Taking a languange you already know?
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There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, as I do two languages for A level I know a good handful of people who are doing it after having lived in France/Spain. Some people were even surprised at how wrong they got grammar when they were living in the country so embraced the teaching! Unis are not going to discriminate you, although as people have said I do advise you to revise a bit for A2 as it involves a cultural topic.
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I've done IGCSE and AS French and am doing A2 this year -- and I'm French. As long as you have other A levels, I really don't see how it can hurt your application. It doesn't matter how you learnt the language and you're not Italian anyway. Although I would recommend doing a little bit of studying, especially for A2. There's a lot of research involved and you need to make sure you know all your material even if you're a native speaker.
It won't disadvantage your application and of course would look brilliant to have a language.
However I do remember entry requirements for some university course (can't remember which university or course oops) which said it wouldn't be regarded on the same level if you were native/part native...
If you're only doing it to AS though it shouldn't be a problem
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However I do remember entry requirements for some university course (can't remember which university or course oops) which said it wouldn't be regarded on the same level if you were native/part native...
If you're only doing it to AS though it shouldn't be a problem
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I am from Italy and I did take A level Italian but a year earlier. Anyways, I can confirm that I you don't practice for it properly you are not likely to get an A* (I ended up with an A, 94%ums average but one ums off the A* at A2), but it is still far easier than it I for a person that never spoke I before taking the a level. I dont quite know what uni's think of Italian as an a level since I'm taking a gap year, but I know that UCL specifically doesn't consider an A level in your mother language( but Italian isn't your mother language so you should go for it)
Original post by *Stefan*
Take notice of this! It's only AS that is a joke for those who know the language... A2 requires quite a bit of work, whether you know the language or not.
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Yep! Also the grammar exercises and translations can sometimes elude natives
Original post by ElisaR
I checked the past paper for AS and it didn't require any work at all, except maybe revising the grammar and researching some topics.
I'll check the A2 past paper in a bit.
I'll check the A2 past paper in a bit.
AS è facile perché non hai bisogno d'annilizare niente ma A2 sarrebe più difficile
Original post by Hectors
I am from Italy and I did take A level Italian but a year earlier. Anyways, I can confirm that I you don't practice for it properly you are not likely to get an A* (I ended up with an A, 94%ums average but one ums off the A* at A2), but it is still far easier than it I for a person that never spoke I before taking the a level. I dont quite know what uni's think of Italian as an a level since I'm taking a gap year, but I know that UCL specifically doesn't consider an A level in your mother language( but Italian isn't your mother language so you should go for it)
How did you find the oral? And now that I know all this I'll definetely study (maybe not as much as my other subjects) and research some cultural topics.
Original post by L'Evil Fish
Yep! Also the grammar exercises and translations can sometimes elude nativesAS è facile perché non hai bisogno d'annilizare niente ma A2 sarrebe più difficile
do you have to do 'analisi grammaticale' or 'analisi logica' at a2? I hated doing that when I was in school
Original post by ElisaR
do you have to do 'analisi grammaticale' or 'analisi logica' at a2? I hated doing that when I was in school
It's things like
The gap between women and men is ever ___________ despite many efforts to stop the widening.
And you have to choose a word that fits from the bottom, it's grammatical as well as knowing vocab
I just checked the A2 past paper and it's harder than AS since it requires to write a few esssays and translate from English to Italian tbh I'm not worried that much about the written exams.
What can they ask at the oral exams and are they friendly? I remember when I gave my spanish oral exam the examiners were very nice and they even joked about some stuff; is it the same in the UK as well?
What can they ask at the oral exams and are they friendly? I remember when I gave my spanish oral exam the examiners were very nice and they even joked about some stuff; is it the same in the UK as well?
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by ElisaR
I just checked the A2 past paper and it's harder than AS since it requires to write a few esssays and translate from English to Italian tbh I'm not worried that much about the written exams.
What can they ask at the oral exams and are they friendly? I remember when I gave my spanish oral exam the examinators were very nice and they even joked about some stuff; is it the same in the UK as well?
What can they ask at the oral exams and are they friendly? I remember when I gave my spanish oral exam the examinators were very nice and they even joked about some stuff; is it the same in the UK as well?
Depends on your examiner, my French one was friendly!
They have themes
AS: Relationships, inequality, healthy living, tourism, sports, fashion, unemployment
A2: environment, terrorism, poverty, homelessness etc
Original post by ElisaR
What can they ask at the oral exams and are they friendly? I remember when I gave my spanish oral exam the examinators were very nice and they even joked about some stuff; is it the same in the UK as well?
