Ok some thoughts on the subject of MFL and listening. My DS2 did GCSEs last year and certainly found the reading and listening papers in MFL (Spanish) the biggest challenge. He didn’t do much work for Spanish tho!
Remember that there are very very few past papers. Your board is almost certainly AQA for MFL. On the AQA website you will find a past paper from 2018; last year’s paper should appear later this spring. You can also find on Revision World the exemplar paper which we were given to use for the first cohort (as no past papers available, obv). That’s it for past papers (so, three in total, only two to do at the moment) and the chances are your DC will have done one or more of these papers as a mock. Teachers have access to the 2019 paper already so may set that.
It’s a real shame there is not more exemplar material as past papers are the best thing to use for revision in many ways, but it’s because the new exams were brought in in such a rush. Pity those sitting GCSEs in 2018 when teachers were sticking a finger in the air and playing “guess the grade”.
Anyway, my advice for the listening is to buy a practice question book (not the same as a revision guide, tho that’s worth having too) and do as many of the listening tasks as possible.
Remember in the exam they will have five minutes to read through it; use this wisely by maybe thinking about or even jotting down key words to listen for.
While the exam is going on, each clip is played twice. Don’t be afraid to use the second clip. If after hearing it twice you still don’t know, make a reasonable guess and MOVE ON. It’s really important not to stress about a question that is past as you can’t go back of course (unlike reading).
Don’t leave any blanks. Multiple choice, obviously pick one; if it’s asking you to write something, be sensible; if it says what are his hobbies, write waterskiing or reading, especially if you can’t recall those words but you are sure it wasn’t playing football (it never is!).
Some questions are in target language and want an answer in French or German. Don’t panic at these, a few words is sufficient, doesn’t need to be a sentence. Look at the mark schemes and you will see what I mean.
Watch out for mean examiners. They will ask what someone does to be healthy and the clip will have them saying “I don’t exercise and I never eat vegetables but I do go to bed early” – so make sure you don’t tick exercise! Think about negatives.
Use exam technique such as eliminating all the things you know it’s not. If you have a choice of four and you know the French for three of them, but you don’t hear those words, chances are it’s the fourth one.
Phew sorry for essay! Good luck all!