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Is French AS a joke?

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linguist786

Sorry if this sounds like I'm boasting lol but..

I completely agree with you. The French A-Level is a joke! It doesn't stretch you enough. The listening/reading papers insult your intelligence. There's no proper "structure" if you ask me - people do alsorts of different things. I think the speaking (A2) is OK, since it forces you (to a large extent) to speak spontaneously, which is what it should really all be about. (The AS is too much like GCSE). The courseworks were OK-ish too.

Anyway, hopefully this year at uni lol..

I agree, I've just started A2 and I'm so fed up of 6th form now. I want to go to Uni and be taught the language properly.

Reply 21

Cunning Linguist

garethDT

I agree, I've just started A2 and I'm so fed up of 6th form now. I want to go to Uni and be taught the language properly.

Ye.. exactly! It's still just too "academic". I think they should introduce something like a (compulsory) month abroad in France or something lol :biggrin:

during the christmas holidays maybe..
wouldn't that be great??
oh ye I forgot - January exams. :p:

how about the Summer then?

What I meant in the previous post by the way, was that I could have easily done the A-Level by not even going to one lesson! It must be weird for the teacher too.. they probably don't even have a proper "structure" in terms of their teaching.. it's just like "hmm.. let's talk about racism" "hmm.. I dunno, let's do some grammar today!". Stupid

Reply 22

nickcopeland

lucy_locket88

A2 is harder, (i dunno if this is only the case for Edexcel) but it's where writing well really pays off and the listening and speaking units, which i find harder as revising for speaking doesn't always get you the marks, count for much less.

Due to some stupid departmental politics at my school, I ended up doing Edexcel German and AQA French, both to A2. Generally, I've enjoyed the AQA syllabus more - it seemed to be much more planned/structured than edexcel. I think the aqa exams were are also much fairer/better at discriminating between candidates.

Take the AS orals for example: aqa have unprepared stimulus card drawn from about 8(ish) different topics. then there is a presentation, but they only let you use your rehearsed material for max 2 minutes. and then there is a general discussion section for the remaining time.
As for edexcel, the AS oral was basically a test of short term memory. Everyone choses their own topic to discuss and you then have months to go away and research, prepare, draft, consult your teacher, re-draft. Every single person in my class then spent the week before the exam learning great chunks of material that had been corrected by the teacher. The exam is made up of only one part; regurgitation of everything you've learned. I did exactly that and got 87/90 UMS - it was such a poor method of examining, I truly believe my GCSE oral required more spontaneity and fluency than edexcel AS.

Reply 23

jellybones

I found AS really difficult, the gap between GSCE and AS level was huge for me, and I wasn't exactly satisfied with my teaching throughout the course to say the least, but it did get much better. For most people it's the other way round but personnally I found A-level work a lot easier than AS. It just seemed to 'click' for me thsi year.

Reply 24

M_Jenkins

I'm thinking of taking up GCSE French long distance next year so I can't even imagine what A level French would be like.

Reply 25

Champagne Breakfast

RAYPLETTS

I have been studying french for about 4 years now (although certainly not intensively). I have not been to France during this period.

I find it difficult to speak comprehensively in french and the gap from GCSE to A level has been huge. However, is the teaching somewhat above what is required? The AS paper seems dead easy - certainly not difficult. So why then is it necessary in class to understand fast paced news programmes, etc? Specifically I am talking about the AQA exam board, and the reading paper section. This seems to me only a little harder than GCSE or is this me not remembring how poor I actually was to get an A* at GCSE?

I look forward to reassurance.

French AS is a joke, and in my experience teaching at A Level is far more focused than teaching at GCSE. Not being good at French has never done me any harm, everything in these exams can be trained for. However, don't be fooled. The prospect of facing French A2 after a year of this crap is soul-destroying (hence why I gave it up). Unless you love the subject to bits, don't make the mistake I made of taking it just because it's easy to score highly on. You'd be far better spending your time learning a subject you truly enjoy at school, and learning French by spending time in the country and speaking as much as possible (it's only a small hop across the Channel, after all). Language A Levels can only teach you to a certain standard, and are mostly useless unless you intend on doing languages at university.

Reply 26

Blue Rose

It certainly isn't a joke and I would say that he gap between GCSE and AS is significantly large but students who have managed to get a grade A or above should not find it too difficult. I got a grade A at GCSE (I was 2 marks away from A*) :frown:

and althroughout AS I got Ds and in the first week of starting A2 french I got an A. I mean... I think as long as you do continuous study (even if you read a few sentences on days when you don't want to do much revision) without big breaks in your revision, you will get a high grade.
I found it a fun subject but you have to get into it and pay more attention to french than most other subjects, but if you do this at the beginning of the course, you should find it ok.
Ps. An A at GCSE is the equivalent of a C/D at AS- that tells you that you need to do a considerably higher amount of wrting, reading practise etc at AS level.