What can they ask at the oral exams and are they friendly? I remember when I gave my spanish oral exam the examinators were very nice and they even joked about some stuff; is it the same in the UK as well?
Are you doing Edexcel? If so, your oral will be a debate on a topic of your choice followed by a conversation. You need to do a little bit of preparation for that too (you need facts and research)
Original post by Skittlemz
Are you doing Edexcel? If so, your oral will be a debate on a topic of your choice followed by a conversation. You need to do a little bit of preparation for that too (you need facts and research)
yes I'm doing edexcel
on the specification there are general topics like education etc. how do I prepare my facts on this? 
Original post by ElisaR
How did you find the oral? And now that I know all this I'll definetely study (maybe not as much as my other subjects) and research some cultural topics.
The oral was the easiest part as it is so open ended and as long as you can portray your opinion well you'll be fine, though the written exam has a very specific mark scheme, hence why I didn't do as well as I hoped.
Original post by ElisaR
I was thinking of taking Italian along with my other four A Levels (History, Philosophy, Economics and Classical Civilisation; I'll take all four till A2) would it be considered "cheating" if I already know the language?
I looked at the Past papers and they look very, very easy to me. I could get an A* without even studying much.
Would the Universities count it as a fifth subject?
(I've been living in Italy for 11 years but I'm not Italian so it's not like it's my mother tongue).
I looked at the Past papers and they look very, very easy to me. I could get an A* without even studying much.
Would the Universities count it as a fifth subject?
(I've been living in Italy for 11 years but I'm not Italian so it's not like it's my mother tongue).
A girl from my sixth form was Polish and took a Polish A level to get more Ucas points. I'd say go for it, you have taken the time to learn the language just like everyone else. The only difference is that you learned at a younger age and it probably wasn't your choice to learn it. And all the time you have been learning italian, you haven't been learning English so if it had affected your level of English then the exam boards don't take that into consideration, do they?
Original post by schmuur
A girl from my sixth form was Polish and took a Polish A level to get more Ucas points. I'd say go for it, you have taken the time to learn the language just like everyone else. The only difference is that you learned at a younger age and it probably wasn't your choice to learn it. And all the time you have been learning italian, you haven't been learning English so if it had affected your level of English then the exam boards don't take that into consideration, do they?
I really didn't get what you're trying to say in your last two sentences..btw I had to learn Italian, German, Spanish and English.
Also, English is not my first language either.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by schmuur
A girl from my sixth form was Polish and took a Polish A level to get more Ucas points. I'd say go for it, you have taken the time to learn the language just like everyone else. The only difference is that you learned at a younger age and it probably wasn't your choice to learn it. And all the time you have been learning italian, you haven't been learning English so if it had affected your level of English then the exam boards don't take that into consideration, do they?
That's not how language learning works. There isn't a finite space for all languages. Learning a foreign language doesn't make you worse at your native language in the long run
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Original post by ElisaR
yes I'm doing edexcel on the specification there are general topics like education etc. how do I prepare my facts on this?
on the specification there are general topics like education etc. how do I prepare my facts on this? Are you talking about the AS exam? The AS exam will be a conversation about one of the topics (you get to pick which one). You pick a topic eg. education or youth culture and have a conversation with the examiner for no more than 15 minutes. You don't need any preparation for this if you're fluent. You'll also get a stimulus and 4 questions on the stimulus -- they are very straight forward.
A2 will need preparation though because you need to research the topic you will discuss and prepare a debate
Original post by yabbayabba
That's not how language learning works. There isn't a finite space for all languages. Learning a foreign language doesn't make you worse at your native language in the long run
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I know it doesn't make her English worse, but if at a young age she wan't exposed to as much English it would have taken her longer to learn it so her language skills may have been not as good as what they would have otherwise been. Especially with school being in Italian, she probably wouldn't have studied for her KS2/KS3 SATS exams in English so then when she came back into the English education system would be expected to be at the same level of English as everyone else despite the fact that she would have had 11 years less of English lessons.
Original post by ElisaR
I really didn't get what you're trying to say in your last two sentences..btw I had to learn Italian, German, Spanish and English.
Also, English is not my first language either.
Also, English is not my first language either.
sorry, that wasn't very well expained. I meant that when you did your exams in English they wouldn't have accounted for the fact that you have had 11 years less English lessons that your classmates. For example if you did your English GCSE, you would have jumped straight into it without having first prepared for your KS2 and 3 SATS exams. Does that make more sense now?
It's like knowing English and studying English. It's not that deep.
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