Japanese Edexcel GCSE; transition to A Level (Edexcel)

Hi, I might not be the best person to answer as I havent taken Jp GCSE or A level but I am doing french A level and Im half japanese so I know a bit of Japanese, I would say it is a very big jump between GSCE to A level MFLs but its so worth it and enjoyable if you like it. I am going to study French in France or French and Japanese in Uni in England (still havent decided) but I would say go for it if you are willing to put the work in. Ik how hard written Japanese is tho not like French (I can barely read any kanji) so that would probably be alot of work, how are you planning to learn it? does your school offer it or private tutor? I think it would be a bit of a stretch to do it alone. I will say tho, if you are planning to work in Japan you can always study Japanese (joint honours or not) in uni without an A level and there you would get a recognised proficiency certification and professional level of language. I also am not sure that A level is N2 level maybe N3? You would need probably another year of intensive language study to be able to survive workplace in Japan. I say this as I am in my 2nd year of French A level, I can hold a conversation decently and write essays but I definitely would not be able to get a job in France without more practice and French is easier for English speakers than Japanese

Thanks for the response, I have a private tutor who taught me Japanese for GCSE and teaches Japanese for A-Level, so I think it would be fine on that behalf. I think the plan I had was to go to Uni, with the proficiency learnt from the GCSE and A-Level, and learn more proficient Japanese whilst there. Then after uni, I would search for an occupation in Japan. If you have any studying tips for the A-Level in general it would be much appreciated.

Thanks again

Hi, Im taking my Japanese A level this year but have not done the GCSE (I was in Australia during the time I would have taken them so just never ended up doing them) but I know that the jump from GCSE to A level is notoriously hard.

I am half japanese so I have it a lot easier, but doing past papers has really helped. Ask your tutor or even a languages teacher from your school for the past papers and do as many as you can. Being familiar with the vocab they will use is so useful since they stick to very similar topics throughout. It is obviously best to try and learn all the kanji, but there are some incredibky advanced ones in the mix and I have sort of given up trying to 100% learn every single one. Being tactical about which ones you are very familiar with is best think, since you can often fill in the gaps of other kanji you dont recognise.

Basically there are 3 exams, Speaking, Listening, Reading Writing.

Speaking is done very early, (this year theyre all due before 15th May) and you need to choose a japanese current affair to find an opinion on and speak about, then answer questions on that topic. Memorising phrases can be useful （私の視点でー、私が思うにー、etc) and choosing at topic you have a lot of knowledge about.

You need to research one of 4 set topics for the writing section:
● 家族関係や人間関係 family relationships and relationships with others
● 変わっていく行事 changing japanese traditional events
● 高齢化社会 aging society/population
● 福島原発事故後の省エネ生活 nuclear-power energy after the fukushima power plant incident

And read a listed book and movie (or two books, just not 2 movies)
you will need to be able to write a simple short essay on them. I am just so unable to do this haha but anyway....

good luck!!

I have not done Japanese A level but have done Intensive Japanese at University last year. I do not think that A level Japanese would get you anywhere close to being able to get N2 JPLT. You are right that a lot of Japanese Companies would want N2 level at least. Just looking at how the intensive Japanese class was progressing I would think that you would need 2-3 years undergraduate to get to N2 level preferably with a year in Japan. The jump from N3 to N2 is very significant. Hope this helps

Thanks so much for the reply. You can barely find any experiences for Japanese A-Level on the internet. This has been extremely helpful.

Hey guys. I was just wondering if I could move on smoothly from the Japanese GCSE to the A-Level. I have looked at some Past Papers for the A-Level, which looks quite daunting (I can barely understand a lot of the Japanese). I have achieved a Grade 8 for my Japanese GCSE mocks (with the only thing letting me down is the writing exam), and I believe I can bump it up to a 9 with a bit more work, but my teacher says the A-Level is very difficult, so I'm slightly pensive. When I look at the A-Level, it's like looking at a completely different world from the GCSE, and I don't know how I would learn it all in 2 years. Any advice would be much appreciated.

P.S. if anyone knows, if I did complete my A-Level study successfully, would I be able to achieve a JLPT N2 certificate with my knowledge successfully, or would I have to learn more? (This is because I plan to study and work in Japan in the future, and I am told that many workplaces and places of higher education make this a minimum requirement)

Thank You For Your Time

Not sure if I'm too late but I did edexcel GSCE Japanese last year and I'm doing the A level this year (the exam is next week)

Honestly I wizzed through the gsce really easily, I got A 7 with minimal studying with the material given to us in class(but I used to study japanese a lot in my own time.

Reading and listening on the A level isnt that bad. (I struggle with the reading a little more due to some kanji) My teacher said if the exam only consisted of that I'd get an A*..

But the writing is where my grades drop down to a C,

It's really hard and I'm predicted a C soley because of the 4 essays you need to write in the exams
(1 for paper 1, 2 for paper 2 and 1 for paper 3)

If you can nail the writing, u'll be fine
also translation is meh

Thanks for the reply; it sounds like a tough writing exam; I'm sure you'll be fine with practising seeing your potential is an A*. On my side, I'm currently under the impression that the A-Level only really gets you recognised in British establishments. My goal is to move towards studying and eventually living in Japan, so I am currently under the impression that a JLPT N3/2 might be more useful. If you have any thoughts on this, please let me know.
Regards

Yeah if you want to live in japan the JLPT is def more internationally recognised, I'm only doing A level because.. uhh I didnt know what else to do LOL

And I'm going to be doing Linguistics with Japanese in my uni course, but they need an a level in at least 1 language. I would say the listening and reading questions could help with the jlpt though, the vocab is a mix of n3-n2 and the grammar is N3

Hi, Im taking my Japanese A level this year but have not done the GCSE (I was in Australia during the time I would have taken them so just never ended up doing them) but I know that the jump from GCSE to A level is notoriously hard.

I am half japanese so I have it a lot easier, but doing past papers has really helped. Ask your tutor or even a languages teacher from your school for the past papers and do as many as you can. Being familiar with the vocab they will use is so useful since they stick to very similar topics throughout. It is obviously best to try and learn all the kanji, but there are some incredibky advanced ones in the mix and I have sort of given up trying to 100% learn every single one. Being tactical about which ones you are very familiar with is best think, since you can often fill in the gaps of other kanji you dont recognise.

Basically there are 3 exams, Speaking, Listening, Reading Writing.

Speaking is done very early, (this year theyre all due before 15th May) and you need to choose a japanese current affair to find an opinion on and speak about, then answer questions on that topic. Memorising phrases can be useful （私の視点でー、私が思うにー、etc) and choosing at topic you have a lot of knowledge about.

You need to research one of 4 set topics for the writing section:
● 家族関係や人間関係 family relationships and relationships with others
● 変わっていく行事 changing japanese traditional events
● 高齢化社会 aging society/population
● 福島原発事故後の省エネ生活 nuclear-power energy after the fukushima power plant incident

And read a listed book and movie (or two books, just not 2 movies)
you will need to be able to write a simple short essay on them. I am just so unable to do this haha but anyway....

good luck!!