French speaking IRP crisis

[pinotnow]

After spending half-term saying he had nothing to do as he is awaiting mock results and has finished the coursework for two of his subjects, ds has suddenly gone into a tailspin as his teacher has told him his IRP title didn't match the discussion and needs to be tweaked. According to him, this will mean doing so much more research as to make it near enough impossible. He says this is the most time-consuming element of the course as you have to be prepared for questions and a broad discussion and it is hard to use Google?

Any advice on the best way to handle this topic would be much appreciated. He has a tendency to catastrophise but I also wonder why it has only now come to light. He is very conscientious and now feels that this element of the course is going to bring his grade down.

Firstly, the IRP is usually about half of the speaking exam, so not a huge component in the general scheme of things (obviously exam board dependent).
I'm guessing the exam is some time in March or April?
While it is true you need to be prepared for discussion, the examiners aren't going to go all that far off-piste. Again, depends on the board, but there's often some bullet points submitted that the examiner bases the questions off (which they may or may not use directly, but it'll be in that ballpark). I don't think it's unusual to have to tweak it a bit at this stage.
Have the titles been submitted? If not, I would have thought it easier to change the title to match the content rather than vice verse. If so, obviously a bit trickier. Difficult to give much advice without knowing the topic, but it's worth looking on Le Monde and ARTE for articles and programs about the subject. Some of the articles on Le Monde have an English version, which obviously don't count towards target language sources but can be helpful to get the gist. And of course documentaries etc have subtitles. Starting from a French news or culture site, or a book if he can get one, is less overwhelming than the whole of google.

Hey @pinotnow MFL is my subject so I can maybe help. Good suggestions from @RejoiceandSing

Can you say what board this is? I ask bc I know AQA best so what follows relates to that – but the other boards are not that different.

The IRP in AQA is 35 marks out of 60 and the 60 marks makes up 30% of the overall mark, so yes, the stimulus card (25 marks) is also important. I'm slightly puzzled by what the teacher means by the title not matching the discussion – has he practised the discussion with his teacher? That's bending the rules more than a bit tbh (AQA says that teachers must not give feedback orally or in writing on any written notes, drafts or preparatory work produced by the student for the presentation or discussion or give feedback orally or in writing on any oral practice presentation by the student) but anyway, topic title and discussion do need to match. I agree, can the title be changed or has it been submitted?

If he needs to change the focus of the research, is it the presentation that needs to change? There's time for sure. The exam will not be until April or even May – does he have a date? the window is 15 April to 17 May this year.

Has he submitted the form with the bullet points for his research? I agree that most examiners will use these as a basis for the questions. Also the questions should follow from and arise out of the 2-min presentation so he has the chance to lead the discussion. If he is stuck with the title then he just needs to find some research sources that more closely relate to it and use those. "Just" is a bit glib but if (say) his IRP was linked to a book or a film or a topic from the A level itself, that is pretty straightforward. If he has gone elsewhere (fine) he presumably chose something of interest. It doesn't really matter if he doesn't cover x or y aspect of the topic as long as what he does say relates to the topic (does that make sense?). It should be more than possible to find some info – I am assuming that the chosen topic title is one that allows for a discussion and opinions?

Sorry this is lots of questions but hope there is something helpful here.

Thank you so much both. I think it is AQA. Oh, I didn't know that about teacher feedback...

The thing is, I think ds has maybe made it very difficult for himself in his choice of topic. I better not say what it is but it involves an historical figure and he explores their impact on a particular social group today. I think the issue was that there wasn't much of an impact. I think he would have to research more about both the figure (he knows loads anyway, but maybe not linked to the topic or goes beyond his French?) and the group, which he's not really interested in!

I'm going to share this feedback and see what he says - he was having a bit of a rant last night!

I gave you the wrong dates btw - window opens on 17 April and closes 23 May but schools can only test during a five-week section of that time. Sorry about that - thought it was late starting!