smallwhite wrote:You won't listen anyway but I will say it anyway.
On the contrary, I've been stubborn for too long, it's time to definitely listen, and believe me I am.
smallwhite wrote:For the next 6 weeks, I suggest you sit down and consolidate what you already know - organise your knowledge and practise demonstrating them - before you use new material to acquire new knowledge.
You've already had 6 years of exposure and learning, and 6 further weeks of them won't make much difference (52:1). 6 further weeks of initial exposure to new material won't be of much use in the exam anyway. And no single piece of knowledge is critical to your exam; not 1 piece out of every 52 pieces anyway. Whereas, if you can't fully utilise and demonstrate your previous 6 years of work, you can ruin those 6 years in 6 weeks.
You may or may not believe it, but it's definitely something that's crossed my mind too (that consolidation is very important), for the same reasons- that years have passed and i've been slogging away, usually intensively, and now it's time to consolidate, again in agreement with you- I can't cram enough new knowledge in in the short time I have left to make a difference- but it took your message for that concept to sink in- it took your logic, so yet again smallwhite, thank you. I know i've just basically repeated what you've said and claimed I've come up with it in part. I think I had the inclinations and you really came out and said it to make me realise. Cheers
smallwhite wrote:Here are some concrete examples of what I would do. Many people do languages better than I do but at least I did well at school overall
* I would re-listen to old audio clips played at higher and higher speed (instead of listening to new podcasts).
I can and will do this with RFI Journal en français facile - I will use older and newer clips. I won't ignore new content, as the content in the exam won't be old content, but you are right for consolidation, it is a good idea, and with the podcast app I can speed the audio up. Also I'm finding I have increasingly more time for podcasts potentially coming up, thus I couldn't handle only listening to content i've already heard... but I will indeed absolutely employ these methods.
smallwhite wrote:* I would practise reading fast. In fact, I shouldn't have used the conditional, because that's what I actually did for my exam. It didn't take long to get used to reading faster, and it really boosted my confidence in the exam, and of course actually gave me more time to answer the questions.
Excellent idea. I will employ this into my extensive reading.
smallwhite wrote:* I would think about what topics are likely to appear in the reading exam, and re-read articles that are among those topics. (Instead of finding new articles to read, and reading things that won't appear in the exam such as articles about mafia, prostitution, controversial topics like same-sex marriage, politics, religion) (Also, people here read a lot of fiction as exam prep but I don't think they have fiction or stories in B1-C2 exams?)
Yes, true indeed. I shall ditch Harry Potter (for about the 3rd time!- I've never read it in English, which i'm adding as a side note due to rdearman's thread on disliking HP... see rdearman, we could be friends? I say as I secretly intend to read it )
smallwhite wrote:* I would go through all my flashcards (instead of adding new words).
Goed idee ook! Umm I mean bonne idée aussi. Which language am I studying again?
smallwhite wrote:And when I (re-)listen to audio or (re-)read articles, I would simulate the exam environment - if exam audio clips are usually 45 seconds long, then I would now, at home, listen to audio for 45 seconds at a time, paying full attention and trying to remember key information or whatever the exam usually expects you to do. Listening to 20-second clips would be insufficient exam prep, same with listening with 20-second attention spans, while listening to 15-minute podcasts is unnecessary for this exam and not the best use of the next few weeks.
Actually, the B2 exam prep book I was using this morning is set up exactly that way. You have to go through the activities exactly in the manner like the exam- amount of times you get to hear an audio clip, amount of time to respond etc. I'll indeed follow this strategy. Once again sound advice smallwhite.
smallwhite wrote:In short, I would not aim to learn in these 6 weeks. I would aim to consolidate my existing knowledge. And all decision-making would be based on this aim.
Yep, excellent. I'm thinking of relistening to Assimil lessons particularly from Using French during some listening time too, as I'm sure there's a lot of vocab and grammatical concepts in there that are semi-forgotten- another good way to consolidate. I've no intentions of going over and over other old course material, but listening to Using French in spare moments (maybe while kayaking, during which I'm not currently listening to anything) could also be employed.
