Uh oh, your French GCSE is on the horizon and you’re struggling to know where to even begin with your revision.
Don’t panic!
Here, we’ll walk you through how to revise for French GCSE – from general tips to nuggets of wisdom specific to French reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Psst! In need of some extra practice? A few sessions with a native French GCSE tutor can boost your understanding and turn weaknesses into strengths ahead of your exams.
How to revise for GCSE French: the foundations
Here are some general tips from our experts to make sure you start your French revision off on the best possible foot.
1. Know what to expect
First things first, it’s vital that you know exactly what could come up in your French GCSE exams.
That way, you can prepare for every eventuality.
Exactly what your exams look like and how they’re structured will vary depending on which exam board you’re with, as well as whether you’re taking the higher or foundation tier.
However, you’ll have to complete four assessments:
- Listening
- Speaking
- Reading
- Writing
We always recommend searching for your course’s specification online and printing it off so you can be sure of exactly what could come in each one.
2. Start early!
Don’t put off starting your French revision until tomorrow (or the next day, or the next!). Instead, why not start right now?
Starting is often the hardest part, so once you make the leap, the rest will probably feel a lot easier!
A good way to dip your toe in is to take 10 minutes to recap what you covered in your most recent French class.
Read through your notes, refresh subject-specific vocab and make sure you understand all the grammar.
Then, do this for all your subsequent French classes.
It’s a great way to save yourself a lot of formal revision time later down the road. Plus, it will help you to flag if there’s anything that’s not quite clicking – so you can get further help from a teacher or tutor.
3. Master the grammar
Grammar is central to all four of your GCSE French assessments.
So, it’s an absolute must that you understand everything you’ve covered in class – and that you’re comfortable using it in your speaking and writing.
This includes mastering:
- Nouns (incl. gender and singular or plural forms)
- Articles
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Quantifiers and intensifiers
- Pronouns
- Verbs (incl. Various tenses)
- Prepositions
- Conjunctives
And more!
Check out your exam board’s specification to see exactly which grammatical constructs you need to be confident with.
4. Brush up on your vocab
Sometimes, misunderstanding a key piece of vocabulary can be a real obstacle to success in whole sections of your French GCSE exams.
So, the more vocabulary you have under your belt, the better.
You can find minimum core vocabulary lists for your exam board’s specification, but you’re also likely to encounter some vocab that’s not on there.
So, keep your own list and add to it every time you come across a new word or phrase.
Of course, you’ll never learn every word in the French language – that would take years!
But by starting early, you can broaden your vocabulary as much as possible and make sure you have all bases covered in relation to the topics that could come up in your French GCSE exams.
5. Ask for help!
Although your school will prepare you for the French GCSE exams, nothing beats one-to-one attention.
A French GCSE tutor is an experienced professional who’ll know how to help you fulfil your potential.
In fact, many are native speakers – and you can find tutors who are trained teachers and examiners too!
Your tutor will create tailored lesson plans that take into account your strengths, weaknesses and learning style – and give you valuable speaking and listening practice.
In this way, they’ll help to prepare you fully for the exams and will be able to guide you to the best marks possible.
90% of Tutorful students improve by at least one grade!
Browse expert, vetted tutors, message free, and book instantly.
How to revise for French listening
Revising for French listening can be daunting. After all, you can’t practise listening by staring at your textbook!
The key is to expose yourself to the spoken French language as much as possible. Here are some ideas.
1. Listen to French podcasts or radio programmes
Make listening to French podcasts or radio programmes a part of your daily routine – whether it’s while you’re getting dressed in the morning, or before bed every evening.
You probably won’t understand everything you hear – in fact, you may not understand too much!
But it will get you used to deciphering the spoken language and you’ll quickly start to pick up common phrases and new vocab.
A few tips:
- Don’t get bogged down with every small word. Instead, focus on understanding the overall message or idea.
- Have a go at transcribing. This can be a great way to improve your focus and sharpen up your listening skills.
- Practise picking up on tone and context. The speaker’s tone and context can help you to understand the wider point.
2. Attempt past listening papers
Past papers are a great chance to practise putting what you’ve learnt into action.
In particular, when it comes to listening, you’ll get a good idea of the speed and difficulty level of what you might come up against in the real thing.
You can also download the exam paper alongside the audio file so that you can practise mining the audio for the information and answers that you need.
