Commentary on writing exercises

Question

Dear Aurélie,These writing exercises are a true exercise in humility.  I test in the 90's for C1 grammar but I consistently fail (often get less than 50%) in the writing exercises.  It took me over a year to accept this - I always would find my performance very disappointing and avoided the exercises (tip to others: don't avoid.  They will improve your French, painfully and slowly in my case).  The writing exercises  are excellent and introduce a wide variety of expressions and of contexts, but perhaps students should be forewarned that one's grammar level on Kwiziq will be higher than one's performance on the translation/writing exercises.

Accepted Answer

Hi Adelaida, my experience has been the same. I got to 90% and higher in the grammar exercises in my first year of study (two years ago), but still don't necessarily come anything near that when I try a writing exercise. Being good at exercises doesn't, I'm afraid, mean that you're remotely good at French in the real world. Remember that translating into French is the ultimate challenge. It means you have to remember all your grammar at once - not just the theme of the exercise. Do the writing exercises again and again and again. You will find that things you 'know' (i.e. have 'learned' and been able to 'show' your learning in an artificial exercise) grammatically don't come to you at first in a real-life situation; but five or six attempts later you will deliver grammatical correctness without even thinking about it. That's the big difference between an exercise student and a real-life translator: it comes instinctively, after extensive practice.

Answer

To Tom C1 level: thank you for your helpful comment on my experience.  I will swallow my pride and follow your advice: translate over and over again.  Merci bien! Adelaida.