I have limited time each day, I don't mind cutting back on my resources for the 6 weeks and reintroducing things later post-exam if I want to. For now, I think i'm best to come up with the best routine I can to improve my chances of passing the exam.So, first of all I've cut out Assimil Using French, as I can come back to completing the 2nd wave in 6 weeks time, unless I feel I have a real need to use it and it will benefit me for the exam (can't see that happening). I also cut out the Vocabulaire Progressif course I was doing.
I came up with a rehashed exam prep version of one of my study routines. As usual these are in hour blocks, and like many of my study routines, it's a rotating system of those hour blocks. This means I might get 1 hour done one day, 4 hours another but I continue rotating through (i.e. not starting from the first hour on this list each day, but continuing with the next hour from where I left off the day before). Each hour block also has various options that I rotate through each time. For example in the first hour I might use Production écrite B1/B2, and next time I get back to this same hour block, I would use a different course in that list for that hour. Same goes for the reading block - rotate through the materials.
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By rotation :
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A COURSE
15 min SRS + 45 min by rotation of :
• Production écrite B1/B2
• Préparation à l'examen du DELF B2
• Réussir le DELF B2
• Activités pour le CECR niv. B2
(I have four courses here, could be spreading myself too thin?)
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READING
By rotation :
Extensive reading
One hour of ext. reading by rotation of :
• A fiction book
Intensive reading
15 min SRS + 45 min of either :
• Bien-dire
• Think French
Extensive reading
One hour of ext. reading by rotation of :
• A non-fiction book
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A COURSE
15 min SRS + 45 min by rotation of :
• Production écrite B1/B2
• Prép. à l'examen du DELF B2
• Réussir le DELF B2
• Activités pour le CECR niv. B2
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LISTENING
By rotation :
Extensive listening with a series
One hour of a series
Intensive listening
15 min SRS + 45 min of :
• Yabla
Extensive listening with a series
One hour of a series
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Notes and justifications
*I have also taken out easy readers - not that I was really using them much, they were still in my wishful thinking routine, which I wasn't sticking to.
* Both my reading and listening hours contain 3 activities of which I rotate through each time I arrive at those hour blocks of study (I do one of the three activities, rotating to the next activity only the next time arriving at that hour). Those 3 activities contain 2 extensive activities and only 1 intensive. I don't think I'll get a lot of bang for buck doing too much intensive work at this stage. My vocab is rather large-ish now and I'm not going to be able to take on board that many new words in 6 weeks, but by doing more extensive I activities I will be hopefuly pushing my reading and listening skills up and strengthening what I already have some idea of in some contexts but still remain lacking in sheer volume of exposure.
* 2 out of the four blocks above are nevertheless dedicated to course work for exam prep. I think, being a slow methodical person when it comes to almost anything, best I feel very confident with the format of the exam than coming unstuck and losing major marks for being unprepared, too slow, or just plain lost- believe me, this is worthwhile knowing my deer in headlights personality at times.
* I'm going to add some fiction into my reading to mix things up. I've not really read any at this stage- I'm considering Harry Potter.
* Getting a Tutor once a week on iTalki I think is a wise idea - 6 sessions (6 weeks) should help, right?
* Recently I had begun using Glossika during commutes. Which, btw, I've been somewhat disappointed with. The IPA is garbage. I only found this out as someone contacted me on twitter asking me about it and stated the IPA was rubbish- I then looked at it and discovered this to be true. How on earth are learners expected to trust such rubbish? Still, as an audio course, it's not bad (so far) despite some mistakes on occasion. I'm likely to cut this course for now and push faster podcasts - journal en français facile will still work well for me- exposure to current affairs, transcripts can be accessed on occasion at work after commuting there, and listened to again on the way home. I will seek out something else too at some point.
* Will continue to fill in gaps in my spare time of what little there will be with French when possible- this is effectively my own little 6 week challenge!
Edit: * Not sure how often I should do SRS - for now it's only listed as the first 15 min of the hour blocks in which I do intensive study. For the extensive activities I've taken it out- not sure if this is a good move?
