Is doing both the IB Diploma and one A-level viable?

Hi everyone! I aspire to read English & French at Oxford, however, things turned out to be quite unfortunate: due to the small amount of ppl willing to study French A in my cohort, the class cannot be opened and I have to resort to Spanish abinitio. My parents wrote a letter to the principal to see if any private French lessons are arranged for me, but he is consistent on not helping at all. seeing this, I am extremely conflicted about what to do next:

1. attend A-level French exams at a test centre as a separate qualification from the IB. in my case, as I'm already fluent in French, the only problem here is additional private tutoring on analyzing language and literature, which greatly increases my academic workload. I also heard that this method is not recommended by ppl here in TSR.

2. go to another school which provides A-level French / IB French A HL. however, the answer is sadly no. there's no school in my hometown that provides any French education above GCSE level. the nearest boarding school that provides French is 60 km away from my hometown, which is unappealing.

3. give up on studying French completely and change to something like pure English Lang & Lit or English with a beginner's language instead. however, my family is going to emmigrate to France once I entered university (as my mother is a French native), hence a degree in French will definitely be helpful.

At this moment I plan to take plan 1, as it looks quite ideal to me. However, are simultaneous qualifications allowed or accepted by unis like Oxford? If no, should I give up on French completely (this is very tough as I ADORE French)? Any responses would be appreciated.

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Probably not realistic. The only time I've heard of it being done is with A-level Further Maths for those doing HL Maths already.

Doing a French degree isn't necessary if you're going to be living in France, and bear in mind that a language degree at Oxford is largely a literature degree for texts in the target language. So it's not really any more relevant to living and working in France than and English lit degree is to living and working in the UK.

You can learn French without doing a French degree - for example through the university's language centre. You'll invariably develop your language skills much more while living in France than through a formal degree programme anyway - the immersion is what makes your practical language skills develop the most I gather.

If you definitely want to do a French degree for itself (and not because you may be living in France later) then option 2 is your best bet. Otherwise just do option 3.

Reply 2

Breadrolls04

3

Sit the DELF exam, way more useful

Reply 3

thegeek888

18

Original post by Anonymous

Hi everyone! I aspire to read English & French at Oxford, however, things turned out to be quite unfortunate: due to the small amount of ppl willing to study French A in my cohort, the class cannot be opened and I have to resort to Spanish abinitio. My parents wrote a letter to the principal to see if any private French lessons are arranged for me, but he is consistent on not helping at all. seeing this, I am extremely conflicted about what to do next:

1. attend A-level French exams at a test centre as a separate qualification from the IB. in my case, as I'm already fluent in French, the only problem here is additional private tutoring on analyzing language and literature, which greatly increases my academic workload. I also heard that this method is not recommended by ppl here in TSR.

Here is the A-Level AQA French Specification: https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/french/specifications/AQA-7652-SP-2016.PDF

Because you're already fluent in French, you should have no problem with the Listening, Reading and Writing paper on AQA (the most popular examboard in the UK) and it is worth 50% of your A-Level grade. :smile:

It would be worth sitting A-Level French as a private candidate ie. External. Because Oxford will ask you questions based on what you have studied in A-Level French, as Cambridge also do.

There are only 3 examboards in the UK that offer A-Level French: AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas. A lot of candidates do A-Level French with either AQA or Edexcel.

The only centre I know of here in London is Campbell Harris College, in Kensington, London that also offers IGCSE French Oral Speaking exams as well as a A-Level Speaking Oral exams with either AQA or Edexcel.

You would study Letranger as your novel and La Haine as your film for Paper 2 Writing, of which both essays are worth 10% each of your A-Level grade, but they are only to be approximately 300 or so words in French. :biggrin: