LCA French common mistakes
LCA French · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Listening only once and trying to transcribe every word of the audio instead of capturing the gist and the specific detail each question asks for, so the answer to item 3 is missed while still writing down the answer to item 1.
Candidates treat listening as dictation and fear losing information, so they freeze on an unfamiliar word or number and stop following the thread of the recording, which in LCA tasks is played a limited number of times and rewards targeted listening.
What to do instead
Before the audio starts, read the questions and underline the key element in each (a number, a place, a reason, a speaker's intention). During the first listening, answer only the questions you can and mark the rest. Use the second listening to confirm or correct those specific items. Practise with short authentic clips (radio news, voicemail, announcements) where you answer two or three pre-read questions rather than transcribing.
Ignoring register, tone, and speaker intent, so a question asking what the speaker implies or how they feel is answered from the literal words rather than from intonation, hesitations, or politeness markers.
Candidates focus on lexical decoding and do not process prosody or discourse markers (irony, 'en fait', 'disons que', softening phrases), and LCA listening items often test pragmatic understanding rather than literal content.
What to do instead
Build a habit of noting the speaker's attitude while listening: is the tone enthusiastic, reluctant, annoyed, apologetic? Learn common discourse markers and their functions (concession, hesitation, reformulation). Practise with clips containing opinion or complaint and answer 'what is the speaker's attitude?' questions before checking the transcript.
Confusing similar-sounding numbers, dates, times, and proper names in listening tasks, writing 'quinze' for 'cinq' or 'deuxième' for 'douzième', or mixing up prices and percentages.
French number and date forms are phonetically close (six/si, douze/douze, mille/cent), and candidates have not automated recognition of these forms under time pressure, especially with liaison and rapid speech.
What to do instead
Drill listening specifically for numbers: phone numbers, prices, dates, opening hours, percentages, with authentic audio at natural speed. Learn the traps (quatre-vingt vs quatre-vingts, mille vs cent, the silent final consonant in 'six' before a consonant). When a number is critical, note it immediately and verify against context (a price of 15 euros vs 50 euros).
Reading the whole text first at normal speed and then answering from memory, so answers are based on a vague impression and on words that merely echo the question rather than on the actual sentence in the passage.
Candidates believe they must understand every word before answering, and they are drawn to options that repeat vocabulary from the text, which is exactly how distractors are built.
What to do instead
Read the questions first, then scan the text for the relevant paragraph, and justify each answer by pointing to the exact sentence that supports it. Reject an option if you cannot locate textual evidence. Practise identifying paraphrase: the correct answer usually rewords the text, while the distractor copies its words.
Misreading the question type in reading tasks, answering a 'why' question with a 'what', or choosing a true statement that does not answer the question asked, and treating 'selon le texte' items as personal-opinion items.
Under time pressure candidates match any plausible statement to the item without checking whether it addresses the specific interrogative (cause, purpose, consequence, main idea vs detail).
What to do instead
Circle the interrogative word in each question (pourquoi, quel, combien, que veut dire, quel est l'objectif). For each option, ask 'does this answer this exact question?'. For 'selon le texte' items, refuse any option that is true in the real world but not stated in the passage.
In written expression, producing an answer that ignores the task constraints: missing one of the required points, wrong format (a formal letter written as an informal note), wrong register (tu instead of vous), or too few words.
Candidates write about the topic in general instead of addressing the specific prompt, and they do not plan the required elements or check register and length before writing.
What to do instead
Spend two minutes planning: list the required content points from the prompt, identify the format and the relationship with the addressee (formal/informal), and note the opening and closing formulas. After writing, tick each required point and count words. Practise with prompts that specify three bullet points and a word limit, and check register consistency (vous + conditional/polite formulas for formal).
Overusing memorised complex structures and connectors incorrectly (a subjunctive after 'après que', 'malgré que', a misplaced 'dont'), producing sentences that are ambitious but ungrammatical, while basic agreement errors go unchecked.
Candidates believe rare structures earn marks and neglect proofreading, so errors in articles, gender/number agreement, and verb endings accumulate and outweigh the attempted sophistication.
What to do instead
Prioritise accuracy: use structures you control, and reserve one or two complex forms you are sure of. Build a personal proofreading checklist (subject-verb agreement, adjective agreement, articles, accents, verb tense consistency) and apply it to every practice text. Learn the correct use of a small set of connectors (cependant, en revanche, par conséquent, bien que + subjunctive) rather than many half-known ones.
In oral expression, memorising and reciting a prepared monologue, then breaking down when the examiner asks a follow-up question, or reading a written script aloud with written-style syntax.
Candidates prepare answers as essays, not as spoken interaction, and they have not practised reacting to unscripted questions, so fluency collapses as soon as they must improvise.
What to do instead
Practise speaking from keyword notes, not full scripts, and record yourself to check pace and filler. Rehearse the likely follow-up questions for each topic (opinion, personal experience, comparison) and answer them aloud without preparation. Learn repair and stalling strategies in French ('comment dire', 'ce que je veux dire, c'est que', 'je ne suis pas sûr, mais...') to keep the interaction going.
Answering oral questions with one sentence or a bare opinion and no development, so the examiner has nothing to assess in terms of range and coherence.
Candidates fear making mistakes and give minimal answers, or they wait for the examiner to lead the conversation instead of developing their point.
What to do instead
Use a simple development pattern for every opinion: state the position, give one reason, add one concrete example from personal experience, and conclude or nuance. Practise expanding a one-line answer into 45-60 seconds using that pattern, and practise linking ideas with spoken connectors (d'abord, ensuite, par exemple, en fait, du coup).
Choosing the wrong tense or mood in structure items, particularly passé composé vs imparfait in narrative contexts, and the subjunctive after expressions of necessity, doubt, or emotion.
Candidates learn tense forms in isolation but not the discourse functions that trigger them (background vs event, completed vs habitual action) and do not recognise subjunctive triggers as a category.
What to do instead
Study tense choice through short narratives: mark which verbs set the scene (imparfait) and which advance the plot (passé composé), and practise rewriting the same story in different tenses. Build a list of subjunctive triggers (il faut que, bien que, avant que, je doute que, je suis content que) and drill them in context sentences rather than as conjugation tables. Review the sequence of tenses in reported speech and hypothetical 'si' clauses.