How do you deal with doing two languages at A-level?

I find it fairly difficult. Had my french one last Thursday, German tomorrow. The change between the two isn't too bad, they're pretty different languages.
However, I struggle to focus my mind on one language, especially when trying to revise for the real exam and also have lessons in the other language. There is no doubt that I get confused, I try to think of a word and I come up with the word but in the other language

Personally for the exams, I try to do as much as possible in that language before the exam and try and ignore the other one. Even listening to music helps I find (particularly for German).

Good luck with your exams!

Thanks for the luck, sorry I forgot to respond.

The exam wasn't too bad in German, got a card on renewable energy. French was much better though because I find it easier, card on media, hopefully that went well.

The transition between French and German is becoming more difficult I have to swap this week to French again for a resit then the week after for German!

Have you had your exams yet?


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No these are A2 exams too haha.

That's good glad it went well, hope you did well today too!

I have exams on the same days as you, you must be doing the welsh board? I'm glad there is quite a gap between the 2 language exams!

Had pointless general studies today, waste of time haha, but nevermind. French AS resit on Thursday


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It hasn't really been a problem. I had my Spanish oral today and my French oral last week. On the day of the exam, you don't go to lessons in the other language so it's easy to get in the zone. Also, the topics are very different so that helps.

Haha I guess everyone deals with it differently How was your Spanish?

And yeah I guess that's true, for example in my German I did the death penalty, but in French I did vegetarianism. Quite a big difference between the two

Hiya guys. I'm having a bit of a mare at the moment because I've been revising for my French and German A2 speaking exams like mental. I had my German today and my French was going to be on Friday, but I complained so much that they changed it to Monday next week.
If you do two languages at A-level, how do you deal with confusion and getting your mind in the 'mode' of the language? Do you ever get confused?
Would be really interesting to hear people's responses

Hiya guys. I'm having a bit of a mare at the moment because I've been revising for my French and German A2 speaking exams like mental. I had my German today and my French was going to be on Friday, but I complained so much that they changed it to Monday next week.
If you do two languages at A-level, how do you deal with confusion and getting your mind in the 'mode' of the language? Do you ever get confused?
Would be really interesting to hear people's responses

Thank you! Aha And noo I'm not actually, I'm doing Edexcel, but I think the languages exams are on the same days anyway
Aaah good luck for Thursday! What did you get last year for French?

I'm only at AS level at the minute but I study French and German as well. I find I'm okay most of the time, but there's always the odd word or phrase that I say in the wrong language, for example I say ab und zu a lot in French and autres a lot in German. I went for two weeks work experience in France in October and when I got back I kept saying oui in German lessons, much to my teacher's horror, I was just so confused!
I'm finding that especially with it being exam time at the minute I'm having to keep the two languages as separate as possible, making sure I take time out to clear my head before I move on to the next language. It's been exceptionally hard because I've been alternating between languages because of the timing of my exams; I had my French oral on Tuesday last week, it was my German one on Tuesday, I had my French paper today and then I've got my German one on Tuesday.

Yeah so the French resit was kinda difficult, I got a B last year, could be bordering on an A this time again, some unusually difficult translations including verbs which are used rarely like a' inscrire and préciser. It was difficult for second year students, and I heard a lot of first years say they couldn't do much of it.


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I did both at A Level, used to put on French music/talking books or Spanish ones on to get me into thinking in the language.

Did it throughout uni too, used to get really annoyed if anyone talked to me on campus day of an oral as in my head everything would be French

I do French and German at AS. Although I do regularly think of the wrong language while I'm trying to remember a word, I think having 2 languages actually helps with the content. This is because a lot of the topics for the oral cards and essays in the exam are on things I wouldn't be able to do in English, so doing them in 2 classes helps collect more ideas.

This is actually one thing I don't struggle with. I had my AS French oral on May 8th and my German on May 13th and I somehow managed to differentiate. I chose the same topic for both though, and that did get a little confusing at one point in my French oral because I was going to do a thing about the ice caps melting and I was just like oh crap I know how to say it in German but in French I had no clue so I kinda had to backtrack and the examiner looked confused :P

I definitely agree about it helping me more than anything. I only had to do much less research for my orals than people just doing one language, as I could use the same points in both and I find that their grammar is often the same. The only thing I always forget is that when using a reflexive verb in the perfect in German I always try and use sein as the auxiliary as you use etre in French with reflexives, but other than that I somehow don't get confused.

I'm doing German and Japanese a level. Personally I haven't really found it a struggle switching between 2 languages (easier than gcse where I did 4 languages). The fact that the languages are so different definitely makes it a lot easier though. I've done German for a lot longer than japanese, so my German revision is always next to none, whereas I spend quite a lot of time revising japanese, meaning I don't often have to switch between them

This is really interesting, I'm kind of jealous that your languages are so different. Is Japanese difficult?

That's alright! Haha

I'm glad your exams went well! That German one sounds difficult! Are these AS speakings? Good luck for your exams next week aha

I had my German A2 speaking on Wednesday, which I'm hoping went pretty well Was meant to have French yesterday but my teachers gave me an extension to Monday because I'm the only one doing two languages in year 13 and they didn't think it was fair to let me do two in one week. I have my German written on the 9th of June and then my French on the 19th, which is quite a nice gap between them!