BGCSE French 0520 cheat sheet

BGCSE listening passages are played twice; on the first pass note the topic, speakers and setting, on the second pass confirm numbers, names and times.

Question order follows the audio order, so answers are located sequentially and a missed item is abandoned rather than revisited.

Distractors are spoken before the correct answer: the final stated value (price, platform, time) overrides earlier ones.

Numbers, dates and clock times are the highest-frequency detail items; French uses a comma as decimal separator and 'heures' for clock time.

Negative and restrictive cues ('ne...que', 'sauf', 'pas encore', 'ne...plus') reverse the expected answer; mark them when heard.

Register signals: 'tu' marks a friend or peer, 'vous' marks an adult, stranger or formal setting, which identifies the relationship item.

Tone items rely on intonation and interjections ('Ah bon ?', 'Zut !', 'Tant mieux'), not on vocabulary alone.

Announcements (station, airport, school) follow a fixed pattern: destination or event, time, platform or place, then a warning or change.

Scan for the question's keyword first, then locate its synonym or paraphrase in the text; the answer rarely reuses the question's exact wording.

True/false items with justification require a quoted phrase from the text; a correct true/false with no supporting quote earns partial credit only.

Cognates and near-cognates ('actuellement' = currently, not actually; 'éventuellement' = possibly) are frequent false friends in distractors.

Text type governs layout: a letter opens with a place and date, a recipe uses imperatives and quantities, an advert uses fragments and exclamation marks.

Pronoun reference items (le, en, y, dont, celui) are resolved by finding the nearest preceding noun that agrees in number and gender.

Time and sequence markers (d'abord, puis, ensuite, enfin, avant de, après avoir) map directly onto ordering questions.

Inference items are answered from stated cause or consequence, never from personal opinion or general knowledge.

A single unknown word is bypassed by using the surrounding sentence; only words repeated across the passage justify stopping to decode.

BGCSE writing tasks specify a word count and a set of content points; each required point must appear explicitly to earn full content marks.

Accuracy marks are banded by error density: frequent basic errors (agreement, tense endings) cap the band regardless of length.

Past narration uses passé composé for events and imparfait for description and background; mixing them incorrectly is a common accuracy loss.

Agreement rules to check last: adjective with noun in gender and number, past participle with preceding direct object or with être verbs.

Connectors raise the range mark: d'abord, ensuite, cependant, par contre, donc, de plus, enfin, pourtant.

Formal writing (letter of complaint, application) requires 'vous' forms, a salutation and a closing formula; informal messages use 'tu'.

A short plan of one line per content point prevents omission and keeps the message within the word limit.

Accents change meaning and are marked: 'a/à', 'ou/où', 'ete/été', 'sur/sûr', 'des/dès'.

The oral is scored on communication, range of language, accuracy and pronunciation; fluency of delivery does not compensate for missing content.

Role-play cards assign a situation and required utterances; each bullet must be performed, and the examiner plays the other role.

Question formation: inversion ('Voulez-vous...?'), 'est-ce que', or rising intonation; all three are accepted but inversion raises range.

Answers are extended with a reason or detail ('parce que...', 'par exemple...'), since one-word replies score minimally on communication.

Nasal vowels (on, an, in, un) and the u/ou contrast are the highest-value pronunciation distinctions in French.

Silent final consonants are pronounced when the next word begins with a vowel (liaison: 'les_amis', 'vous_avez'), which affects clarity marks.

The photo or picture card uses present tense for description plus 'il y a' and position phrases (au premier plan, à gauche, derrière).

Recovery strategy for an unknown word: paraphrase with a simpler word or 'c'est une chose qu'on utilise pour...' rather than switching to English.