Exam skills

French for Cambridge IGCSE®

Paper 1 Listening
What you need to know:

1. All the instructions and questions are printed on the exam paper to help you. Try following
the words on the page with your finger as they are spoken so you don’t get lost.

2. The listening papers all follow the same format. If you know the types of questions and how
to give your answers you will find it easier to tackle the paper - so do lots of past paper
practice.

3. On all sections, the answers you are listening for in the recording follow the order of the
questions on the paper. You will hear each extract twice so you can go back and fill in any
gaps the second time round.

4. To do well, you don’t need to understand every single word. You are being tested on your
ability to pick out key information. Remember the texts get more complex as you go along.

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 Exam skills

French for Cambridge IGCSE®

Paper 2 Reading
What you need to know:

1. Just like the listening papers, the reading papers all follow the same format. So lots of past
paper practice will help.

2. The questions are set in the order of the text, apart from an occasional general ‘summing-up’
type question at the end.

Vocabulary for listening and reading comprehension

In the first sections of the listening and reading papers, the words you will hear / read in the texts
will be the same as those used in the questions. In the later sections however, the words in the
questions may not be the same as those used in the texts, but they will be linked in some way,
either they will be synonyms or they will be related in meaning.

Organise your vocabulary into ‘families’ of words which will help you make useful connections
when understanding and answering questions. A word family sheet has been started for you, but
this list is by no means exhaustive. Add words of your own as you come across them.

Word families

École - collège - lycée - scolaire

La natation - nager - se baigner - piscine - maillot de bain

L’équitation - faire du cheval - le cheval

Le cyclisme - faire du vélo - le VTT

L’hiver - froid - décembre - geler - Noël

Intéressant - beaucoup à faire - passionnant

Discuter - conversation - communication - parler - bavarder

Long - prendre des heures

Le sport - take your pick !

Les ordinateurs - surfer sur Internet - console de jeu - informatique

La lecture - lire - livres - magazines - journaux - bandes dessinées

Les amis - les copains - les copines - rencontrer

Se relaxer - se détendre

Conduire - rouler - la voiture - l’auto - l’automobiliste - conducteur - chauffeur

Il pleut - pluvieux

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Il fait beau - il fait du soleil - le soleil brille

Petit déjeuner - matin

Déjeuner - midi

Dîner - soir

Manger - repas - plat

Boire - boisson

Bijouterie - bijoux - boucle d’oreille - collier - bague

Été - juillet - août

Télé - petit écran - émission - dessin animé - jeu télévisé - téléspectateur

Cinéma - grand écran - film

Devoirs - travail - études

Difficile - pas facile (beware of negatives + opposites)

Ennuyeux - pas intéressant (beware of negatives + opposites)

Future tense : l’année prochaine - dans 2 ans - à l’avenir

Past tense : l’année dernière - il y a 2 ans - avant

Now, add to this list with words and word families that you come across.

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French for Cambridge IGCSE®

Paper 3 Speaking : Role Play

What you need to know:

1. You will be given 15 minutes to prepare the two role plays on the card.

2. You will not be able to make any notes, but you will have the card in front of you during
the exam.

3. The instructions are all in French and formed using the polite ‘Vous’ form.

4. Role play A is more straightforward than Role play B but the method for approaching A and
B role plays is the same.

5. You must remember to greet and/or thank the examiner when appropriate. If you don’t the
task will be incomplete and your score will go down to 1 for that task.

6. You do not need to over-develop your answers but you must convey all the information
asked in the instruction. Watch out for tasks that are split into part (i) and part (ii).

7. One word answers can score 3 marks if appropriate to the situation.

8. Each role-play has one ‘unpredictable’ question in it to keep you on your toes in the exam!

10. It is likely you will need to formulate a question to pose the examiner too.

11. Correct pronunciation is essential.

12. Incorrect verbs will lose you marks. Only use a verb if you have to in order to complete
the task.

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French for Cambridge IGCSE®

Paper 3 Speaking : Topic presentation / conversation

What you need to know:

1. You can choose what you want to talk about, so choose something you are interested in and
that you can talk about in French.
2. Avoid choosing a topic that is too general like ‘Myself’ or ‘My life’, or anything too technical
with vocabulary you will find it difficult to remember. Some suggestions of topics that might
be suitable have been provided below to help you.
3. You can learn your presentation off by heart but be prepared to respond to unexpected
questions in the conversation.
4. Your presentation should not last longer than 2 minutes, and 1 minute 30 seconds is the
ideal length.
5. You can have one or two pictures with you in the exam to add interest and illustrate what you
are saying but you are not allowed to have any written notes.
6. You must use verbs in past, present and future tenses in order to score more than 6/15 for
language. Remember to include these in the Topic Presentation and the conversation. A
good way to start your presentation is with: ‘Je vais parler de … .’ or ‘J’ai choisi ce thème
parce que …’. That way you will have demonstrated future and past tenses from the start,
but you will need to do this more than once during this part of the exam.
7. Whatever your topic, you must be able to:
• talk about it with interest and enthusiasm
• talk about it using a variety of tenses
• express opinions about it.

