Identifying key information

Overview

The ability to identify key information is the cornerstone of success in AQA GCSE French Papers 1 (Listening) and 3 (Reading). Examiners are not awarding marks for general comprehension or 'getting the gist'; they reward candidates who demonstrate precision in extracting specific details from authentic French sources. This skill accounts for 40% of the total assessment weighting through AO1 (Listening) and AO3 (Reading), making it the single most important competency for candidates to develop. The challenge lies not just in understanding vocabulary, but in navigating carefully constructed distractors, recognising grammatical signals such as tense and negation, and distinguishing between factual statements and reported opinions. Candidates must approach each question as language detectives, using systematic strategies to decode what the examiner is truly asking and what the source material is genuinely communicating. This study guide equips candidates with the frameworks, terminology, and tactical approaches that consistently earn marks at the highest levels.

Core Skills for Identifying Key Information

Timeframe Recognition: Past, Present, and Future

One of the most frequent causes of mark loss is failing to identify the correct timeframe of an action or event. A candidate may understand every word in a sentence but still provide an incorrect answer if they confuse what happened with what will happen. The AQA mark scheme explicitly penalises responses that do not match the temporal context of the question. For instance, if a listening extract states 'Hier, je suis allée au cinéma, mais demain, j'irai à la piscine' and the question asks 'Where will she go?', the only acceptable answer is 'the swimming pool'. Any reference to the cinema, despite being mentioned in the extract, is irrelevant because it refers to a past event. Candidates must train themselves to highlight time markers before attempting to answer. These markers act as anchors that fix the action in time. Common past markers include 'hier' (yesterday), 'la semaine dernière' (last week), 'il y a deux jours' (two days ago), 'avant' (before), and 'autrefois' (in the past). Present markers include 'aujourd'hui' (today), 'maintenant' (now), 'actuellement' (currently), 'en ce moment' (at the moment), and 'de nos jours' (nowadays). Future markers include 'demain' (tomorrow), 'la semaine prochaine' (next week), 'dans trois jours' (in three days), 'bientôt' (soon), and 'plus tard' (later). Examiners deliberately include multiple timeframes within a single extract to test whether candidates can isolate the correct one. This is not accidental; it is a designed feature of the assessment.

Negation: The Mark-Losing Trap

Negation in French is expressed through two-part structures, and missing either component can completely reverse the meaning of a sentence. The most common negative structure is 'ne...pas' (not), but candidates must also recognise 'ne...plus' (no longer / not anymore), 'ne...jamais' (never), 'ne...rien' (nothing), and 'ne...que' (only). The last of these is particularly treacherous because 'ne...que' does not mean 'not'; it means 'only', indicating restriction rather than negation. For example, 'Elle n'a que cinq euros' translates as 'She only has five euros', not 'She doesn't have five euros'. This is a classic AQA distractor designed to catch candidates who recognise 'ne' and assume full negation. Similarly, 'ne...plus' signals cessation: 'Je ne fume plus' means 'I no longer smoke', which is fundamentally different from 'I don't smoke' (a general statement) or 'I smoke' (the opposite). Candidates who fail to acknowledge negation lose all marks for that question, even if they understood the vocabulary perfectly. The mark scheme is unforgiving on this point because the truth value of the statement has been fundamentally altered.

Fact vs. Opinion: Whose Voice Is It?

A recurring feature of AQA French assessments is the distinction between the narrator's own opinion and a reported opinion of a third party. Candidates must ask themselves: is this what the speaker thinks, or is this what someone else thinks? Phrases such as 'Je pense que...' (I think that...), 'À mon avis...' (In my opinion...), 'Je crois que...' (I believe that...), and 'Selon elle...' (According to her...) are explicit markers of opinion. If a listening extract includes 'Mon frère pense que le film était ennuyeux' (My brother thinks the film was boring), and the question asks 'What was the film like?', the correct answer is 'Someone thought it was boring' or 'Her brother found it boring'. An answer stating 'The film was boring' would be marked incorrect because it presents opinion as objective fact. Examiners are testing whether candidates can identify the source of the judgement, not just the content of the judgement. This skill becomes especially important in 'Positive/Negative/Positive and Negative' questions, where candidates must determine whether a speaker expresses one view or acknowledges both sides. Look for adversative conjunctions such as 'mais' (but), 'pourtant' (however), 'cependant' (nevertheless), and 'par contre' (on the other hand), which signal a shift in opinion.

Distractors: The Examiner's Deliberate Traps

AQA examiners construct multiple-choice options and question contexts to include distractors—words or phrases that appear in the source material but are used in a different context or with a different meaning. For example, if a reading passage states 'J'habite près de la gare' (I live near the station), a distractor option might read 'He works at the station'. The word 'station' is present, but the context is entirely different. Candidates who scan for keywords without checking meaning will select the wrong answer. The strategy to counter distractors is threefold: first, read the question in English to understand what type of information is required (a place, a time, a feeling, a number); second, locate the relevant section of the source material; third, verify that the meaning in context matches the question, not just the vocabulary. Distractors are not errors or accidents—they are designed to separate candidates who understand meaning from those who recognise words.

