Giving Up On a GCSE?

French is my only foreign language yes.

This I what I currently do -

French - Will most likely get a D.

English - Will most likely get a B, but can be pushed to an A with hard work.

Maths - Will most likely get a B, but can be pushed to an A with hard work. (2% of A in mock)

Physics - Will most likely get an A, got an A* in mocks however.

Biology - Will most likely get an A, got an A* in mocks however.

Chemistry Will most likely get an B, got an A & B in mocks however. Could work hard and push it to an A.

Geography - A*

Film Studies - A, but A* most likely, I have A* coursework (50% of GCSE) and my mock was 1 off an A%.

Graphics - A*

Business - A

ICT (national award thing) - Distinction (A)

Bro. The general pattern from my year in our GCSE's was: if you actually try a bit and do some revision, you should get at least 1 grade higher than in your mocks!! Obviousy that depends on how much work you did for the mocks, but if it wasnt as much as you think you will do for GCSE's I wouldn't shy away from saying youd at the very least match, and most likely improve on your mock performance!! I didnt prepare for my mocks much and got 3A*6A and 2B, in my real exams after revising a fair bit I got 9A* and 2A (which follows the pattern of 1 up ) Good luck bro, aim high and then at the very worst youll end up higher than you initially thought

i know how you feel but don't that. In my first controlled assessment i got a D, then in my second one i got A*( i don't even know), then i tried again to boost my overall writing grade, i got a D again, i laughed LOL. I still have one more attempt anyways. But for reading and listening, just learn vocab and use past papers and start this month, remember you don't study a language, you learn the language or pick it up. That is why i want to spend a year in France later on. But try, don't give up, French can be annoying but it is quite an important GCSE

We are all different!

Hello All,

So I'm seriously contemplating giving up on my French GCSE. I know very well that it's bad to say I'm giving up and it makes me sound like I have a bad attitude. My French grade at the moment is a D, in the mock exams I got a mid D and in all but one of my controlled assessments I have got a D so far.

In all my other subjects. I'm getting high B's-A*s.

My problem with French is that I hardly understand any of it and I'm not learning anything in the subject that helps towards controlled assessments. What adds to the frustration is that I really want to speak French but I don't want to be pressured with learning French at school.

Controlled assessments are basically huge spelling tests. We have to write a 300 or so word piece then learn it off by heart to write it in the controlled assessment exam. Writing a 300 word piece is easy with the help of sheets given in lesson (adapting texts) and a dictionary. But then you basically have to learn the 300 words in order just to write them again in the exam, then after a day you would have forgotten it all anyway so they are pointless. It is not showing you are good at French as all you are doing is adapting tests. It just shows how good your memory is.

At the moment French is just dragging me down, all my time is spent trying to learn these controlled assessments and I'm not spending any time revising other subjects. At the moment I'm working at very high B's in both English and maths so I would prefer to work and bring them up to an A, compared with putting all my time into french and being very lucky to get a low c.

So I really want to give up on French, I will still go to lessons and everything and try and learn new vocab, but I don't really want to try in my controlled assessments and revising it so then I can focus on my other subjects.

I still want to learn French so I have recently bought rosetta stone french levels 1-5 and I'm slowly working my way through that. But I see no point in working loads just to say I got a D-C in french on a piece of paper, when after college it won't mean much anyway.

My plan is just to focus on my other subjects from now on and not bother too much with french (school french), this will help me push my grades in most of my other subjects higher (subjects in which I'm actually taking for A-Level later on this year). I will still be doing French, but at my own pace at home and with no pressure to learn hundreds of words for any assessments.

I don't want to consult my teachers about it because they won't really do much. I have already asked to drop French last year and I wasn't allowed. My parents think it's a good idea to focus on my other subjects because at the moment I'm literally spending all my time on French, a subject which I probably won't even pass.

What do you guys think?

Thanks for your advice.
I want to focus on other subjects more than French for what I want to do in life. I know it's good to have but to know French you don't necessarily need a GCSE to prove it.

I know someone who got D's all throughout the year and managed to get an A at the end. Anything is possible, I'm sure you can do well if you put your mind to it

When you say "I won't be dropping it as such. I will just not be putting tons of work into controlled assessments.", doesn't your school offer you a chance to drop the subject altogether? I mean a lack of effort would mean a substantially lower grade overall which might bring down your record overall. Surely you could speak to someone at your school about your concerns?


With regards to dropping a subject, I always believe it's a last resort. "If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.", don't worry if you don't get things straight away or you're failing, GCSEs will become easier with exam technique and revision. With the quote, doing small things towards your learning of French is important, by just concentrating on something small with each piece of work, by the end of the course, your grade could be higher through incremental gains.

Is it too late to pick another language? I'd recomend Spanish, I do it currently at A2 and I get what you mean about French it is difficult with pronunciation and spelling etc but spanish is exactly the way you say it so a lot easier

Well I can't drop it no... I'm using Rosetta stone to boost up my vocab levels and actually learn French.