Reading Exam Technique

Paper 3 measures how well you understand written French. It splits into two sections, marked in different ways, and no dictionary is allowed.

Section	What it tests	Language you write in
A — comprehension	Understanding messages and texts	English
B — translation	Translating a short passage into English	English

The mark split and timing depend on your tier:

Feature	Foundation	Higher
Total marks	50	50
Section A	40	40
Section B (translation)	10	10
Time allowed	45 minutes	60 minutes

Section A is answered in English or non-verbally (writing a letter or number in a box). Section B asks you to translate a short French passage into English, so it is also written in English. The reading skills that win marks are the same across both sections: recognising cognates, avoiding false friends, and reading tense and negation accurately.

Section A gives you a range of French texts — short messages, adverts, and longer articles — and a predictable set of question formats. Recognising them saves time.

• Letter-matching — match each person or item to an option (A–F) and write the letter.
• Multiple choice — choose A, B or C to complete a statement.
• Positive / negative opinions — write P, N or P+N for an opinion.
• Time-frame sorting — decide whether a detail is past (P), now (N) or future (F).
• Short answers in English — capture the key idea, such as to reduce stress.

You are never asked to write French in Section A. As in listening, the mark scheme rewards the key idea: acceptable wordings are grouped, so friendly people and nice inhabitants can both earn the same mark. Answer what is actually asked, and keep answers short and precise.

French shares thousands of words with English, which is a gift — and a trap.

• Cognates are your friends. important, téléphone, restaurant and famille mean what they look like.
• Faux amis (false friends) are the trap. They look English but mean something else. Learn the common ones:

French word	Looks like	Actually means
sensible	sensible	sensitive
la librairie	library	bookshop
la journée	journey	day
actuellement	actually	currently
le salon	saloon	living room

Two more traps decide many marks. Negation flips meaning: Je ne mange jamais de viande means "I never eat meat", not "I eat meat". Tense matters: hier (yesterday) with a perfect-tense verb signals the past, demain signals the future. A question that asks about a future plan is lost if you quote a past detail.

You will meet words you do not know, and that is expected. The specification is designed so that most unfamiliar words are decodable: up to about 2% of words may be cognates you can recognise, and up to 2% are glossed (their meaning is given for you). For the rest, you infer a plausible meaning from context.

Use three clues:

• The surrounding words. In Je bois de l'eau parce que j'ai soif, even if soif is new, "I drink water because I am __" points clearly to _thirst.
• Word families. If you know travailler (to work), you can decode le travail (the work) and un travailleur (a worker).
• Prefixes and endings. The prefix in- / im- often reverses meaning (utile → inutile = useless), and -ment marks an adverb (heureux → heureusement = fortunately).

Never leave a comprehension answer blank because of one unknown word. Read the whole sentence, make the most plausible guess, and move on.

Section B is a translation from French into English, worth 10 marks. The passage is at least 35 words at Foundation or 50 at Higher. It is marked in chunks: the passage is split into small elements of meaning, and you earn a mark for each element you render accurately, up to ten.

Because of this, two principles guide you:

• Translate the whole meaning, not word by word. Je m'entends avec mon père is "I get on with my father", not "I hear myself with my father". English that sounds natural and carries the meaning earns the mark.
• Get the tense and number right. A verb in the wrong tense loses that chunk. Nous avons écouté is "we listened" (past), not "we listen".

Common chunk-level traps come straight from false friends and grammar: monter dans ma chambre is "to go up to my (bed)room", not "to mount my chamber"; le salon is "the living room", not "the salon".

Take this Foundation-level passage and work through it chunk by chunk, the way the mark scheme does.

C'est les vacances ! Je m'entends avec mon père. On ne se dispute jamais. Hier, nous avons écouté de la musique ensemble dans le salon.

French chunk	Accurate English	Trap to avoid
C'est les vacances !	It's the holidays!	not "it's the vacancies"
Je m'entends avec mon père.	I get on with my father.	not "I hear/listen to my dad"
On ne se dispute jamais.	We never argue.	keep the negative — ne … jamais
Hier, nous avons écouté…	Yesterday, we listened…	past tense, not "we listen"
…dans le salon.	…in the living room.	salon = living room, not "salon"

Notice the moves that score: natural English (get on with), the negative kept (never), the past tense honoured (listened), and the false friend defused (living room). Fill every gap — a rough attempt can still earn a chunk, but a blank earns nothing.

1. Trusting false friends

Sensible, la journée and actuellement do not mean what they look like. Learn the common faux amis so a familiar spelling does not lead you into a wrong answer.

2. Missing the negative

A single ne … pas or ne … jamais reverses the meaning of a sentence. Read to the end of the clause before deciding what the writer claims.

3. Translating word for word

Word-for-word English often loses the chunk. Render the whole meaning naturally, then check it reads like real English.

4. Ignoring the tense

Hier with a perfect-tense verb is the past; demain with the near future is the future. A verb translated in the wrong tense loses its mark.

5. Leaving gaps

An unknown word is not a reason to skip a comprehension answer or a translation chunk. Infer from context, write your best attempt, and never hand in a blank.