In order to be successful in this class, you must practice! Do a lot of exercises and practice questions to solidify your understanding of verb tenses. Time yourself while writing long paragraphs in order to prepare for writing during evaluations. Practice your speech delivery before the presentation date, and MEMORIZE what you are going to say. Never read off of cue cards/slides. Be sure to use resources online to practice for listening tests. The more experience you have, the better. When it comes to the essay assignments that you have to do at home... don't use google translate for multiple sentences in a row. French teachers will tell you to never use it, but it works for short sentences if you go back and correct broken parts of it. (They can usually tell if you used it for your entire essay). Take advantage of word reference whenever you're unsure about masculine/feminine, variations of a word, etc... it's a great tool!