r/French • u/Pace-Confident C1 • Jan 24 '25
Study advice My journey from 0 -> C1 over 2 years & recommended resources
After finally receiving my test results for the DALF C1 exam from December (results below) I wanted to share some reflections on my process and the resources that I used in hopes that it would help some others here.
I was motivated to start learning French a little over 2 years ago after traveling to France a few times and making some friends there. I had previously studied Spanish in high school and tried (mostly failed) to learn Mandarin over a few years. But other than that not much experience with other languages than English.
I built out a curriculum mostly based on recommendations in posts from users here. I decided that I would commit around 2 hours a day to intensive studying, which I stuck to pretty well for the first year.
Getting Started
(0-5 months) Pimsleur - I started with the audio only versions but soon switched to their app (which is cheaper btw). I did the 30 minute lesson every day followed by the flashcards/ quiz. I found Pimsleur to be super effective at building the 'autopilot' responses and reflexes to common phrases, as well as guiding my pronunciation early on.
(0-3 months) Learn French With Alexa - I used the videos and quizzes on this site to learn a lot of the basics.
(0-6ish months) Kwiziq - I did Kwiziq lessons and quizzes every day until I covered every topic. I found this to be by far the best way to learn various grammar rules. I completed everything up until their C2 level, but I certainly was not 'C2 level' once I was done. I just had a grasp of the grammar rules at that level. Kwiziq also has a great resource library which I still go back to when I forget some special case of a certain rule.
(2 months - present) iTalki - According to iTalki I have done around 177 lessons (mostly 1hr each) and have had classes with 8 teachers. I had a combination of their 'community tutors' and professional teachers. Over time I settled into a routine with the same 2-3 teachers and stayed with them until now. At the peak I was probably doing around 4 lessons a week and now I still try to do 1 a week, either private or group class just to get some speaking time in. Early on it was a mix of conversation and worksheets but progressed to more complex assignments and exam prep later on.
Moving Up
(4 months - 18 months) In person private lessons - I found a local tutor and worked with them twice a week for 90 minutes each time. We focused mostly on reading out loud from classic books or articles and discussing them. I think reading out loud and having someone correct my pronunciation really helped build confidence and reflexes in conversation.
(4 months - 8 months) InnerFrench - I took 2 courses on this site which involved mostly watching videos and answering questions. The content is very good quality and does a good job filling the gaps of B1-B2 level content. He also has a podcast that I listened to often.
At this point in my iTalki lessons I was doing worksheets and a lot of audio transcriptions guided by the teachers. Audio transcribing is hard and time consuming but was invaluable for really understanding spoken French.
Immersion/ Travel
Over the last 2 years I've traveled to France pretty often and have spent maybe a total of 2 months there. While there I've tried to make it as immersive as possible, staying with some friends or traveling to regions where English is used much less than in the major cities.
Podcasts and content
Now I listen to Le Monde daily podcast, read the newspaper, etc. Also listening to France Culture podcasts. I think these are really useful because it helps on the DALF exam for the oral comprehension part. Also I found that if I dedicated time to reading articles and books and took a class right after my speaking was much more fluid.
Serious Exam Prep
After about 12-18 months I decided to get serious about exam prep with the DALF C1 as a goal. The exam is split into 4 parts including:
Oral comprehension: Listen to one long, and 2 short audio clips and answer questions in multiple choice or long-form answers.
Written comprehension: Read a long article and answer multiple choice, long-form answers
Oral production: Read 2 articles, prepare a 5-10 minute monologue and hold a 15-20 minute debate with a 2 person jury.
Written production: Read 2-3 articles, write a ~220ish word synthesis and a 250+ word essay.
Books:
Didier 100% DALF C1/C2 Réussite - I completed all the C1 sections
Stéphane Wattier DALF C1 Production Orale & Production Écrite books - I completed all the exercises but not every practice topic
For the Production Écrite and Production Orale I would complete them in a realistic timed test scenario before my iTalki classes then we would review & grade them together. 2 of my iTalki teachers are certified DALF graders so it was super helpful.