As well as using past papers to sharpen your listening skills, use them to…
- Become more familiar with the exam format
- Practise managing your time
- Get used to dealing with exam pressure
- Identify your strengths and weaknesses (so you can adjust your revision timetable accordingly)
Top tip: You can download past papers – including some audio files – right here on the Tutorful website! Start now.
3. Watch French TV and movies
Watching French TV and movies can get you used to hearing the spoken French language in a more relaxed environment.
You can use visual cues (like facial expressions and cuts) to gain a better understanding of context.
Plus, if you want to, you can even put on subtitles.
In this way, you can develop your listening skills in a way that might be more enjoyable for you – especially if you use this as an additional exercise alongside your other revision strategies.
We particularly enjoy challenging ourselves to not look at the subtitles, before glancing down to see if what we understood was correct!
4. Lean on listening resources
You can supplement your listening practice with dedicated resources and practice clips.
A few resources to consider include:
There are lots of free resources and clips out there, so don’t feel like you have to spend money to get the practice you need.
How to revise for French speaking
Speaking is another part of your French exams that can be tricky to revise.
After all, your oral exam is designed to test your ability to communicate and interact effectively in spoken French – which can be hard to prepare for with paper and pen!
Here are some ways you can ready yourself.
1. Practise, practise, practise!
Practice makes perfect!
When you’re preparing for your French speaking exam, you’ll want to get as much speaking practice in as possible.
If you’re revising on your own, you can try things as simple as speaking in French in front of a mirror.
Or, you could even record yourself answering practice questions and listen to the footage back to give yourself constructive feedback.
Ideally though, the best way to practise is with a native French speaker.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a friend or family member who fits the bill – we have hundreds of French tutors on our platform ready to converse with you and give you speaking tips.
Top tip: Nothing beats conversing with a local to build your confidence and speaking ability.
Browse expert, vetted tutors, message free, and book instantly.
2. Brainstorm ideas
Some learners write down answers to practice questions and attempt to learn them by heart in the hopes the same questions might come up in their speaking exam.
But this could leave you in a tricky situation if the content you’ve learned doesn’t come up.
Instead, we recommend looking through practice questions and considering what you could talk about if different topics come up.
For example, if leisure activities crops up, you could touch on a sport you enjoy playing and trips to the cinema with friends.
You could even create mindmaps to help you practise structuring responses to various questions.
Having an idea of what you could touch on can boost your confidence and reduce thinking time in the exam room.
3. Learn key phrases
Similarly, it can be really helpful to learn some key phrases that could stand you in good stead in your speaking exam.
In particular, having some key phrases that allow you to express opinions can be useful whatever topic comes up.
For instance…
- ‘Je pense que…’
- ‘À mon avis…’
- ‘Selon moi…’
Being able to pull phrases like these out of your sleeve can increase your fluency in the exam room and impress the examiner!
How to revise for French writing
French writing is another element of the GCSE course that requires practice.
Here are our top tips on how to revise for French writing.
1. Practise!
The more you practise writing, the better you’ll become at it.
Why not set yourself a French writing challenge, and make yourself write at least one piece of content in French each day?
This could be a diary entry, a response to a practice question or a translation.
The point is, practice makes perfect (as we’ve already mentioned) – so, just putting pen to paper will mean you’re starting off on the right foot.
Where possible, ask a teacher or tutor to look over your writing and give you feedback.
This way, you can make sure you’re not repeating the same mistakes again and again!
2. Master new grammar techniques
Showing off advanced grammar techniques – like the subjunctive – will get the attention of the examiner and help you earn the top marks.
So, don’t play it safe.
Instead, use the remaining revision time you have left to get comfortable with new grammar techniques and maybe even learn a few set phrases that you could pull out of your sleeve in your writing exam.
Remember, our French tutors can help if you’re struggling to master a tense or grammatical construct!
3. Work on structure
Some parts of your French writing exam may call for longer answers – especially if you’re sitting the higher tier papers.
Always make a plan before you start writing, to make sure you can present a well-rounded answer that has a beginning, a middle and an end.
You can practise structuring your answers by…
- Creating mind maps (with the question in the middle and your points around the edge)
- Completing practice questions and papers
- Bullet pointing your responses to practice questions
It also helps to plan in advance how you’re going to use your time in the exam room. As a general rule, you should spend the longest on the questions that are worth the most marks, and vice versa.
By keeping an eye on the clock and being conscious of time, you can make sure you’re able to give every question the attention it deserves (and, of course, leave room to proofread your responses at the end!).
