Writing Exam: Tasks and Structure

Paper 4 tests how well you can write French. The 50 marks are split evenly: 25 for AO2 (communicating your message) and 25 for AO3 (the range and accuracy of your language). The question structure is different at each tier, and no dictionary is allowed.

Foundation (70 minutes):

Question	Task	Marks
Q1	Five sentences describing a photo	10
Q2	About 50 words, five bullet points	10
Q3	Five grammar tasks	5
Q4	Translation into French (min 35 words)	10
Q5	About 90 words, three bullets, choice of two	15

Higher (75 minutes):

Question	Task	Marks
Q1	Translation into French (min 50 words)	10
Q2	About 90 words, three bullets, choice of two	15
Q3	Open task, about 150 words, two bullets, choice of two	25

The ~90-word choice-of-two task is the "overlap" question that appears on both tiers. Higher students skip the photo sentences and grammar tasks and instead face the demanding 25-mark open task.

Question 1 asks for five sentences describing a photo, each worth up to 2 marks. Score 2 when the message is clearly communicated, 1 when there is ambiguity or you use an infinitive instead of a conjugated verb, and 0 for a single word, an irrelevant statement, or an inappropriate verb such as je voudrais ("I would like"). Describe only what is in the photo; you may write a figure (2 personnes). A reliable pattern is Il y a… / Je vois… + a noun, then a person + a present-tense verb: Il y a une famille. Le garçon mange. Ils sont contents.

Question 2 asks for about 50 words covering five compulsory bullet points, marked for communication (5) and language (5). Cover every bullet, add opinions, and vary your verbs. A full-mark specimen answer on school life reads:

Mon collège est grand. J'adore le professeur d'anglais. Il est sympa. À midi, je mange et je parle avec mes amis. Je joue au football et je fais de la danse. C'est super. J'aime mon uniforme. Il est noir et rouge. (45 words)

Question 3 gives five grammar tasks: you choose the correct word from three options to complete a sentence (for example, the right article, adjective agreement or verb form). Each is worth 1 mark and must be completely correct, including accents — joué without the accent scores nothing.

The translation into French is Q4 at Foundation (at least 35 words) and Q1 at Higher (at least 50 words), worth 10 marks either way. It is marked across two grids: Grid One rewards how much of the original meaning you render (the passage is split into 15 elements, each earning a tick), and Grid Two rewards your knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Crucially, verbs in the wrong tense or person are not credited.

Here is the full Foundation specimen with its model answer:

English	French model
I have a brother.	J'ai un frère.
There is a lot of snow in January.	Il y a beaucoup de neige en janvier.
My mobile phone is small and red.	Mon téléphone portable est petit et rouge.
In my opinion the work at school is very hard.	À mon avis le travail au collège est très dur.
Yesterday I went to town by car.	Hier, je suis allé(e) en ville en voiture.

The Higher passage pushes into Higher-tier grammar. Its model answer uses the future tense (achètera, j'irai) and the perfect (j'ai commencé): Je dois étudier beaucoup tous les soirs. Le mois prochain, ma mère achètera une nouvelle voiture. Il est important de protéger la planète. Je ne sais pas où j'irai avec mes amis ce week-end. J'ai commencé à manger plus de légumes pour être en bonne santé.

Word-for-word translation fails in French. Five things trip students up most, so check each one before you move on.

Pitfall	English	Correct French	Why
Gender + agreement	a new car	une nouvelle voiture	voiture is feminine; nouvelle agrees
Adjective position	a red car	une voiture rouge	colours go after the noun
Tense + auxiliary	I went	je suis allé(e)	aller takes être; add agreement
Negation wrap	I don't know	je ne sais pas	ne … pas wraps the verb
Contractions	at school	au collège	à + le → au

Two habits protect these marks. First, decide the gender of every noun, then make its article and adjectives agree. Second, before writing any past verb, ask avoir or être? — the fourteen être verbs (aller, venir, arriver…) and all reflexives take être and agree with the subject. A wrong auxiliary or a wrong tense is a major error that loses the chunk.

Perfection is not required: an occasional missing accent or a small spelling slip need not cost you. But an accent that changes a word (a vs à, ou vs où) and a wrong verb form both count against you.

The overlap task (~90 words, both tiers) gives three compulsory bullet points and a choice of two questions, for 15 marks (10 communication + 5 language). The Higher open task (~150 words) gives two bullet points and a choice of two, for 25 marks (15 communication + 10 language).

Plan before you write:

• Choose the question you have most French for, not the one that sounds most interesting. Vocabulary you can spell beats an ambitious idea you cannot express.
• Cover every bullet point. All bullets are compulsory; missing one caps your communication mark. You do not need equal coverage, but each must be clearly addressed.
• Build in three time frames. Say what you usually do (present), what you did (perfect: j'ai visité) and what you will do (near future je vais and je voudrais; at Higher, the future je ferai and the wider conditional). In the overlap task, referring to all three time frames is needed for the top language mark.
• Develop your ideas. Add reasons and detail with parce que, car, donc, cependant and opinions such as à mon avis. A developed clause earns more than a bare statement.

For the 150-word open task, aim for a short plan of three or four paragraphs, each with an opinion, a reason and a tense change, so the language stays varied across the whole answer.

Communication (AO2) and language (AO3) are judged separately, so a wide-ranging answer that misses a bullet, and a fully-covered answer written in flat, repetitive French, are both held back — for different reasons.

• AO2 (communication): cover the bullets and make your meaning clear. Lapses in clarity, where the reader has to work to follow you, pull the mark down. If the response is much shorter than the suggested length, "a lot of information" cannot be conveyed.
• AO3 (language): show a variety of vocabulary and structures, attempt some complexity (connectives, subordinate clauses, infinitive constructions, modal verbs), and refer to time frames. Keep major errors rare.

The error distinction is the key to the accuracy mark:

Error type	Definition	Examples
Major error	harms communication	wrong verb form; wrong pronoun
Minor error	does not harm communication	wrong gender; agreement slip; missing accent

A zero for communication (AO2) forces a zero for language (AO3), so meaning comes first. But once the message is clear, range and accuracy decide how high you climb.

1. Describing what is not in the photo

Question 1 sentences must describe what is in the picture. An opinion about the photo, or a detail that is not shown, scores 0. Stick to Il y a… and present-tense observations.

2. Translating word for word into French

French needs gender agreement, adjective position and the right auxiliary. Check avoir or être, make adjectives agree, and never carry English word order straight across.

3. Missing a bullet point

Every bullet in the extended tasks is compulsory. Missing one caps your communication mark, however good your French elsewhere is.

4. Staying in one tense

The AO3 mark rewards references to different time frames. Plan a past detail and a future plan into every extended answer.

5. Chasing accents while ignoring verbs

A missing accent is usually a minor error; a wrong verb form is a major one. Spend your checking time on verb tenses and endings first, then tidy the accents.