How I ready for the French C1 examination

Full disclosure: This post incorporates affiliate links. ?

How are you able to master French? One means is to set your self the objective of reaching C1 or C2 degree. I’ll explain more about that in a second.

So far on this weblog I’ve often written about how to
get startedin language studying. Getting began is among the largest hurdles for many language learners, which is why I’ve maintained this focus.

However, in this post – and in future articles – I’ll start exploring the way to attain advanced ranges of speaking a language. These posts might be targeted at individuals who have already reached an intermediate level of their language studying – but will no doubt curiosity novices too. In this publish I’ll present you the way I handed the C1 French exam. No language learners left behind!

On the(CEFR), C1 means you understand a language to an
advancedlevel. Reaching C1 means you possibly can understand long, demanding texts, communicate fluently with out searching for expressions, and understand implicit meanings. You can also use the language for business and educational purposes. Beyond that, it is a fun degree to succeed in as a language learner, since at this stage you possibly can understand sly or refined jokes, and you’ll know most of the colourful expressions within the language. The solely degree above C1 is C2 – complete mastery.

French is the primary language that I sat a formal exam in, again in 2005, when I tried out the DELF B2 level examination. B2 is an higher intermediate stage (what I normally call “fluent”), directly beneath C1.

At the time I took this exam, I had no idea what every level meant. I worked very onerous on my French for over three months. As it turned out, I was greater than able to speaking at B2 degree and handed the exam
verysafely. After this, I lived inand worked as a professional translator in French for a number of years. This concerned studying many technical paperwork and essentially making certain a mastery degree within the language.

Ever since I mastered French, I've meant to come again to it and take a proper CEFR examination. Over the previous decade, I’ve sat the, so I’ve received a much larger understanding of what the completely different CEFR ranges imply.

Yet 10 years passed and I saved laying aside formal French exams… Until now!

Why I Decided to Focus on C1 French earlier than C2

My chaotic journey itinerary during the last couple of years (never in the identical place for quite a lot of weeks) has made it troublesome to rearrange to take a seat a genuine certification examination. As such I determined to do a “mock” exam, which would be marked and corrected by knowledgeable French instructor – and native French speaker – and sat beneath comparable circumstances as the actual thing.

This way I may take the exam at a time convenient for me, and it wouldn't involve me travelling to an official examination centre, for the reason that whole examination can be conducted over Skype or offline in a limited time. Obviously, I wouldn't be awarded any precise certificate, however as this was a personal quite than professional goal, sitting a mock examination seemed infinitely extra handy.

If you’re in a similar scenario to me, where you’d just like the challenge of taking an examination however can’t necessarily afford the cost or journey to the exam site, I highly recommend you think about taking a mock exam as a substitute!

Since I assessed my ability as someplace between C1 and C2, I determined to take it one step at a time and give attention to getting a solid C1.

I noticed the mock examination as a stable milestone. Once I’d passed it, I deliberate to take a formal C2 exam after I’d settled down from all my travelling.

How to Do a Mock Exam

I grew up in Ireland the place “mock exams” are a part of every highschool student’s life. In these mock exams, the outcomes weren’t the main focus. Rather, the exams acted as gauges for how the actual examination would look and feel.

I found my mock exams extremely helpful in determining tips on how to greatest approach exams. I realized to verify I was giving every section of the exam enough time – which is a quite common problem for check-takers. The mock exams additionally helped to spotlight my weaknesses, and revealed the grade I may anticipate from the actual exam if I did no further work.

Because of my high school expertise with mock exams, I now advise all language learners to try their own mock exams. This is especially relevant when you’re planning to get a certificate in language proficiency. Many examination boards permit you to obtain previous examination papers from their web site..

If you need assistance finding an exam paper, ask your language tutor. I discover most of my teachers on. (If you’re curious,). While “Informal tutoring” is fine more often than not for basic language apply, you actually need to get one of their “skilled lecturers” that can assist you with an exam, since they are typically licensed and are prone to be familiar with the very examination you'll be taking. I want to learn English language could even have experience of marking examination papers.

My trainer, Léa, is part of a small network ofon the web site
Léacafé. She helped me via the entire process of the mock examination, in addition to mentioning what I needed to work on to achieve C2 stage.

My Experience of Speaking, Reading and Writing Advanced French

Even with mock exams, it’s essential to prepare correctly. So even if you see it as a simple preparation for the “real” examination, you still want to organize for the preparation!

For each a part of the mock examination – listening, studying, writing and talking – I tried to prepare as best as I might upfront.

French C1 Oral Comprehension

To practice for the
oral comprehensionsection, I listened to French information casters and YouTube videos together with my instructor, Léa. Then Léa would ask me advanced questions about what I’d simply heard. This is precisely how the comprehension section works on C-stage tests, whereas the A and even B degree audio comprehension checks might merely involve picking a phrase out of what you heard.

Once, for example, Léa showed me a YouTube video of a bunch of teenage women arguing and yelling at one another all on the identical time. She then asked me to “merely” summarize the video in my own phrases. It was atask because they were using lots of slang, talking very quick and talking over one another. But generally these mind-melting tasks are simply what you should level up your language expertise.

