At my wits end with French A-level- what to do? :'(

I did French AS level last year, and dear god it was the bane of my life. I found it incredibly difficult, I really worked hard but no matter what I tried, and how much time I invested I could never really approve above a C and that was pushing it. In the end I got a D for AS and me among some other people who were in my class felt appalled at our marks. My French teacher had me for a mock oral and said he had graded me at a D, I felt really concerned and went away and revised religiously for the real oral, I tried so hard, and when I had finished the real thing my teacher actually said to me that I had improved so much it was like a different person speaking and I had done brilliantly.
Well of course I went off feeling great. Come summer, yeah. E for speaking. I felt disgusted at him for giving me so much false hope and insinuating that the grade of my speaking was a lot higher than it actually was. I was so bitter for ages but I just moved on and re-took. I dropped French for A2 but resat and actually got a D instead of an E, funny because I didn't revise at all, as by that time I hated the language :P but I made my peace and gave up to pursue my other subjects. My point is do you really need French? Is it vital to have towards what you want to do in life? Do you enjoy it? I've been through the crap as well, it's just you have to think hard if at the end of the day it's really worth it.

Remark is a good first step.
Now you know what the examiners are asking of you it's a case of practice.

by the time you're ready to sit A2 exams the AS oral will more or less take care of itself

I don't mean to snap, but that was kind of the point of the thread- I don't know what is expected of me. I fufilled all of the criteria for a C grade speaking that comes with the speciman- but it seems like grade boundaries just shot up spectacularly. I'm clueless to what they actually want, I did all that- I lived and breathed French for months and had a really good exam and good feedback from my teachers.

AQA gave me three marks more than last year- when I had no grammar lessons, didn't know how to do tenses and couldn't pronounce for ****. I have come on so much and I'm so much more confident in my French...so I don't really understand it.

What the hell do they want from me?

read the specification

I don't mean to snap, but that was kind of the point of the thread- I don't know what is expected of me. I fufilled all of the criteria for a C grade speaking that comes with the speciman- but it seems like grade boundaries just shot up spectacularly. I'm clueless to what they actually want, I did all that- I lived and breathed French for months and had a really good exam and good feedback from my teachers.

AQA gave me three marks more than last year- when I had no grammar lessons, didn't know how to do tenses and couldn't pronounce for ****. I have come on so much and I'm so much more confident in my French...so I don't really understand it.

What the hell do they want from me?

Remark is a good first step.
Now you know what the examiners are asking of you it's a case of practice. Read french. Listen to french. Write french. Talk french.
Write down vocabulary you don't know and learn it.

I would concentrate on the A2 stuff for now - by the time you're ready to sit A2 exams the AS oral will more or less take care of itself.
If you can get hold of some past papers and essay questions that will help you to become more used to the technique.

Find out what your teacher thinks your strengths and weaknesses are with the language and work on those in particular.

If you worked your ass off half as much as you said you did, you should have got a decent mark.

I transferred from one school who taught me absolutely no grammar and only set phrases relating to each topic, so that my general speaking/ writing was dreadful, to a school where they'd learnt all of it in year 7 and resulted in me being several grades behind the class. I got a tutor, and a few months later I got an A in my AS exam.... I don't see why French A Level is so hard. Learn your grammar and your vocab, state your opinion and you're guaranteed at least a B.

I wish it was, I'm crying now thinking about it because I know fully well that I've put the hours in

Putting in hours of work doesn't make your learning any more efficient.

From the very little that you give us, ie your grades don't improve, I'd wager you're not learning from your mistakes and keep doing them. Another possibility is that even if you know how to conjugate verbs, use the subjunctive etc, you're not using them when you should.

I remember reading some of your work in here some time ago. To be frank, I thought you were doing GCSE because there were loads of basic errors. I don't know how you've progressed, but I'd suggest revising even the basics - because sometimes the things you think you know or believe are correct are actually completely wrong.

Lastly, if it's a memory problem, try to find other learning strategies and find your brain's sweet spot (visual, auditory, etc)