Suggested topics for the presentation

Below are some ideas of the types of topics that would be suitable for your presentation and
discussion (but this is not an exhaustive list):

• a famous person (sportsman, actor, writer, composer, artist)

• my school / my old school
• a recent or favourite past holiday
• a school trip or exchange
• my favourite sport or hobby or interest
• my favourite country / place
• my town / region / country
• my ambitions / future plans
• my favourite film / book
• a historical event

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How to learn longer texts

1. Record your presentation on phone / laptop / tablet and listen to it. If you can, ask a native
French speaker (such as your school’s French assistant) to record your presentation for you
so you can hear what it should sound like.

2. Write out your presentation in chunks, cut it up and then practise putting it back together in
the right order from memory.

3. Write out your sentences leaving several gaps, and then try to fill in the gaps from memory.
Repeat the process leaving different gaps.

4. Copy ten key words from your presentation onto cards. Learn the first line of your
presentation and say it from memory. Learn the second line and say the first two lines from
memory. Carry on adding one line at a time. Use your cards as a reminder. Only refer back to
the full version if you get stuck.

5. Write only the first letter of each word of a sentence from your presentation, and then try and
say it from memory.

6. Practise speaking your presentation out loud – not in your head. It sounds different when you
say it. You really have to practise it exactly as you will do it on the day. Get someone else to
listen to you.

7. The more you practise, the easier it will be and the more confident you will become. When
you are confident with the content, you can work on the pronunciation.

8. Learning what to say will give you confidence but you don’t want to sound like a robot. You
will get higher marks for spontaneity. As you gain confidence, you can ‘let go’ of big chunks
of language, and use and combine in new ways words and phrases that you’ve practised.

9. Remember, the presentation is important but it only lasts up to 2 minutes. You need to work
on your follow up questions for the topic conversation and the questions for the general
conversation.

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How to do well in the topic presentation / conversation:

1. Prepare your presentation carefully. Once you have chosen your topic, write a rough plan of
what you want to say and then write out your presentation.

2. You must include a variety of tenses (at the very least several past, present and future) and
also accurate and interesting language (see some suggestions below)

3. Don’t be repetitive or boring. Once you think what you have written will last no more than
2 minutes, read it out loud and time yourself.

4. Think of at least five different areas you could be asked about during the discussion of
your topic and prepare answers to them. This will not be a script for the discussion but
it will enable you to be well prepared for the Examiner’s questions. Remember the whole
discussion will last 5 minutes in total.

5. Aim to provide about 3 or 4 sentences for each answer. Develop your answers by:

a. Including negatives: if you are asked what you do / like, say also what you don’t do /
like. For example:

• J’aime le foot, mais je n’aime pas du tout le basket.

• Je bois du coca mais je ne bois jamais de limonade.

• Je regarde les infos mais je ne regarde plus les dessins animés.

• Je fais beaucoup de sport à l’école mais je ne fais rien le weekend.

b. Giving examples of what you are talking about, or when you did it.

c. Making a point of adding a sentence in a different tense and use time expressions. For
example:

• D’habitude – usually (present tense)

• Normalement – normally (present tense)

• Hier - yesterday (past tense)

• Le weekend dernier – last weekend (past tense)

• La semaine dernière – last week (past tense)

• Le weekend prochain – next weekend (past tense)

• La semaine prochaine – next week (past tense)

• Demain - tomorrow (past tense)

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d. Discussing what others do /don’t do and like / don’t like – J’aime le foot mais mon frère
pense que c’est nul.

e. Justifying your answer by saying why and giving your opinion. Include expressions like:

• A mon avis – in my opinion

• Selon moi – according to me

• D’après moi – according to me

• Je pense que – I think

• Je crois que - I think

• J’estime que – I think

• Je trouve que – I find

• Je pense que oui – I think so

• Je pense que non – I don’t think so

f. Include structures that will allow you to express yourself in complex sentences. Your
aim is to show off the French you have learnt. Remember ‘complex’ does not mean
‘complicated’. Examples of impressive structures are:

• Si clauses – si j’étais directeur je changerais le règlement.

• Après avoir – après avoir quitté l’école j’espère aller à l’université

• En + present participle – Je n’aime pas les devoirs mais je trouve que j’apprends
bien en les faisant.

• Pronouns – including y and en

• Adverbs – don’t just say what you do, say how you do it. Don’t forget to put them
after the verb.

• Comparatives and superlatives. Don’t forget the irregular ones – Je trouve que
j’apprends mieux en classe que tout seul à la maison.

