<p>Ok so I've figured that Maths and Literature aren't too hard, but I've tried some French questions and this is the hardest bloody thing I've ever done. How are you expected to know all the vocab they set? Is there a set vocab list anywhere? I was of the belief that English AS/A-Levels were supposed to be harder than the American SAT Subject Tests, but seriously you could be an idiot in French and still get A grades for French AS. I am a living example of this. But the SAT questions just have me stumped.</p>
<p>So anyway my real question is - has anyone here done the exam, and how did you prepare? Was your schoolwork mostly enough, did you use a book, did you just learn as much vocab as you could?</p>
<p>If you want to take the SAT-II in French as one of your 3s, then doing well (i.e. over 700) is probably hard. If you want to take it just to test out of the foreign language requirement, it should not be hard to score 600.</p>
<p>No I want to do it as one of my three. I considered my other options, which are seriously limited. There's no way in hell I'm going to learn US History/World History in about 2 months, I hate science, and although I have done three of the other languages before (Chinese, Japanese and Latin) I have forgotten most of what I know, and it would take too long to go over my old notes. I'm currently doing French at school, so revising for it for the SAT would help with my English exams as well. I'm not bothered about the language requirement - I plan on doing at least one language anyway.</p>
<p>Well, I did the French w/ listening and got an 800, but it didn't get me into Harvard, heh.</p>
<p>French is kinda my thing (i.e. I go out of my way to improve my French, speak with a native speaker for like an hour or two every week, etc.) so I didn't study for it. I don't really see how there would be a way to study for it because it's basically measuring how broad your knowledge base is. I think the vocab is random on purpose to see how much you truly know. Also, I noticed that the questions in every section progressed from extremely easy (first-year French students would know them) to extrememly hard (native and very good speakers only would know them).</p>
<p>To practice, I guess you could try reading short passages in French and trying to write a quick summary. The faster you can read, and the faster you can process the information, the better off you'll be. Make sure you know every tense, and when to use them, as well as when to use the subjunctive. As for vocab, all I can say is that it never hurts to find lists of vocab and memorize them over the course of a few weeks.</p>
<p>Finally, it's really easy to narrow down your choices with a language; some will usually be blatantly wrong, and one or two will look vaguely familiar or sound right.</p>
<p>I haven't taken French for a year, but I still signed up to take the Subject Test in May (the weekend in between all of the APs). I figure I'll do a little studying beforehand and if I get above a 600 exempting me from the language requirement, then awesome. If I get a 300, no big deal. Does anyone know what the curve is like on this test?</p>
<p>The Barron’s French Subject Test prep book is pretty good. There are 8 practice tests, 4 with listening. There are also chapters with practice exercises for each section of the test. All of the answers are explained in the back of the book. There’s also a section with grammar explanations and vocabulary lists.</p>
<p>I’m doing my third year of French and I’m taking the test in June. I’ve taken 4 of the practice tests in the book and scored an 800 on three of them so I’m pretty confident.</p>
<p>All in all, Barron’s is good for judging where you are and getting to where you want to be.</p>