The Official French Continuers & Extension Speaking Exams 2005 Thread - POST IN HERE! (1 Viewer)

[MarsBarz]

I'm quite annoyed. My examiner didn't ask me any good questions. I was expecting her to ask about my background (since I'm a native speaker) but she did none of that. It pisses me off because I had done a lot of work and would have been able to give in depth responses.ie: comparisons between life in France and life in Australia. All she did was ask me pathetically simple questions which only require short answers. I am now quite nervous about what mark I will receive because she did not allow me to show off my grasp of french enough. I tried hinting that I was born in France to prompt her to go into that drection but she ignored it completely.

The first question was describe your school. Quite possibly the stupidest question they could ever ask you. First of all they are supposed to ask a simple question in the beginning such as how many people in your family. Second of all the question is ridiculous because you're meant to stay anonymous so of course you can't state your school's name. Describing your school greatly reduces this safeguard, even if you don't name it becomes trivial to figure out. Grrr...

Then the questions were basic. Music, sports, family, movies, friends, travel....

10 minute goes really fast, a lot faster than I expected. I just hope I get 17-20.

 

[leetom]

I was really nervous to begin with, as my response to the opening question "Quel-age as-tu?" was "J'ai dix-huit ans, je suis ne le 27 mai, mille-neuf-cent-quatre-vingt-dix-sept."

I always thought I had mastered 80-100 as well.

 

[lourai*87]

Sigh. Thank goodness its over! My nerves were so bad, and when i commented at the end "that was shocking" the examiner said the most shocking part was my nerves. So i suppose that is a good sign. I thought too that it was bad if the examiner asked lots of questions. I know i didnt control the convo as much as i should have but my teacher has said to me that the questions asked seemed "higher-order" and obviously the examiner thought i had a pretty decent ability (good sign number 2).

My first question was "Est-ce que tu peux decrire ta famille". So that was fine, i babbled away about this and that, then it went onto talking about my job (very weak response about working for Kmar 3 days a week and "c'est bien" :S). And so she wanted to know what i do with my money - I save for uni and travelling of course...so in we go about that. And then she wishes to know where im going to travel, which i was coming to...and so bla bla bla.

And the further it went i was asked what i think my personal qualities are ("Mes amis me disent que je suis sympa, marrante...mais je n'aime pas me flatter") Phew. And then if i am content with life, if i ever get sad and what makes me sad (I dont want to talk emo!!!!) etc etc.

All in all i am feeling happier as the days pass. My nerves were horrific though - i dont think i stopped wringing my hands. And i got a hug at the end...after the exam "can i have a hug" lol.

I dug myself a hole though. You know how they tell us its ok to lie a bit if its easier? Well...i really hadnt seen my best friend for 4 years, that is until the last holidays when we went up north. Examiner asks me to describe my best friend...so "elle s'appelle....elle habite...." and all of that and that i hadnt seen her for 4 years the end. And i ended up saying i was going to stay with her after the hsc. And then a bit later i get asked what i did on my last holiday. So then i was stuffed. So i had to lie some more. but anyhow.

Did anyone go to Merewether?

 

[Lileane]

I swear to G-d those 10 minutes just outside the exam room are the longest 10 minutes of your friggin life!

Mdr, totally agree with what you said there. I thought I would have been rather confident for the Continuers exam, but in those ten minutes of waiting I was reduced to hugging my notes for comfort haha.
Oh, and you weren't at Ravenswood were you? Because I remember asking the person before me whether the examiner was nice.

Anyway, as far as the exam went...I suppose it was alright. I started off being asked to describe where I live. Definitely wasn't prepared for that one, so I ended up talking about how it was near the water and how I could take walks, so...total tangent.
Then was asked the dreaded question about "Tell me about you." Or something to that effect. I can't remember if it was specifically about my personality or just about me in general, but in retrospect I could have dragged in a lot of stuff about needing friends (going off on friends spiel) and well about a ton of other stuff. Ah well. Somehow within there I got to talking about how I was an only child and was asked about my relationship with my parents. I said we got along, we sometimes fight etc etc. Then asked about what we fought about...geez that was neverending.
Also about what I do to relax.
Last question was "do you have a dream?"
I guess I just talked about future careers and travelling. I suppose I should have tacked something on about it being a relatively realistic for a dream but meh.

