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Is AQA harder than Edexcel for languages?

Last year I did Edexcel German and got an A.
This year I'm doing AQA Spanish, and am finding the writing part of the exam much harder, not as in the language itself but as in getting the right content. I haven't even been able to achieve an A yet.

I'm suspicious that my teacher is being overly harsh (she's awful, and I'm not often critical of teachers). She's always saying that I haven't put in advanced enough ideas or justified them enough etc, but I never had this problem in German last year.

My question is NOT about the difficulty of the languages themselves.

Thanks for anyone who can help :smile:
Original post by BobbieShamrock
Last year I did Edexcel German and got an A.
This year I'm doing AQA Spanish, and am finding the writing part of the exam much harder, not as in the language itself but as in getting the right content. I haven't even been able to achieve an A yet.

I'm suspicious that my teacher is being overly harsh (she's awful, and I'm not often critical of teachers). She's always saying that I haven't put in advanced enough ideas or justified them enough etc, but I never had this problem in German last year.

My question is NOT about the difficulty of the languages themselves.

Thanks for anyone who can help :smile:


Are you talking about GCSE or A-level? It all depends. I did AQA languages at GCSE and they were fine. However, we switch to Edexcel for A-level and, in comparison to the papers I've seen from AQA, Edexcel is MUCH harder. For example.. in the AS speaking exams in AQA, the candidate gets a tiny passage to read and then they get given the questions to prepare about the passage. In Edexcel the passage is longer, more complex, and you have no idea what the questions are going to be - it's all spontaneous.
Original post by chloevictoria
Are you talking about GCSE or A-level? It all depends. I did AQA languages at GCSE and they were fine. However, we switch to Edexcel for A-level and, in comparison to the papers I've seen from AQA, Edexcel is MUCH harder. For example.. in the AS speaking exams in AQA, the candidate gets a tiny passage to read and then they get given the questions to prepare about the passage. In Edexcel the passage is longer, more complex, and you have no idea what the questions are going to be - it's all spontaneous.

I'm taking A level. I actually find the Edexcel speaking easier, as you only have to talk about one topic, whereas in AQA you talk about all 4.
But I don't suppose you know the differences between the writings between AQA and Edexcel? Do you need to have more complex content in the writings specifically in AQA than Edexcel?
Original post by BobbieShamrock
I'm taking A level. I actually find the Edexcel speaking easier, as you only have to talk about one topic, whereas in AQA you talk about all 4.
But I don't suppose you know the differences between the writings between AQA and Edexcel? Do you need to have more complex content in the writings specifically in AQA than Edexcel?


Hmm, that's interesting! Edexcel is based more on content I think and how you develop your answers.. AQA puts more emphasis on grammar and structures. I guess it's difficult to say really!:redface:

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i honestly think that AQA is harder that Edexcel, mostly because of the grammar questions, to be fair i do French a-level, and I got an A* at GCSE, but my grammar is appalling, so at least with Edexcel i know i can get about 3/4 of the marks on every question then ace the writing to get a C/B, whereas with AQA i will get good marks in listening and writing, but the examiner will think that a blind person did the reading....
hm... so maybe my teacher is marking me too harshly? Because on the whole my actual spanish is pretty good, its the content she's marking me down for.
Original post by BobbieShamrock
hm... so maybe my teacher is marking me too harshly? Because on the whole my actual spanish is pretty good, its the content she's marking me down for.



They probably will be marking harshly, that way you know that when the exam comes around you won't be marked anywhere near as harshly (: my teacher does that :biggrin:
Reply 7
This year, I do AS Italian with Edexcel and AS Spanish with AQA. In terms of speaking, Edexcel could be easier because you only speak about one topic, although you have to know it in depth. In terms of essays:

Edexcel - 15 marks for content, 15 everything else
AQA - 20 marks for content, 15 everything else

So AQA does focus more on content and grammar only makes up 5 of those other 15.
(By the way my post was about A2)

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