Reply 27

michaelyus

I did Edexcel, and I would say that to be honest A-level French is definitely less structured. Not a joke, but much less structured (of course that could just be how my lessons were - we had 5 people, and I came after school to do it). The knowledge they expect you to gain is enormous - I was an A* for GCSE, went down to low C by AS, and now I'm waiting for the A2 result. So linguistically it really isn't; in terms of exam structure it lacks the rigour that it needs.

I thought my A2 listening was easier than my AS.

Ye.. exactly! It's still just too "academic".

I think that's the point - they try to teach you in an academic way. I think that they're not academic enough to be honest - why do we not learn about the imperfect subjunctive and its demise, or the role of the "e muet", or the Romance-Germanic confusion of "h aspiré" in "haut"?

Reply 28

Happy1

I did the AS with AQA and i found it HARD! Despite having done french since year 7, the writing was sooo difficult!

Reply 29

kellywood_5

jokeroid

I would do French AS. Its just that I was a straight C student at GCSE (awaiting results) and you need a B grade. (I might still get a B grade because I'm confident I scored very high on reading).

However, even if I did, GCSE french was so boring that I've lost all interest all together. Is there really any incentive to carry on . . .???

Probably not if you found GCSE really boring and have lost all interest. I loved French at A-level and found it more interesting than at GCSE, but then I loved GCSE as well. A-level is pretty much less grammar, more interesting topics and more about France and French speaking countries, but obviously harder at the same time.

Reply 30

kellywood_5

jokeroid

I guess the A/A* students have already got the grips on grammar.

B grade students shouldn't be allowed to do French at A-level.
I score B on reading and listening consistently yet I can't write a coherent sentence in french apart from the basics (I do not understand, what is your name). Writing and speaking is harder. These two should determine whether someone is good enough for AS or not.

Personally I agree with you that writing and speaking are much harder because I find it a lot more difficult to construct language myself than to simply understand it, but strangely enough, the others in my class did a lot better in the oral at AS than in the listening/writing and reading/writing exams and I have a feeling marks from this year for the oral and the coursework will be far higher than the listening/reading/writing exam. I guess it's because orals and coursework give you the chance to prepare in advance.

Reply 31

mypaperheart

I've just done AQA AS French - and its certainly not a joke, you do need to work hard for it. I'd say it was just as challenging as most other subjects.

Reply 32

EnharmonicJen

I think there's one problem with French exams, and all language exams to be honest - there's so much you -could- learn. There's millions of words, thousands of idioms and phrases.. you could learn your vocab lists inside out and still something could come up that you've never seen before in your life....

Reply 33

sax gal

I did AS French this year and will carry it on nxt year- with OCR. I honestly think i have learnt very little since GCSE (my fault for concentarting more on my other subjects- and we spent most of the year going over gcse stuff). i relied on my gcse knowledge to get me through work experience which i did in france a month ago. I think the edexcel syllabus looks much more interesting- but harder! With the exception of the world of work part of the paper, the reading part seemed similar to a gcse exam IMO. Hopefully it will get more interesting next year!

Reply 34

sul

i did AQA, it is a joke. I hardly learnt anything from gcse, the listening i found easier than gcse, or maybe i was more used to exam situations by then. The writing paper was a bit hard but resits made it quite simple really. the speaking exam for aqa: our teacher gave us 4 questions on 7 topics, and gave us a hugge hint that he was gonna ask us questions on health and summat else i cant remember, in other words 'i will test u on health so memorise ur answers to the questions i have set u'. so. AS was a joke, A2 oral had an external examiner, much less of a joke, i hope i passd it tho. :redface:

Reply 35

M_Jenkins

Would it be wise doing GCSE French just for fun and interest instead of academic value?

Reply 36

Eien

squirly

I really don't find languages that challenging to be honest. I really love them come exam time when all I have to revise is my oral. You don't have lots of facts to revise, you just need to know the language. You can sidestep round questions if you can't think of the right words and the language is pretty similar to English in so many ways. For me it's the subject that has required the least amount of work/revision, with the exception of coursework.

Sure, the gap between GCSE and AS is quite big, but once you're over that first hurdle you're sorted.

I'm the same, everybody seemed astonished by the gap between GCSE and A level, but for me it seemed like a natural progression, but languages are probably my best subject since Japanese and French were my best AS grades. However, the exams are deceptively tricky at times, especially having to "target the answer", although the content is not too bad, although one article about hunting I saw in a past paper was quite tricky and required repeating reading. I always liked the orals and the Q&A bit was easier for me than reciting the memorised part, I always panicked and forgot parts of it without a lot of practice.

Reply 37

kellywood_5

M_Jenkins

Would it be wise doing GCSE French just for fun and interest instead of academic value?

Sure, why not? I did GCSE Spanish this year and I guess it was partly for academic value because I'm starting it at uni in October, but I didn't need a GCSE or indeed any qualification in it, I just took it for fun. French is a great language and even a GCSE would be looked on favourably by universities and employers. I know that's not why you want to do it, but it's a bonus!