Sof333
For me, my Japanese written exam is the very last VCE exam. First Language final subjects seem to be all over the place, but Second Languages like French, Japanese, etc. are concentrated around the end.
I have not done School Japanese before I started VCE, so I don't have an idea what Years 7-10 Languages are like. But I've been told there have been assessment tasks like you have to basically speak whatever but with a French accent??? That kind of assessment task won't be done anymore.
VCE French is split into General Conversation and Detailed Study/Discussion. You are supposed to prepare for both of these sections and you are expected to memorise a script. You will have multiple opportunities to practice these sections with your teachers. But for the Detailed Study, it is usually a topic, like French Revolution, or something else that has already been decided by your Year 12 teacher. At the Victorian School of Languages for Japanese SL, it has been manga for many years. It's possible to research a different topic, but your teacher won't be able to help you, so you'll have to research everything by yourself.
To score top marks, I think it is essential to be able to link your topic to modern peoples and the culture. For example, for my topic, which was the Various Purposes of Manga, I was able to link how the usage of educational manga (like a manga that can teach Year 7 Maths) is connected to the competitive education/exam-based society in Japan (or kou gakureki shakai). So, these interpretations should be original and unique.
A lot of research is required, and I was really passionate about my topic, so I was able to talk a lot about it until the time was up (I was crashing out right at that point LUCKY).
Edit: Also, you are supposed to bring in a supporting image to talk about your topic. The assessors would be very happy if you can incorporate your image into your discussion. For example, when you're bringing up a point you want to discuss, you can tell them, 'Please look at this image. This image shows... Therefore, I want to emphasise that....'
But right now, you do not have to worry about this; this isn't done until Year 12. However, I would recommend that you do some speaking practice regularly, such as using an image of two people cooking to talk about what's inside the image, etc. You could do one writing task, one listening comprehension task, one speaking practice, and one reading task per week on top of your French work in Year 11. Listen to French radio, music, etc.
Personally, I was a little bit scared because I was afraid what I memorised wouldn't come up in the questions. However, as long as you prepared sufficiently for the assessors to be able to ask a lot of questions about your topic, you'll do very well.