Since I focus so much on talking in the early stages of my language learning, my listening comprehension tends to be weaker. In the examination, I might simply get the gist of the audio, however the questions asked at C1 degree require you to fully understand each aspect of what’s being said. I didn't do well on this part, so even though I “passed” the rest of the exam, I wouldn't have passed the complete exam as a result of I would have failed this part. This meant I needed to sit a second mock version of this part.

As we weren't doing the whole exam directly, however one section at a time until I had it proper, I did another oral comprehension test and this time remained targeted. I took cautious notes on every little thing that was mentioned, and just about handed.

I additionally had a problem with audio comprehension in my German C2 examination. This tells me that I want to give a a lot greater proportion of my time to listening comprehension and tuning my ear after I wish to attain a C1 or C2 stage.

Unfortunately I am somewhat exhausting of listening to, so that doesn't assist. Nevertheless, I'll proceed to work on my listening comprehension in all my languages. To get ready for the C2 French examination, I'll be spending lots of time listening to the upper levels of the.

French C1 Reading Comprehension

Once once more, on the C-levels this begins to get really tricky as you need to understand the delicate cues that the author is providing you with. The questions are very removed from being asked to find a easy reality you could seek for within the text. Even the a number of choice options leave you questioning how the article explicitly says
anyof the options.

The best way by far to do nicely right here is thru a lot of studying. In recent years, I've lastly had the time to embrace studying in my best languages and have been having fun with Jules Verne novels of their authentic French. Proud as I was about this truth, you can imagine how I felt when I noticed them marked as B1 degree books in
Gibert Jeunein Paris!

This means that I actually have to up my game lots. I have a subscription to Le Mondeas typically as I can, however it's not as participating as I like. Léa introduced me to, which isfor “Figaro” (a major newspaper) and primarily the French equal of, and I take pleasure in reading this for fun.

I’ve recognised that I want to make use of a studying software likeand correctly note onerous phrases. I might also use C1/C2 stage train books that ask questions after the textual content to test my true comprehension.

Realising this was very interesting, and I look ahead to continuing to enhance my studying expertise in French (and different languages) to be actually within the solid C ranges. I barely obtained sufficient points on this section, and want to improve it dramatically if a C2 stage reading comprehension exam is on the horizon.

French C1 Speaking and Writing

In the CEFR exams, speaking and writing are called “oral and written manufacturing”.

My language studying method at all times favours interplay with people, so that is the part of the examination the place I at all times shine. In the mock exams I got 88% for written production and ninety% for oral production.

I love practising my talking expertise, and I when I’m practising I ensure that the conversation goes towards complex discussions. Léa and I even have had many interesting debates on all kinds of matters. English class conversation 've additionally given her the inside view on the technical workings of my enterprise and website. What’s extra, when I was in France my computer broke down. I had to work with a tech support guy to figure out which part of my computer wasn't working and verify every input, and clarify what I was seeing over the phone. I don't draw back from chances to make use of the language in diversified ways, and I'll make sure to maintain that up!

For the written manufacturing part, I obtained one essential piece of crucial suggestions: my sentences tended to be slightly brief. While I did well in most other elements, to help me get used to probably longer sentences we spent a few days looking atby Immanuel Kant, since the things he describes involve very complex sentences with nested commas that span large paragraphs. It would have originally been written in German, which is extra suited to such a convoluted sentence structure, however regardless of the long sentences you may not often count on in French, in this document the way they are translated is genuinely the easiest way to specific the original thoughts.

As we worked on my French writing skills, Léa got me to answer questions on Kant in written form, using sentences that may go on however not become nonsensical. It was one hell of a process, contemplating I wouldn't even attempt to say or write such issues in English!

What made this work notably funny is that I am well-known for telling newbie language learners that you don't have to have the ability to “focus on Kantian epistemology” everytime you goal for fluency in a language. English as a second language school is very true, but the day came once I needed to do it to convey myself as much as that C2 degree. Oh the irony!

Wrapping it All Up

I hope you've found this account of my journey to reaching French C1 degree interesting. I always figured that my French was around C1 or C2 level. Now I see that in terms of talking and writing, I may be ready to take a seat that C2 exam! But comprehension-sensible I have plenty of work to do, as I'm borderline C1 for studying and listening. Now that I know my strengths and weaknesses, I can work on them.

Make positive to share your ideas in the feedback!

And finally... One of the most effective methods to be taught a brand new language is with podcasts. Read more about.

Benny Lewis

Founder, Fluent in three Months

Speaks: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto, Mandarin Chinese, American Sign Language, Dutch, Irish

Fun-loving Irish man, full-time globe trotter and international bestselling author. Benny believes the best method to language studying is to.

Founder, Fluent in 3 Months

Speaks: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto, Mandarin Chinese, American Sign Language, Dutch, Irish

JOIN 300,000+ LANGUAGE HACKERS!

Start speaking your goal language from day 1 with confidence!

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please strive again.

Click here to see the comments!