By Allana Rivera and Wendy Chen

 

Twenty-seven upper school students achieved high honors in the National French Contest, a test also known as Le Grand Concours, which over 99,000 students in the United States took this year.  National rankings in each of the five levels were assigned based on the number of mistakes a student made on the test.

The highest scoring students received first place rankings, those who made more mistakes received second place rankings, and so on. An unlimited number of students could theoretically recieve each ranking.

Students who ranked first nationally received gold medals, while students ranking second and third received silver medals. Additionally, bronze medals were awarded to students ranking fourth through tenth. All national winners received a Lauréat national certificate.
Most preparation for the optional test was done in class. Most claimed that while it wasn’t extremely difficult, it wasn’t easy either.

“It was a good test: challenging, but not crazy hard,” Patric Verrone ’13 said.

“Once I learned that I placed high it boosted my confidence as a French speaker and encouraged me to learn more,” Rebecca Moretti ’13 said .

The contest is held every year by the American Association of Teachers of French.  Any student can take the test he/she registers through with their teacher.