Examiner's Report

Mark Scheme

Q1.

Q2.

Q3.

Q4.

Q5.

Q6.

Q7.

Q8.

Q9.

Q10.

Examiner's Report

Q1.

This was aimed at Grade C. Candidates were required to read a text in the form of a letter concerning a visit to a restaurant and the problems encountered there, and to choose the correct completion for each of four sentences to demonstrate their comprehension. Only part (d) presented specific difficulty. Studying texts of a similar complexity with comprehension being tested develops the skills students need to perform well in such exercises.

Q2.
No Examiner's Report available for this question

Q3.

Students were required to read Sophie's email about a problem she encountered on her birthday, and answer multiple choice comprehension questions on what they had read. Each of the questions was found to be of about the same level of difficulty, and the majority scored 2 or 3 out of 4. Access to similar texts in the learning environment would help students to gain the skills required.

Q4.

This was aimed at Grade C. Candidates were required to read a longer text made up of six responses to a discussion of personal problems on the Internet and to select the name of which individuals had particular problems. Most candidates managed to score at least 3 out of 4. Practice with similar Internet material develops the skills needed to perform well in this type of exercise.

Q5.

This question, written predominantly in the perfect and imperfect tenses was targeted at C grade candidates and required them to understand a range of verbs in these tenses. i) was not well answered with many candidates choosing the incorrect broke her leg. Three quarters of candidates were able to deduce that elle s'ennuyait meant she was bored in ii). On est tombés en panne in iii) presented a problem to many candidates. In iv) candidates had to deduce that Brigitte was on her own by understanding papa n'était pas là, which the more able candidates were able to do successfully. The multiple choice questions required candidates to demonstrate the ability to extract detailed information from the text and centres are advised to note that this is an essential skill for candidates to consider entering this paper at Higher Level.

Q6.

This was aimed at Grade C and was based on a longer text, an extract from a letter. Candidates had to demonstrate their comprehension of ideas in the text by selecting the correct completion of sentences from three possibilities. Most scored over half marks. Practice at reading short authentic texts for gist helps students to develop their ability to cope well with such tasks.

Q7.

Candidates had to read an email about a shopping trip and its consequences. Each of the questions was found to be of about the same level of difficulty, and the majority of candidates scored 2 or 3 out of 4. Access to similar texts would help students to gain the skills required.

Q8.

In this question students were presented with a text about a family's shopping trip to Rouen. The multiple choice questions required the ability to extract detailed information from the text. Students can easily undertake similar exercises in their preparation for the examination. The skills needed are similar to those tested in Q1.

Q9.

Many candidates scored 2 out of 4 marks on this question which was targeted at B grade candidates. Parts i) and ii) of this question proved to be the most challenging with candidates apparently guessing the answers to these. Access to similar texts in the learning phase should help candidates to acquire the skills needed to answer questions like this one.

Q10.

This was aimed at Grade A. Comprehension of a text based on an adapted authentic original was tested by questions in English. Candidates needed to find answers which were generally situated sequentially in the text. They need to have access to similar authentic materials containing some quite complicated structures to develop their ability to perform satisfactorily in this level of exercise. Parts (c) and (e) were found to be the most difficult.