks on the French GCSE exams and assessments.

One essential skill you need to have that isn’t directly related to the French language is time management. Pay close attention to how much time you have been allotted for each exam, making sure to factor in extra time if you are entitled to it. For the written exam in the AQA French GCSE, for instance, you will be permitted 1 hour and ten minutes at foundation level or 1 hour and fifteen minutes at higher level to complete the exam. That might sound like a long time, but when it comes to answering the questions, you’ll quickly discover that it isn’t very much time at all.

It’s a good idea to look at each of the different sections before you get round to answering them, so that you can get a sense of which part might prove the most demanding. As a rule, however, we recommend that you divide your time proportionally between the different sections of the paper. You may find yourself running out of time to finish the first section before moving onto the second, but it’s better to have a good crack at each bullet point rather than focusing all your time on just a few.

At GCSE level, examiners don’t expect even the very best students to be truly fluent in French. Focusing too much on expressing yourself perfectly can get in the way of helping you make a point, as well as slow you down considerably. Accent and pronunciation are important, of course, but what's most important is using the right words, addressing the questions directly and developing your point to completion.

That said, always pay careful attention to what the exam is asking of you and follow the instructions exactly.

If you come across a word you don't understand, look at the surrounding words to give you a sense of what it might mean, or what it might refer to. In the Reading exam, visual elements such as newspaper formatting or an email layout will also likely provide you with helpful context that will further clarify the subject matter

Throughout the exams, you’ll be asked to express your thoughts on subjects such as ‘your ideal home’ and ‘music and films’. Don’t just take these questions at face value - you’ll get extra marks for justifying your opinions.

Thinking verbs, such as ‘je pense’ and ‘je crois’, are really valuable here and will give you scope to expand on your answer and show off not just your vocabulary but also your rhetorical skills in French. For example, you could follow up a statement like ‘Je pense que Paris est la meilleure ville du monde’ (I think Paris is the best city in the world) with ‘parce que c’est beau toute l’année et plein d’opportunités pour les jeunes comme moi.’ (because it’s beautiful all year round, and full of opportunities for young people like myself.’)

During the exams, you’ll likely find yourself using the same words and concepts over and over, especially when answering a question with a narrow focus. Learn to see this not as a hindrance but as an opportunity to show off the range of your vocabulary. For instance, if you’re talking about the weather, you might want to describe it as 'chaud(e)' (hot) the first time, but ‘ensoleillé(e)’ (sunny) or ‘torride’ (torrid) when you refer to it again (assuming it hasn’t become rainy all of a sudden).

No doubt your preparation for the listening exam will involve a lot of, well, listening. Listening to recordings of not only past papers but the radio, podcasts and general conversation will help you pick up an ear for the language and let you distinguish between words, as well as give you a sense of the rhythm and cadences of everyday French speech. But listening will also give you a sense of just how the language should be spoken, from the accent to the pronunciation of certain words, and even the words and phrases French people are likely to use in certain circumstances. This will all help you tremendously on the speaking test, and will help you sound like a real French native - something that is bound to impress the examiner.

It might sound obvious, but you may find English words and phrases slipping out as a kneejerk response to the examiner’s questions or remarks in the speaking exam. If English is your native language, it will be instinctive to you in a way that French isn’t. To help prevent this, learn the French equivalents for the filler words you find yourself using often in English, and make sure to have these at hand to fill awkward silences or simply add colour to your conversations. Examples might include ‘genre’ or ‘hein’, but you can see a more exhaustive list here.

Doing so will help you remember its gender.

You can find more tips and tricks in the support guides on our new GCSE Preparation Course.