GCE Advanced Level - StudyGuide.PK

There was some variation in the choice of vocabulary, with some use of less common words. The contentof answers in this category was not always relevant, though ideas were usually quite well structured andorganised into paragraphs. Conclusions reached were not necessarily related to the main body of theargument. Areas of language in which candidates were not consistently confident included the use ofsome prepositions, various types of pronouns, some irregular verbs and more difficult tenses. Examples ofthe types of error found in this category follow.• Les problèmes principaux qu’on fait face à ...• Les jeunes, an ne leurs donne pas assez de respect. Il faut donner leur plus.• Certaines compagnies internationales font beaucoup d’argent par exploitant les jeunes.Towards the bottom end of the ability range the overall quality of language barely rose above the basicrequirements of IGCSE French. Scripts displayed persistent errors in tense and verb forms, andcandidates showed that they were having difficulty in handling the agreement of subject and verb endings,the agreement of adjectives, basic pronouns and the spelling and/or gender of essential subject-specificvocabulary. Examples of errors common amongst essays in this category follow.• Common misspellings: se for c’est; qu’y for qui; car même for quand-même; malgrê(s) for malgré;ceux qui for ce qui; tous le monde; vraiement; especialement; quelques fois; chaque-un, pour example,sans doubte, system, problem.• Confusion and misuse of ces and ses.• Confusion and misuse of de and des; Une vie pleine des changements..., La plupart de gens...• Use of leur as an adjective only in its plural form: Les pays défendent leurs territoire avec leurs armée.• Similarly, use of leur as an adjective only in its singular form: Les enfants ne repectent pas leurparents...• Verb endings agreeing with the object pronoun instead of with the subject; Cela nous montrons que...• Plural verb endings used as an adjectival ending; ...des choses difficilent à comprendre..., Tous cesprogrès faitent ..• The wrong plural form of common adjectives: touts for tous, cettes for ces, notres for nos, votres forvos.Candidates would benefit from leaving themselves with adequate time for a thorough and systematicrevision of their essay, re-reading it several times and on each reading checking only one aspect of thelanguage, for example, firstly, all verb forms and endings, then all adjectival agreements and so on.Paper 9098/05Texts/Thematic StudiesGeneral commentsThe format of the examination presented little or no difficulty to candidates, who appeared, for the most part,at home with the instructions and layout. Very few candidates answered more than the specified number ofquestions, and this tended to be in Centres with just a few entrants. Teachers should be particularly carefulto explain the rubric to such groups, since the candidates have fewer reference points amongst the peergroup.13