ABOUT THIS CONFERENCE

This NEW and fully revised A-level French Conference for 2023 will provide students with a highly valuable and motivational revision day. The conference has been designed to improve student understanding of the range of question styles with varied, interactive sessions throughout the day that will extend student achievement in the listening, reading, writing and speaking areas of the listening, reading, writing, translation and speaking.

Students will receive high quality advice, guidance and examples from senior examiners for producing examination answers of the highest levels.

The conference is designed for students on the AQA course, but would be of benefit also for students studying Pearson or OCR courses.

KEY FOCUS AREAS

• Gain top level advice and guidance on how to access the higher grades in examinations from the perspective of the examiners themselves.
• Develop understanding of the mechanics of feedback and how it impacts directly on improvement.
• Enhance your understanding of the key areas of A level French , all linked directly to the exam papers
• Take part in interactive examiner workshops to improve performance in the exams
• Take home a full set of revision notes written by senior examiners
• Be inspired by an impressive, motivational and valuable session

PROGRAMME

Achieving Top Grades in Paper 1: Listening skills

• What are examiners looking for in top grade listening skills?
• Looking out for distractors in the listening passages
• How to make sure your answers are really answers to the questions in free-response questions
• How to structure your answers to score full marks on the listening summary task- which pitfalls may impact on the highest grades?
• Precision, direct responses- building synthesis

Paper 1: Maximising Your Marks in Reading

• Questions and question types -dissecting the questions, be confident about what is being asked, and what the examiners are looking for
• Key strategies for answering each type of question, highlighting the key mistakes made and methods to avoid these
• Key strategies for top level A and A* performance
• How topic knowledge can help you
• Text exploration- every mark matters – how to squeeze every mark out to access those top grades

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Morning Break

12.00 – 12.20pm

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Translation into French

12.20 – 12.40pm
• What are the examiners looking for? How to gain full marks in the translation question
• Tackling the toughest sentences – unpicking the most difficult sentences to achieve A/A*
• Grammar in action- making sure you understand what makes a difference
• Reinforcement of a range of lexis and complex forms to produce the strongest response
• Using vocabulary – enhancing your vocabulary skills to access into A/A* grades
• Comparing answers translated into French: which gets into the top mark band and why?

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Translation into English

12.40 – 1.00pm
• Clear and unambiguous messages
• Using the correct English terms
• Methods to overcome the potential barriers.
• Avoiding panic and finding a way forward in order to answer the questions
• Translate a passage into English and compare with a model response- highlighting the key features that gain the marks according to the examiners perspective.

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Lunch

1.00 – 1.40pm

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Ask the experts- an opportunity to have your questions answered by the examiners.

1.40 – 1.50pm

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Paper 2: Tackling the Questions on French Film and Literature

1.50 – 2.30pm
• The formula approach to hitting the top boxes in the mark scheme
• When to use quotes – how to link your writing to the text
• What do exam boards mean by a ‘critical and analytical response’? Making sure your responses give critical analysis worthy of a top grade
• Examples Grade A and Grade c responses look like in questions on Film and Literature
• How much to write- when is too much? Keeping it concise.
• Keeping the quality of language high- using the appropriate terms and when to do this.

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Precisely how to deal with the speaking cards to Achieve Top Grades

2.30 – 3.00pm
• What is interaction? (A01) and how do I get all the marks for it?
• What to say about the information on the card?
• How best to use the 5 minutes’ preparation time?
• How to make sure answers deal with the questions in depth and detail?

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Exam Techniques, Tactics and Final Top Tips

3.00 – 3.15pm
• The examiner experts give Final Top Tips for exam success including revision top techniques, as well as exam techniques and tactics