• Negatives – ne … pas, plus, jamais, rien, personne and if you can ne … que and
ne … aucun.

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French for Cambridge IGCSE®

Paper 4 Writing
What you need to know:

You will be asked to answer three questions that increase gradually in difficulty.

Question 1

a) You will be asked to write eight words on a given topic in French.

b) The words you write should be nouns.

c) You don’t have to include a definite or indefinite article (le, la, l’, les, un, une, des)

d) There will be pictures to provide ideas but you don’t have to use them. As long as the words
you write are directly related to the given topic you will get the marks.

e) The examiner will look for five correct answers and award these the maximum five marks.

Question 2

a) You must write 80 to 90 words which are awarded with ten marks for communication and ten
marks for language.

b) There will be four tasks, one of which will require you to answer in the future tense.

Question 3

a) You must write 130 to 140 words which are awarded 10 marks for communication, 8 marks
for verbs and 12 marks for other linguistic features.

b) There will be a choice of three questions in three different styles: usually a letter, an article
and a narrative. Only answer one of them!

c) There will be five tasks to complete and each task is worth 2 communication marks so it is
important to cover them all.

d) To score for communication, a sentence must contain a correct verb. Communication marks
are awarded as follows:

i. 2 - Message clearly communicated. Minor errors (adjective endings, use of prepositions)

are tolerated.

ii. 1 - Communication of some meaning is achieved, but the message may be ambiguous
or incomplete.

iii. 0 - Nothing of worth communicated.

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e) You will be awarded eight marks for the accuracy of the verbs you use:

• Each verb used correctly will be awarded a tick.

• If you use the same verb in the same form twice it is not awarded a second tick.

• If you use the same verb in a different tense or with a different subject (person) it is
awarded a second tick.

• The ticks are then counted up and a mark awarded according to this table. You need
18 correct verbs to score the maximum mark of 8. Table 1.1 shows you how marks are
awarded depending on the number of ticks you have.

Table 1.1

Number of ticks Mark

18+ 8
16,17 7
14,15 6
12,13 5
10,11 4
8,9 3
6,7 2
4,5 1
0,1,2,3 0

f) The remaining 12 marks are given for other linguistic features. These are the structures that
enable you to express yourself in impressive, complex sentences. Here you are using the
same skills as when preparing material for the conversation parts of the speaking exam. For
example, in writing the a letter, the correct use of a greeting and ending will not count for
verb ticks but will be counted as a good linguistic feature.

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Question 3: How to vary your verbs

1. Learn a list of common verbs you know how to conjugate in different tenses.

2. Use different personal pronouns: je, on, nous, etc.

3. Use different tenses. To change tense, use a different time expression.

4. Use different expressions of opinion: je pense que…, je crois que…., je trouve que…,
j’estime que…, je considère que…, je ne peux m’empêcher de penser que…, je dirais que….

5. Use expressions requiring an infinitive:

a. J’aime manger les fruits et les légumes.

b. Je voudrais changer de régime.

c. J’essaie de jouer au foot trois fois par semaine.

d. J’ai décidé de faire plus de sport.

e. J’ai besoin de manger plus sain.

f. Il faut consommer moins de matières grasses.

If the expression requires a preposition, make sure the preposition is correct for the infinitive to
get a tick.

6. Use particular verbal expressions:

a. En + present participle e.g. En jouant au foot, je reste en forme (By playing football, I
stay in good shape).

b. Après avoir / après être + past participle e.g. Après avoir mangé des sucreries, j’ai mal
aux dents (After eating sugary food, I have tooth ache).

c. Venir de + infinitive e.g. Je viens de changer de régime (I have just changed my diet).

7. Aim first for simple sentence structure: the subject and verb both need to be correct for
the verb to score a tick. If you can do points 1, 2 and 3, correctly you can score maximum
ticks for verbs. If you include examples of 4, 5 and 6 you will also score well on the linguistic
feature scale.

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Question 3: Other linguistic features

Adjectives, including possessives and demonstratives: une grande maison, mon sac rouge, cette
belle voiture de luxe

• Object pronouns: Il m’a dit, Je l’ai fait

• Emphatic pronouns: chez nous, sans moi

• Comparatives and superlatives: Je suis plus grand que mon frère, C’est la meilleure émission
à la télé

• Negatives: Je n’aime pas les carottes, Il ne joue plus au foot

• Expressions of quantity: Un kilo de fraises, beaucoup d’argent

• Use of expressions to talk about lengths of time: pendant, pour, du, au, depuis

• Linking words: cependant, malheureusement, toutefois

• Conjunctions other than et and mais.

• Subordinate clauses, including car / parce que, qui and que, ce qui and ce que.

• Time clauses with quand, pendant que and si (if)

• Indirect or reported speech: il a dit que, je pense que

• Appropriate use of letter etiquette (but be careful, you won’t get credit for this if you are not
asked to write a letter!)

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