Getting an A* in a mother-tongue language?

For Russian GCSE and AS, I did revise by reading Russian stories but that's about it. I got an A* and an A respectively. But for A2, I needed to work hard and put my head in the work (there's a debate that you have to partially prepare and I had to write an essay on literature).

It's very interesting as well - so take it! It'll benefit you too on your CV and sometimes with uni applications too (my firm didn't exclude Russian from the offer).

Reply 41

Dalek1099

21

Original post by RachelSophia

It's not cheating. My 1st language is English. I think i know everything but i don't think i could ever get an A* in the GCSE.
I revised and tried so hard for my B!
All English people do an English GCSE and it isn't a 'cheat GCSE'

I want to learn Arabic! :biggrin:

You got yourself confused between common English GCSEs and foreign language GCSEs the levels of language comprehension are miles apart-for foreign languages in the reading you need to be at about a year 5 level to get the top grade,where in English GCSEs,first language,you have to be beyond year 11 to get the top grade because the average is a C at year 11 so the difference is quite big.

Reply 42

alexs2602

22

If someone else has said this first excuse me but you have nothing to lose. If you don't need to study for it it's a couple of hours of your life at most taking the exam. At worst it will be ignored by unis and it gives you definite proof for a job. I wouldn't complain, if you can try then do the A level early too while you have time. GCSE is fairly basic.

Reply 43

RachelSophia

14

Original post by Dalek1099

You got yourself confused between common English GCSEs and foreign language GCSEs the levels of language comprehension are miles apart-for foreign languages in the reading you need to be at about a year 5 level to get the top grade,where in English GCSEs,first language,you have to be beyond year 11 to get the top grade because the average is a C at year 11 so the difference is quite big.

Oh

i thought it was all the same. Kinda is a cheat then lol...

Still something interesting on your CV and personal statement :biggrin:

Reply 44

Ursin

14

Why not? If your parents were maths professors, you wouldn't not take the maths GCSE because you felt like a cheat, would you?

Reply 45

pseudonymegg

14

Original post by `God

So if I get an A* in my mother-tongue language (the language that is spoken at home between family members, which doesn't require any revision/lessons) would that count? or would it be as a cheat-GCSE?

I'm considering doing Arabic GCSE but I know everything and it feels as if I'm cheating my way into an A*, I don't know whether I should do it or not.

My friend is from Spain and speaks fluent Spanish and for one of his A-Levels he's doing Spanish. He also did a Spanish GCSE in year 8 and got an A* it's not cheating.

Reply 46

TattyBoJangles

19

It's not a cheat GCSE at all. My friend's Russian and got an A* in A-Level Russian last year (we were in Yr12). She's going to Cambridge to study, er, Russian. & French.

Interestingly, I know someone who's fluent in French and got a B at GCSE.. although I think he can only speak it fluently so maybe the reading and writing was a different ball game.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 47

muffingg

18

Original post by `God

So if I get an A* in my mother-tongue language (the language that is spoken at home between family members, which doesn't require any revision/lessons) would that count? or would it be as a cheat-GCSE?

I'm considering doing Arabic GCSE but I know everything and it feels as if I'm cheating my way into an A*, I don't know whether I should do it or not.

How is that cheating? Nobody needs to know that is your mother tongue. I did GCSEs in German (A*) and Urdu (A), where Urdu is my mother tongue and I grew up in Germany and lived there for 14 years. I don't consider myself as having cheated. I also did A Levels German with an A* and wouldn't have otherwise made it to my uni.

I can understand how people whose mother tongue is English might think it is a kinda like cheating, but it's not my fault if I grew up in a different country or speak a different language at home.

Reply 48

kpwxx

20

Original post by RibenaRockstar

You may as well, it's always useful.

This. It's obviously going to be easier for you, so that will be a factor in how much it adds to your GCSEs, but there's no harm in adding an extra qualification on, as it shouldn't need any study time really, apart from going over what the exams are like. Then you have formal proof for job applications etc.

xxx

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 49

Stray

6

Original post by Dalek1099

The person I replied to did Italian though :confused:

rmpr97 doesn't actually say which language they did (why did you think Italian?) so I assumed they'd done Arabic, as they seemed to be saying "I did the same" to the OP, who was asking about Arabic.

Also - 'scripts' is the right terminology for Arabic writing, it doesn't apply to Italian, so that would have been an odd thing for them to say. But you're right, they don't specify.

Reply 50

Coke1

18

No it won't be considered cheat, if anything it will be found quite interesting. You may as well do it.
But at the same time the A* won't be considered great because you obviously didn't have to do anything. Who knows, a job in the future you may want could require you to be bilingual and they may want actual qualifications to show you have knowledge of that language (that would be going more into A-Level though :tongue:

)

Reply 51

Dalek1099

21

Original post by Stray

rmpr97 doesn't actually say which language they did (why did you think Italian?) so I assumed they'd done Arabic, as they seemed to be saying "I did the same" to the OP, who was asking about Arabic.

Also - 'scripts' is the right terminology for Arabic writing, it doesn't apply to Italian, so that would have been an odd thing for them to say. But you're right, they don't specify.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2062592&page=2&p=38649275#post38649275

Reply 52

aja89

17

My (Spanish) dad told me he'd give me £50 for every A* I got. I took that A* in Spanish all the way to the bank, bitch. :sexface:

Reply 53

Appeal to reason

14

Original post by Dalek1099

If it was writing,you should have got 60 minutes,which should be enough to create a full UMS GCSE piece from scratch,if it was your mother tongue I would have imagined and I forgot my writing scripts for German and created it all from scratch and it ended up being my highest mark,an high A* and no,German isn't my mother tongue language I only speak English so i'm a little :confused:

He means the actual writing.
German is written in Latin script, like English.
Arabic is written in Arabic script.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_writing_system

Reply 54

Zebrajess

9

It's not a cheat. Everyone student in our school who speaks a foreign language at school is asked to do a GCSE in their language (they can refuse if they want). But it's an extra GCSE which is always a positive. The only thing is, for some uni's or colleges, or to get an English baccalaureate, they ask for a 'modern foreign language'. If you did Arabic, it wouldn't count, because it isn't foreign to you. If that makes sense? But you should still go for it.

Reply 55

laura1234

1

It does count as a GCSE however I have seen on some uni entry requirement pages that GCSE's and A-levels in mother toungue language don't count in offers, but out of all the uni's I looked at, from what I can remember it was only a really small minority which had that policy.