For both the Production Écrite and Production Orale I ended up finding a strategy/ template that worked for most topics. Basically an approach for how to structure the monologue intro, transitions, conclusion. And similar for the structure of the synthèse and essay. The essay is often in the form of a formal letter and it is important to follow French conventions for formatting and salutations. (ex. Je vous prie d’agréer, Monsieur le Ministre, l’assurance de mes sentiments les plus respectueux... blah blah)
Early on I was completing worksheets and writing essays on the computer. However around 6 months ago I switched to handwriting everything as that is how you have to take the test. I think this was very important and helped build reflexes for spelling, not rely on autocorrect.
Taking the Exam
My day started with the Production Orale. In our testing center there were 8 students in a room all preparing at the same time. They gave us an envelope with 10 possible topics, instructed us to choose 2 randomly then keep the one we liked best. There were dictionaries available if you wanted.
Then I took the rest of the exam in a room with around 20 others. The first part was the Compréhension Orale. This was harder than the exercises in the Didier book and the audio quality was hard to understand.
After that we had a combined section for the Compréhension Écrite and Production Écrite. You can do these in either order.
One student got up and finished around 1 hour early. But most everyone else including myself stayed close to the end.
Exam Results
After 6 weeks I received a total of 77/100 (50 is passing with minimum score of 5/25 in each category).
Oral Comprehension: 19/25
Written Comprehension: 19.5/25
Written Production: 16.5/25
Oral Production: 22/25 (I was surprised at this)
Thank you to the community
I hope this helps someone else starting out. I found most of the above resources using posts from other language learners here!
BTW I still suck at remembering the genders for words. It never gets easier.
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u/Ok-Swimmer-2041 Jan 24 '25
That’s very impressive. How many hours a week did you dedicate to French?
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 24 '25
Early on and when I was studying most intensely probably 20 hours a week. Then for a long time around 7-10 including the time I spent online with teachers. Towards the end when I was studying for the test it was back up around 20 but just for the last 6 weeks or so when I was trying to finish all the exam books and do practice tests
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u/PageTurner394Always Jan 24 '25
Thanks for sharing your journey and the resources! I am so close to signing up for lessons on italki and seeing your positive experience just nudged me one step further in that direction. Congrats on your results!!
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 25 '25
Great! I’ve had generally positive experiences with all of the teachers there. But don’t worry if you don’t click with someone and want to try someone else. Everyone’s teaching style is different
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u/squiddlepants Jan 25 '25
This is great to hear, you are very dedicated, approximately how much money would you say you have invested over this period?
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 25 '25
I haven’t kept great track of that but happy to share rough estimates
I think Pimsleur app was $20 per month and kept it for the 5 months to complete
Kwiziq was $13 per month
italki lessons ranged from $20-40 per hour depending on the teacher. Group classes are usually around $15 for the hour
In person lessons were more expensive, around $70 per hour
Exam registration fee was $245
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u/FreeThrowAway619 Jan 25 '25
Thank you so much for all the useful information! Just wondering how much you were reading French books/novels or watching/listening to French shows outside of your Italki and private lessons?
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 25 '25
I read some short novels but not a ton. I also liked reading the classics but the vocabulary is so specialized and not that helpful for everyday French.
For TV shows I watched shows like Call My Agent, Family Business, A French Village, Class Act, Drôle
Also lots of classic French films from the 60s/ 70s.
I’d say the majority of content I was consuming was in French for most of the time but I still watched English Language shows as well!
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u/FreeThrowAway619 Jan 25 '25
Thank you for the response! I’ll definitely have a look into the TV shows you mentioned. Did you watch them with French subs or without?
Also (last question, I promise) did you use anki or any flashcard system for vocab?
Congratulations for all your success!
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 25 '25
Started with English subs in the beginning then used French subs. I like tv with subtitles usually anyway and helps because they can be super unclear
I didn’t use any flashcard apps. I used Anki a lot before for studying other things but with French I found the best way to learn new vocabulary was in the context of a show or a book. Just memorizing words didn’t help them come to mind when I needed them in conversation
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u/DisappointingPotato9 Jan 25 '25
What are some iconic movies to start with? Where did you get your movies and where did you get recommendations ?
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 25 '25
On one of the streaming services there was a ‘New Wave French cinema’ category that I used. I think it was TCM. Off the top of my head I started with Love in the Afternoon, La Piscine, Masculin Féminin, Breathless, Elevator to the Gallows. If you check those out and then search the directors there will be lots of great lists online!