On the consolidating using old material, I certainly will employ this strategy, but I want to couple it with extensive listening to new material as well- not necessarily to mine for new vocab which could prove to be a golden nugget during the exam (b/c it won't), but to really get my ears and eyes (reading too) hopefully moving up a level. I say this as people like Cavesa, and whatiftheblog, iguanamon, serpent etc, can't speak highly enough for plunging oneself into native content and trusting that one will adapt. I've not done enough of this and doing more of it will prepare me to be 'ready to pounce' and not shocked when the exam comes.
whatiftheblog has once again inspired me. His words in the following post particulary regarding his friend have has inspired me:
whatiftheblog wrote:Alright, I apologize if this ends up being a wall of text, but hopefully it'll be a useful wall for you I should warn you that I'm one of the forum dwellers whose mantra is always "ditch the courses and go native", so there will be a lot of that.
1. You should add RFI Journal en Français Facile to your schedule. However...
2. With the schedule you've described, I think you're going to hit B2 fairly quickly. At which point - go native. It doesn't have to be 100% native at that point, but make unsubtitled, unscripted listening - news, radio, short vlogs on topics you're interested in - and routine (i.e. not literary criticism or hermeneutics) reading - "lower" fiction, blogs, news sites - a part of your daily schedule. Not simplified versions or learners' editions, actual native-for-natives content. At first you might be at 60% comprehension, but if you do it long enough, that will skyrocket.
3. Since I took many twists and turns to get to where I am in French, I won't use myself as an example of the above, but I do have a good friend who started learning French about 5-6 months ago? He knows a little bit of Spanish and has the benefit of a native francophone girlfriend, although they speak English 99% of the time, but I can't say he's a linguistic wunderkind. I decided to use him as a lab rat (with his permission, of course) to test my Native Early And Very Often (NEAVO!) hypothesis, and about 3-4 months into a Duolingo + a bit of Assimil regimen, he added France24 to the daily routine. A few weeks later, I sent him a short Quotidien clip, which he said he got the gist of, but mostly thanks to the subtitles they sometimes show on screen. A few weeks later, with him still doing Duolingo + Assimil + France24 + random basic conversations with his girlfriend, I sent him another one. Five hours later I get the following string of messages:(20:30) I've been watching Quotidien for about 5 hours
(20:31) It's now to the point where I'm finding it funny AND UNDERSTANDING WHY IT'S FUNNY
(20:31) Are there any French sitcoms on Netflix?
He's really progressed in a very short time, and I know this because I can now send him screenshots of tweets about the election, and he'll actually understand both the meaning and why it's funny/ridiculous/whatever. While A2 -> B1 is obviously easier than B1 -> C1 and up, that's no reason to neglect NEAVO or to exclusively use material that's standardized and often dumbed down.
4. If I can leave you with one piece of advice, it would be to never, ever force yourself to use material you're bored by. Challenging and boring are different things, so make sure you know where that distinction lies for you, as it's very individual, but if you're bored by your Anki deck or course book or whatever, toss it. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that if lots of other people are doing it, you have to as well - unless it's something you need for your degree, you're not forced to use any specific resource(s). We're lucky in that there are millions of free and/or very cheap things out there for us in French - Youtube is going to become your best friend! - and so long as you have internet access, everything is at your fingertips. There are plenty of free French news apps, lots of interesting French vloggers, tons of documentaries on Youtube, at least half a dozen free streaming TV channels (more with a VPN), content is everywhere. Do a Youtube search for whatever you like (make sure it's in French, of course) + "vlog" and start there - you can search for vlogs by students doing the same degree, for instance. If you find yourself losing interest, drop it and find something else that keeps your attention.
I frequently get the sense that the, uh, malaise that can sometimes be found on this forum, with posters getting frustrated with themselves and taking breaks, is largely due to boredom with the resources they're using. Fly free and you'll notice serious progress in no time. Good luck!