How to revise for a French reading exam
Finally, you’ll need to prepare for your French reading exam.
Here are some top preparation tips from our expert tutors.
1. Read!
As with all the other skills we’ve covered, practice is key to perfecting your French reading skills.
The more time you spend reading French texts, the more comfortable and confident you’ll become.
Reading a variety of texts will also help as you’ll get familiar with different writing styles and purposes, which may come up in the exam.
As an example, why not have a go at reading…
- French newspapers
- Your favourite novel in French (Harry Potter, anyone?!)
- French blog posts about subjects you’re interested in
- French magazines
Top tip: Just because it’s revision, that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun too!
2. Use revision guides
French GCSE revision guides, such as those released by CGP, can be a huge help when it comes to preparing for your reading exam.
They’ll provide you with a variety of reading passages and questions, followed by answers at the back of the book.
In this way, you can practise both your reading and exam technique at the same time, marking your own responses and gaining constructive feedback to help you improve.
3. Answer practice questions and past papers
A vital part of your French GCSE reading revision should be to answer past papers and practice questions.
Past paper reading passages will give you a really good idea of the kind of reading material you might come across in the exam room – and its difficulty.
In this way, you can develop your reading skills, boost your confidence and make sure you’re ready for whatever this year’s exam paper holds.
Completing past papers under timed conditions will help to make sure you can do all this while dealing with exam pressure and limited time!
How to revise French vocab
Broadening your French vocabulary is crucial for success in all areas of your French GCSE – whether it’s reading, writing, speaking or listening.
Here are some great ways to refresh your French vocab and get as many new words under your belt as possible before exam day.
Flash cards
Consider making flash cards with an English word or phrase on one side, and the French translation on the other.
Then, use them to test yourself or pass them to a friend or family member to test you.
Mind maps
Mind maps can be a great revision tool for visual learners.
Place an exam question or topic in the centre and all the relevant vocab you can think of around the edge!
Post-it notes
Use post-it notes to improve your recall.
Place key vocab or phrases on colour-coded post-its and stick them in places you’re likely to see them on a regular basis – like the bathroom mirror!
Diagrams
This is another one for visual learners.
Why not create posters or diagrams for certain sub-topics – like healthy/unhealthy living – and label them with all the relevant French vocab? Stick them on your wall so you can refer to them throughout the revision period.
Songs or rhymes
If you’re musical, you could consider replacing the lyrics of a popular song or nursery rhyme, inserting important phrases or pieces of vocab.
It doesn’t have to be good – if it helps you to remember what you need to know, that’s all that matters!
Board games
Inject some fun into your French revision and change up the rules to your favourite board games.
For instance, you could swap out the original cards for your French vocab flashcards.
Find a tutor to help you revise French GCSE
As you can see, there’s a lot to cover in your French GCSE revision.
But two key things are central to every assessment: vocab and grammar!
Luckily, a French GCSE tutor can help you with both – as well as giving you valuable tips, advice and speaking practice.
From tailor-made plans to practice exams, they’ll give you the one-to-one attention and dedicated time you need to reach your potential and improve your grades.
Browse expert, vetted tutors, message free, and book instantly.
FAQs
What is the best way to revise GCSE French?
The best way to revise for GCSE French is to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible – watch French TV, listen to French podcasts, practise writing in French, and make sure to regularly complete French GCSE past papers.
What do I need to know for GCSE French?
Exactly what you need to know for GCSE French can vary from exam board to exam board (and based on whether you take the higher or foundation tier).
However, every student will be assessed on the following assessment objectives:
- Listening – understand and respond to different types of spoken language
- Speaking – communicate and interact effectively in speech
- Reading – understand and respond to different types of written language
- Writing – communicate in writing
What is the most effective way to revise for GCSE?
For most students, the most effective way to revise for GCSE is to complete past papers and use these to identify strengths and weaknesses.
Students can then use their preferred revision techniques to work on the areas that need the most improvement – making the biggest difference in the shortest amount of time.
Head over to our guide on how to revise for GCSEs to learn more.
How hard is it to get a 9 in GCSE French?
Getting a 9 in GCSE French is challenging. However, with practice, dedication and determination, there’s no reason why you can’t be one of the students who achieve the highest grades.
An experienced French GCSE tutor can help you reach the highest grades with one-to-one attention and tailored lesson plans that take into account your strengths and weaknesses.