Now I'm stressing out about Extension exam and Italian. I hate the way theyr'e together, I'm actually really bad at multitasking when it comes to studying.

 

[faraway]

hi, i was just wondering if anyone could help me with a couple of quick questions about some french words i need to know for my speaking exam firstly: en fait ?? Is this commonly used in conversation or is there a more appropriate phrase i could use? The other word is "rugby", i forget whether the u is pronounced as "uh" or "oo". Thanks in advance

 

[Lileane]

The "u" in rugby is pronounced "oo," more toward the front of the mouth than in the back of the throat.
As for a more appropriate expression...well it would depend on what context you want to say it in I suppose. Hmm I'm not very good at this am I?
All I can say is "en fait" is a pretty appropriate way to express "in fact/actually."
Oh dear, I AM terrible :S.

 

[lourai*87]

lileane youre questions sound somewhat like they did to me. Where did you do yours? And yes i would say en fait is like in fact.

 

[faraway]

thanks for your help
i'm just unsure of a good phrase i could use to change the subject of the conversation, for example "i like music ... in fact i went to a concert last week" ... so i'm looking for a term that means "actually" or "in fact" .. So is en fait suitable for this context?

 

[melsc]

I think thats ok, conjunctions are great too to extend your sentences autant -que (although), tandis que (where as), d'habitude (usuallly) just make sure that if they take the subjunctive, A MON AVIS is a good one too (in my opinion)

Like "Je pense qu'il soit beau (the dictionary will usually tell u if a conjunction takes the subjunctive

 

[Elizabeth rocks]

LOURAI!
i went to Merewether! (because that's my school.)
my exam went pretty well. the most unexpected question was "do you drink wine?" which was fine, i could answer that.
i'm more concerned about extension this saturday morning.

 

[lourai*87]

Lol now you have to tell me which person you were

Ooh im sure you were fine hey...extention french!! My goodness, i was so so stressed. The examiner was so nice though hey...she gave me a hug

 

[chepas]

Salut tout le monde!

La veille de l'examen de l'Extension! Je pense que vous devez vous inquiéter beaucoup... mais alors, il ne faut pas vous en faire, ce sera bientôt fini, et j'ai toute confiance en vous

(Petit point grammatical - 'penser que' does not take the subjunctive. Even though it is a verb expressing opinion, doubt etc, it is an exception, and does not use the subjunctive. So mel in your example, plutôt 'Je pense qu'il est beau' - the indicative (ie, what you've been learning all along). Here is a link to the about.french site and the uses of subjunctive which you might find useful.)

Enfin,
BONNE CHANCE, LES EXTENSIONEURS!

 

[yrtherenonames]

Wohoo!! First Post-Extension Post!
The waiting was kinda long, i was there at 8.30 and i did it around 12.45...questions 1/3 for me. I think it went hok.

 

[yrtherenonames]

awww
i was there till 12.45

 

[vas y molo]

I found my exam good, I studied literally as I sat there waiting, and only learnt about 15 questions off by heart, and was miraculously asked all those questions!
I did my exam at kograh, and this really nice girl from Reddam was in my waiting room, so we just talked the whole time in holding, and I didn't even think about the exam haha.
I'm not saying I will go really well, but I'm happy with my performance.
That said, anything is better than the 4/10 mark I got for trials arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh (not entirely my fault)

 

[jazzi_jess]

I'm doing open high school, but did my exam at ravenswood

 

[jazzi_jess]

hey, did you do your exam at ravenswood? because that's exactly what one person i met outside the exam room did... cos i got there later but got made number zero because of a netball final