^^^ I couldn't have said better!
Re: motivation - I competely agree with sugary - don't EVER get behind!!! hehe. Always do some work every week. Last year at about July/August I didn't touch any work for about 2-3 weeks - as a result I am STILL behind, worse off than it was back then. Big advice is get into a routine and stick to it like gum on the bottom of your shoe! You'll find it really hard to catch up
<-- hopefully that can motivate you haha
With watching dubbed things, it's really good because you often come across some slang and idiomatic expressions you wouldn't come across normally, especially if you watch sit-coms and that sort of stuff because the conversation is contemporary.
And for speaking, just for practice - talk to yourself! It's a beautiful thing. We're practically talking to ourselves when we record oral work to send back, so why not talk to the sky and the birds and the bees?
If you can get SBS TV reception, watch 'Le journal' which is on everyday except Sunday at 9.20 in the morning. Maybe you can tape it or something if you are at school. Also, don't be intimidated by how fast they talk, it's jsut the more listening you do the better you will get. (Also once you get into the news groove, you'll pick up tons of vocab for current affairs!)
Same goes for SBS radio. Syd/Melb have shows Tue/Thurs-Sun and they also have National frequencies for regional centres, but with different schedules. Check out
www.sbs.com.au/french for more details.
More news -
www.rfi.fr - Follow some links or do a search until you find "Le journal en français facile" or something. Very good listening, and you will find comprehension exercises that they put in
While I'm in internet thinking mode, here some sites that can help sometimes
www.about.com/french - GREAT site. Grammar, 'Mots du jour', culture stuff, and another set of forums which LOTS of people hand around, inclusive of Native speakers which are always happy to help (not that we can't help you too!
)
www.realfrench.net - More grammar
www.lesclesjunior.com - More news stuff, although aimed at young French kids, good for beginners as it's written clearly. Lots of archives and reading etc...
So, un peu sur toi: What year are you in? and what centre do you go through for your dist ed? Si ça ne te dérange pas
Anyway - about the actual HSC exams, of course you can find the past papers on the Board of Studies site, the 2001+ as well as the 2 Unit Z (old 'Beginners' course) paper 2000 and earlier. I'm not exactly sure how the Beginners exam works, but from the two trials from Open High I have, 35 marks are for Reading skills and 10 for Writing - reading/writing seems pretty important. But of course everything would be, so yeah - best idea is practice!
Also, make sure all the units and booklets and sheets etc that you get from your teacher, you keep them in order so you can find it again to study easily. Maybe even make a vocab book, and look over it every once in a while.
OK.. my sentences getting a bit weird. Watching Origin at same time.
Si tu as toujours besoin d'aide, n'hésite pas de nous demander!
Chépas