Master the IB French B Higher Level exam. Learn paper structures, task command terms, marking criteria, the literary component, and where to find easy marks.
240 teaching hours • 2 external papers • 1 internal oral • 2 literary works
Know exactly what to expect in each paper and how to maximize your marks.
One written task of 450–600 words, chosen from three options that span the five prescribed themes. Each option specifies a text type (e.g. blog, email, speech, article, set of instructions). HL answers are longer and handle the theme in more depth than SL.
What to expect:
Key Tips
Easy Marks
Watch Out
What to expect:
Key Tips
Easy Marks
Watch Out
Command terms tell you exactly what the examiner expects. Filter by Assessment Objective (AO).
Match your answer depth to the marks available.
Example questions:
Show range AND control — a few ambitious structures with correct agreement beat lots of errors.
Example questions:
Develop, don’t list — take one idea and explain it rather than naming five in passing.
Example questions:
Decide audience and text type first — Conceptual marks are the easiest to lose by accident.
Example questions:
In the oral, never give one-word answers — always add a reason, opinion or example.
These concepts appear throughout French B HL exams. Master them to score higher.
Before writing or speaking, decide WHO you are addressing and pick tu or vous. The whole task — greetings, verb forms, sign-off — flows from that one choice.
Bank the core tenses (present, passé composé, imparfait, futur, conditionnel), and keep gender and adjective agreement correct. Range plus accuracy is what scores Language marks.
For Message marks, take one idea and grow it with a reason and an example, rather than naming several ideas you never explain.
Read every question before the audio begins so you know what to listen for. Each recording plays twice — use the first listen for gist, the second to confirm details.
In the individual oral, never stop at one word. Add an opinion, a reason, or a link to the French-speaking world — this lifts both Message and Interactive marks.
Learn from others' mistakes. These cost students marks every exam session.
Wrong register — mixing tu and vous
Choose one register for the audience and keep it consistent through greetings, verbs, and sign-off.
Gender and agreement slips
Learn each noun with its gender, and make adjectives and past participles agree in gender and number.
Listing ideas instead of developing them
Develop one idea fully with a reason and example — depth scores higher than a long list.
True/False answers with no justification
Always copy the exact words from the text that prove your true/false choice, or you score zero.
One-word answers in the individual oral
Extend every response with an opinion, reason, or example to gain Message and Interactive marks.
Forgetting accents and the right auxiliary
Keep é/è/ê/à/ç and choose avoir or être correctly in the passé composé — these are easy Criterion A marks.
25% of final grade • Approx. 12–15 minutes
A recorded conversation with your teacher. At HL the stimulus is a literary extract from one of the two works of literature you have studied in French (not a visual image): you describe and interpret the extract, relate it to the work as a whole, then have a follow-up conversation and a wider discussion.
Marking Criteria
Tips for Top Marks
Apply these exam skills with our French B practice questions. Get instant AI feedback that shows exactly what scored marks and how to improve.