Year Taken: 2019-2020
Materials: We aren't given an official textbook, but take advantage of the notesheets given in class, WordReference is also an amazing online dictionary with conjugations and phrase translations
General Advice:
AP French places a lot of importance on your knowledge of using the language in various situations, including writing essays, carrying a conversation, and analyzing French texts to pull out the important information. For the tasks involving writing, it's really important to keep certain phrases memorized that can be used in any generic scenario (for example, "je pense que..." or "a mon avis..." can be used to discuss your personal beliefs). Vocabulary is also tested in the AP Exam so make sure you have diverse diction (for example, "interessant" is not the only way to say interesting, you could try "captivant" or "fascinant" for instance). Reading tests your ability to grasp the main concept of the passage and pull out small pieces that support the main idea. For these tasks, it's important to recognize that you don't have to understand every word. Instead, focus on pulling out words that you do know and using context clues to figure out others. Once you have an idea of what the main idea of the passage is, picking out answers should be simple. Finally, speaking tasks test your ability to give presentations or carry a conversation using informal language. Listening is obviously crucial, but it is equally important to understand that the conversation may drift in a direction you didn't expect and that you may have to adjust. Flexibility is key as well as a little background knowledge on francophone countries to use for the cultural comparison. Overall, AP French IV is a really fun class, but when practice and assignments are given, put forth your best effort and you'll do great on the AP Exam :)