Long post alert!
Sorry I offered MFL GCSE tips and then vanished.
So for speaking exam (as that’s first and mocks may be imminent)
So for both Edexcel and AQA:
Candidate has to choose a theme so it’s a good idea IMO for AQA to pick the hardest theme (of three). They will have to answer questions on each theme, but the one they choose cannot be the photocard. The teacher cannot amend the photocard questions and sometimes they are quite tough. For example, if you avoid theme 2 (holidays, environment, charity) for your general discussion theme, you may then get that for the photocard and wham! You could face an unseen question like “what sorts of charities do you and your friends support and why?” hard to answer in any language. BUT if you choose this theme for the general speaking, your teacher can ask you about holidays and your town which is fine.
For Edexcel there are five themes, of which four will be covered (one role play, one photocard and two general convo) so you may avoid any theme you hate altogether. But just in case I would choose theme 5 which includes the environment and campaigns, then your teacher can ask you about sports and music events, which should be OK. That theme is never the roleplay theme btw.
For AQA it is really important for the candidate to ask the teacher a question in the general convo. For the picture card to gain maximum marks, you should extend answers fully, using at least three verbs in at least three of your answers (this can include j’aime and c’est for example; so j’aime le foot parce que c’est super would count for two verbs). For Edexcel there is no specific requirement to use x number of verbs (that I am aware of) but students will also gain most marks if they fully extend and develop answers here.
By develop answers I mean go into more detail – so if the question is do you think mobile phones are useful and why? then you could talk about why they are useful, what you use one for, how you will use it next week, what you looked up last night – that kind of thing,.
For both AQA and Edexcel speaking there is no need to extend the answers to the role play as both are simply marked for communication of the message.
Development within the general conversation is also important as per the photocard. Students should make sure they use verbs in the past and future tense as well as the present, and refer if possible to other people as well as themselves, “we do xyz” or ‘my brother does abc”.
For speaking, the mark schemes are looking at the same things but for F paper, the questions in photo and role play are easier; and in the general convo the levels are lower (so the answer that would get a mark of 1-2 in communication for higher will get a mark of 7-8 for comm in F tier)
For revision for both boards, the key things to look at are:
- Variety and depth of vocab – so a range of positive and negative adjectives, a good grasp of vocab by topic, a good knowledge of a range of verbs and nouns.
- Verbs and tenses – a good solid knowledge of past, present and future tenses, including regular and irregular verbs is crucial. Note that this is about time frames rather than tenses to be fair so use of different forms of the future (futur simple and futur proche) will only tick one “time frame” box (tho using both will be good for range of language marks)
- As an extra, range of language – using some of the more complex language such as different ways of expressing opinion selon moi, à mon avis etc) or phrases like après avoir xyz.
So the thing to do is to learn vocab and verbs – there is no easy way to do this sadly (watching French films is great but better would be to learn how to say I have gone, I am going and I will go in French!). Write lists on post-its and stick them about the house; record things and listen on your phone; make flash cards and get someone to test you.
And the other thing to do is practice papers – and then look at the mark scheme and see where you went wrong. Think what you would need to know to get it right next time. Did you listen actively to the recording? Are you able to pick the correct elements in the reading? Watch out for negatives as well.
HTH and sorry to ramble! could talk about this all day.