An introvert's guide to ace a French oral exam.

As the year is flying by and the ever so feared oral examination is looming, some might start feeling a little insecure about their ability to hold a conversation for 8 min then a discussion for another 8 minutes or so.

The fear of making mistakes, the horror of not understanding a question or being understood, the horrifying prospect of uncomfortable silences between you and the examiner. That is enough to make anyone's stomach churn....

So let's have a look at the situation and see how we can transform you into a bubbly and chatty expert who seriously wouldn't want to be anywhere else but the exam room!  

Let me first reassure you on a few points:

• Do not learn of feel you must learn by heart answers to the general conversation.

There is a difference between being prepared and well practised and learning by heart. In a oral situation, what you are expected to display is how you can manage a conversation, how you interact, how French can flow from you. I said it a million times and I say it again, writing your answers, learning them by heart to be able to recite them is not going to give you an advantage.

• Do not fear making mistakes:

In an oral situation, the most important angle is your fluency, I don't mean how perfect your French is but how it flows when you speak. Of course,  keeping your sentences short and simple will guarantee they are correct, which is important but basically, you do not have to sound like you write.

• Grammar is not the end game:

As I was saying just before, this is a general conversation...your grammar should of course be correct but it is not really where we expect you to show it off ( keep this for your writing). The examiner would be more interested in someone who is having a conversation, not an interrogation.

So..how do I prepare?

• Listen listen and listen as much French as possible.

Your ears are super important. This is how you learnt English after all. The more French you hear, the more comfortable it will sound, the more French you ear, the more comfortable you will be repeating it...So please, listen and repeat, practise, talk to yourself, talk out loud often, film yourself. Just a few minutes each week is simply not enough. You must be comfortable speaking for 10 minutes more or less twice...if you arrived at an oral exam not comfortable with this,  time will drag on.

• Always answers any questions in 2 or 3 steps.

ok..let me give you a concrete example here.

-examiner: " Que faites-vous pour vous relaxer?"

-Student answer: 

Step 1: "Pour me relaxer, j'aime faire du sport. Je joue au tennis et je cours tous les matins avec mon chien, j'aime aussi écouter de la musique" ( that's a good answer by the way)

Step2: "Pour me relaxer, j'aime faire du sport. Je joue au tennis dans un club depuis que j'ai 13 ans. Je vais courir tous les matins avec mon chien, c'est une routine que j'adore.  J'écoute aussi beaucoup de musique. Je porte mes AirPods tout le temps.( you see, I give an extra layer to what I say with an example and a little why..)

Step3: "Pour me relaxer, j'aime faire du sport. je joue au tennis dans le meme club depuis que j'ai 13 ans. J'y retrouve des amis a chaque fois. Je vais aussi courir tous les matins avec mon chien, c'est une routine que j'adore et qui me met de bonne humeur pour la journée. J'écoute aussi beaucoup de musique, je porte mes AirPods tout le temps. Ca rend ma mère folle. ( you see here, I go even further into detail) 

Can you feel the difference ? The " vibe" these answer give is totally different in step 1 and 3.  That's when you take the lead and don't 'suffer' and examination but become a willing participant, happy to be here and have a chat.

• Be present !!

Don't forget to be here in the moment, happy, make eye contact, smile, watch your body language. That is also something you can learn to do and as they say " Fake it until you make it". I promise you, it works. Don't forget examiners are humans, they want to enjoy their time too, they are seeing a lot of students each day. Think how nice it is for them to talk to someone who actually seems to be enjoying the process.   

I hope these little tips help to make you see how little tweaks can really change your performance during the oral examination.

As always, you can reach out if you have any questions or wish to get some help.

Ps...The Hack On Tap Membership  has been designed especially for students of year 11 and 12 doing VCE or IB to prepare for oral exams online with me. Students can join in and speak up to 4h of French per week!