ap french exam cram istg im cooked

ap french exam will consist of not just comprehension of the french language but knowledge about culture in francophone countries. therefore, it’s important to know a lot of information about a specific francophone country that relates to the main themes in the course. for me, i’m doing france.

the test consists of multiple choice with both visual and audio stimulus, so you need to make sure your listening and reading comprehension is really good. there is a free response section with 4 sections: email response, argumentative essay, cultural comparison, and a conversation. all parts are weighted equally if that makes it any better.

notes for the mcq: have a good grasp of vocabulary which can be practiced through flashcards. practicing with listening french audios (like actual radio/news pieces) will prepare you for the listening part, you get two times to listen to the french audios, make sure to look at questions first as this will save a lot of time. also, based on my practice with ap classroom you can listen to the audio while on one question but if you move to the next question the audio will start over. makes it more important to know the questions before the audio.

email response vocab: make sure to not use the same opening/closing as the actual email. go in this order:

greeting: cher/chere madame/monsieur, i feel like if you use bonjour they might cut points off.

la politesse is VERY important! make sure to include these phrases in your opening: je vous remercie de m’’avoir envoye votre courriel, je vous remercie de m’avoir inclus dans ce projet, je suis contente que vous m’ayez choisi pour ____ (fill in with context of email)

context: act as if the person reading your email has no idea what’s going on, give a sentence or two talking about the topic of the courriel (connect it to the theme)

answer their questions: en reponse a votre premiere/deuxieme question, en ce qui concerne votre deuxieme question

ask your questions: pourriez-vous me donner plus de precisions sur _____?

la politesse part 2: j’attends votre reponse avec la plus grande impatience

closing: do not use the same one as original email, can use sinceres salutations, cordialement, sentiments respecteux

next section is the argumentative essay! you will get 3 sources usually, an article, a graph/table, and an audio. yes, you can listen to the audio twice. there are 6 minutes to take notes on all of the sources, best thing to do would be to make a table to take notes on what relates to your thesis (make a thesis!). honestly, you could get away with 2 body paragraphs as long as you integrate all the sources.

phrases to integrate sources: selon l’article/le tableau/la source audio, l’article/le tableau/la source audio dit

some transition phrases because those are always nice: d’abord (firstly), de plus, j’ajouterais que, par consequent, en outre, cependant (however), en revanche, en effet (indeed), ainsi, par ailleurs (moreover)

state your opinion because you can’t get away with just restating the sources: a mon avis/selon moi, je suis persuade(e) que, je maintiens que, il est certain que, il est indeniable que

apparently important vocab that you might find in articles: baisser, abaisser (both relate to going down), augmenter, croitre (these relate to increase), rebondir, le taux (rate)

conversation dirigee: honestly not sure what can help prepare for this except just knowing how to speak french, your portions are 20 seconds long each for a total of 5 times and try to fill up those 20 seconds except for some pauses, that’s fine. the last recording doesn’t have to be 20 seconds since it’s usually just you saying goodbye. please make sure to read and understand what you’re expected to respond on each section!

positive reactions: c’est genial/super/excellent/fantastique

negative reactions: c’est dommage/terrible, malheuresement, c’est ennuyeux, je suis triste d’entendre ca

tell me more: ah bon? raconte-moi!, qu’est-ce qui s’est passe, explique-moi ____ (whatever they were talking about)/ tu peux m’expliquer, je suis curieuse d’en savoir plus

if someone asks you for advice/your opinion: a mon avis, tu pourrais essayer de, peut-etre que, peux-tu m’en dire un peu plus sur ta situation, je suis sure que tu vas trouver la meilleure solution

cultural comparison: the part which could quite literally make or break this exam. based only on your prior knowledge and research, you get four minutes to read over a prompt asking to compare your community to a francophone community, the prompt could quite literally be anything. then, you have to record yourself speaking for two minutes. key to this is have some sort of structure as that cuts down on the amount of time you have to speak about what you know, after that you’re kind of on your own. have a thesis which guides the rest of your comparison however DO NOT make it the prompt i’m pretty sure you lose points on that. here’s my structure:

bonjour! je m’appelle tanisha, et maintenant, je vais parler de comment _________ sont different(e)s aux etats-unis et en france. les deux pays _______

transition words: use the ones from the essay they’re basically the same format from here on out. have a section for the united states and then one for france, include a small conclusion, obviously 4 minutes isn’t nearly enough to write a script when planning so only list key points