I found Véronique in the yellow pages and called up since I was failing at my GCSE French. My January mocks gave the results of: Writing - U; Reading - D; Speaking - C and Listening - C, which gave me an overall result of D. 

I made an appointment and I had my first lesson in February and we worked on my reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Every lesson she would try to speak to me in french, which help me out so much on my listening skills. She gave me great advice in choosing which paper to sit (Foundation or Higher) in each skill, and we also worked on past papers towards the exam to improve my writing skills along with teaching me using the correct grammar and so on. During the process, my reading abilities improved since I was more familiar with the vocabulary through my listening and writing skills.

Moreover, the greatest improvement was speaking. Together we would work out an answer to the set questions and then she would make a recording on CD with both the questions followed by the answer which was brilliant. I was able to put the tracks on my iPod, so I could double check whether I said something right or wrong. This was particularly useful before I went into the exam room because I felt quite nervous and I forgot how to say a few words, and by listening to those recordings, it triggered my memory.

In the end, I got an overall result of a B. With Véronique's advice, I took the foundation paper for the writing skill, which I got a C, in Listening I achieved a high C on the higher paper, in Reading I got a C in the higher paper, and in Speaking, I got an A in the higher paper and I was only a few marks off full marks. It was incredible on how much I improved in the short time that we had to work with (4 months), and I'm sure if I contacted Véronique earlier, I would have been able to get that A.

Thank you very much for your time Véronique

Simon, Clacton-on-Sea.

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