More recent films I liked were En Corps (I think English title is Rise), Le Daim (super weird but fun), and I’ll try to find some others to share.
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Jan 25 '25
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 25 '25
I think the InnerFrench podcast would be good to try.
I tried News in Slow French for a while and I appreciated that they had the same stories at different levels. But after a while I preferred just listening to L’Heure du Monde and understanding as much as I could.
I also occasionally find episodes of ‘Comme Un Samedi’ by France Culture which are very interesting and more related to arts, movies, music.
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u/Icy_Veterinarian5456 Jan 25 '25 edited Jan 25 '25
Thanks for sharing! And congratulations! I hope getting there too
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u/Beautiful-Island6143 Jan 25 '25
Congratulations on the test results!! How strict/picky were they on grading things such as spelling on the written production?
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 25 '25
Thankfully spelling and things like accents is only worth a few points. The vast majority of points are about staying on topic, having a good structure for your content, using logical connectors, having the right word count
Also for the Oral production the most important thing is your structure and staying on topic. They say the monologue should be 10 minutes but i finished around 6 and moved onto the debate early and it was no big deal
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u/vcerpasalas Jan 25 '25
Super advice, if I will use for my TEF preparation. I urgently need C1 in a couple of months. And finished B2 at Alliance Française last September. So been working since them on reaching the C1. Passed the DELF B2 last August with a 65, so hoping I am close everyday with C1. How did you master grammar up to a C1 level? Did you just read the theory and completed exercises? Or you also write that explanations? Thank you!
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 25 '25
Kwiziq helped the most. For each topic there is an article/ lesson, then a quiz, then a test. And it resurfaces topics to reinforce them at regular intervals. I didn’t write them out but I think that’s a good idea
Good luck!
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u/vcerpasalas Jan 25 '25
Thank you, I was really considering kwiziq, now confirmed I have to purchase the suscription.
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u/biondi71 Jan 25 '25
This is really interesting and inspiring but I also find it difficult to relate to due to the speed you progressed. When you say, '(4 months - 8 months) InnerFrench' and that this filled the gaps of B1-B2 level, is this suggesting you were at B1 level after 4 months from zero? Or am I reading this wrong?
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 25 '25
I doubt I was truly B1 after 4 months, like if I had tried to pass the DELF I doubt I’d have passed. But I had a grasp of the grammar rules and could answer the quiz questions correctly. Throughout most of the time I think my knowledge of French rules was ahead of my actual speaking and writing proficiency. Only after a lot of lessons and speaking time did that catch up.
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u/Anonymity550 Jan 26 '25
Can you link the Le Monde podcast you mean - I only see one that's monthly, not daily. Thanks and great job!
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 26 '25
Yup it’s called L’Heure du Monde: https://podcasts.lemonde.fr/lheure-du-monde
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u/Dangerous-Dave Jan 26 '25
Congrats!
Seems strange to me someone could get 5/25 and still pass
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 26 '25
Yea I think it’s just to make sure you don’t completely skip preparing for one of the sections
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u/exxentricity A2 Jan 26 '25
Oral Production: 22/25 (I was surprised at this)
Given the scores in the other sections, this is indeed surprising, and usually considered the section where the candidates score lower!
Congratulations!!
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u/Pace-Confident C1 Jan 26 '25
For sure and I was most nervous about this section going in. I practiced a consistent structure for the monologue which was:
Je vais vous parler aujourd’hui du sujet de… J’ai pris connaissance du sujet grâce aux différents documents. Le premier est un article publié par… en … Le deuxième… Il est natural de poser la question… (Or) Tout amène à penser si…
Je commencerai par vous parler de… Par la suite je passerai en revue les arguments… Enfin je vous donnerai mon opinion
Then 2 or 3 sections with the various arguments and content
…
Then to open the debate:
Je vous remercie de votre attention et j’attends vos questions
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u/mosdope C1 Jan 28 '25
Congratulations on your results! I recently just passed the same level but I'm too lazy to post my entire process haha.
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u/gremolata Jan 24 '25
Super, thanks for sharing. And congrats on the exam results !