False Friends (Faux Amis): The Vocabulary Trap

False friends are French words that resemble English words but have entirely different meanings. These are high-frequency distractors in AQA assessments. The most notorious examples include 'actuellement' (currently, not 'actually'), 'assister à' (to attend, not 'to assist'), 'librairie' (bookshop, not 'library'), 'sensible' (sensitive, not 'sensible'), 'passer un examen' (to take an exam, not 'to pass an exam'), 'rester' (to stay, not 'to rest'), 'attendre' (to wait, not 'to attend'), and 'blesser' (to injure, not 'to bless'). Candidates who rely on visual similarity to English will provide incorrect answers. The mark scheme does not award credit for answers based on false friends, even if the candidate's reasoning is understandable. Examiners expect candidates to have learned these distinctions and will deliberately include them in extracts to test knowledge.

Systematic Question Approach

Candidates should adopt a structured approach to every question in Papers 1 and 3. This approach minimises errors and maximises the extraction of relevant information.

Step 1: Read the question in English first. This tells you what type of information to look for. Is it a name? A place? A time? An emotion? A number? This focuses your attention and prevents you from being distracted by irrelevant details.

Step 2: Identify the type of information needed. Questions fall into predictable categories: factual details (who, what, where, when), opinions (what does someone think?), reasons (why?), and descriptions (how?).

Step 3: Scan the text or listen for key words. Do not try to translate every word. Focus on the section of the source material that corresponds to the question.

Step 4: Highlight time markers. Before answering, identify whether the action is in the past, present, or future. Use a highlighter or underline these words in reading tasks.

Step 5: Check for negatives. Look for 'ne...pas', 'ne...plus', 'ne...jamais', 'ne...que', and other negative structures. Missing these will cost you all the marks.

Step 6: Distinguish narrator's opinion from reported opinion. Is this what the speaker thinks, or what someone else thinks?

Step 7: Eliminate distractor options. In multiple-choice questions, cross out options that contain words from the text but are used in the wrong context.

Step 8: Write a precise answer. Avoid vague statements. If the question asks 'How many?', give a number. If it asks 'Where?', name a place. Examiners do not award marks for approximations.

Named Example Bank: High-Frequency Vocabulary and Structures

Candidates must have instant recognition of the following high-frequency structures and vocabulary items, as they appear repeatedly across AQA papers:

1. Time Markers (Past): 'hier', 'la semaine dernière', 'l'année dernière', 'il y a [time period]', 'quand j'étais jeune', 'autrefois', 'avant', 'pendant les vacances' (during the holidays).

2. Time Markers (Present): 'aujourd'hui', 'maintenant', 'actuellement', 'en ce moment', 'de nos jours', 'cette année', 'ce mois-ci'.

3. Time Markers (Future): 'demain', 'la semaine prochaine', 'l'année prochaine', 'dans [time period]', 'bientôt', 'plus tard', 'à l'avenir', 'un jour' (one day).

4. Opinion Markers: 'Je pense que', 'Je crois que', 'À mon avis', 'Selon moi', 'Il me semble que', 'Je trouve que', 'Pour moi'.

5. Negation Structures: 'ne...pas' (not), 'ne...plus' (no longer), 'ne...jamais' (never), 'ne...rien' (nothing), 'ne...que' (only), 'ne...personne' (nobody).

6. Adversative Conjunctions (Opinion Shifts): 'mais' (but), 'pourtant' (however), 'cependant' (nevertheless), 'par contre' (on the other hand), 'en revanche' (on the other hand), 'toutefois' (however).

7. False Friends: 'actuellement' (currently), 'assister à' (to attend), 'librairie' (bookshop), 'sensible' (sensitive), 'passer un examen' (to take an exam), 'rester' (to stay), 'attendre' (to wait), 'blesser' (to injure).

Podcast: 10-Minute Masterclass

Listen to this 10-minute podcast episode for a comprehensive audio guide to identifying key information, including worked examples, exam tips, and a quick-fire recall quiz.

Assessment Objective Weightings

Understanding the assessment objectives helps candidates prioritise their preparation. For AQA GCSE French, the weightings are as follows:

• AO1 (Listening): 40% of the total qualification. Candidates must understand and respond to different types of spoken language.
• AO2 (Speaking): 0% relevance to this study (covered in Paper 2).
• AO3 (Reading): 40% of the total qualification. Candidates must understand and respond to different types of written language.
• AO4 (Writing): 20% of the total qualification (covered in Paper 4).

Identifying key information is the dominant skill tested in AO1 and AO3, making it 80% of the receptive skills assessment. Candidates who master this skill secure the majority of available marks.