To anyone who does/did French or Spanish as level

Yo! Can someone PLEASE help me!? Don't panic, the exam's are only 1 MONTH AWAY!
This is AS LEVEL AQA FRENCH, AND AQA AS SPANISH.
My French teacher tells me I don't need 20 individual content points in my essay for the writing section. HOWEVER, my Spanish teacher thinks we do. My French teacher says we only need about 6 ideas and back them up well with examples and stuff. But my Spanish teacher thinks we need 20, without even backing them up.

WHAT IS THIS? They're both the same board...
Anybody else in the same space ship as me?
How many points do I need? Boy doesn't understand!

Reply 41

carbs1999

9

Original post by stripedbox

Yo! Can someone PLEASE help me!? Don't panic, the exam's are only 1 MONTH AWAY!
This is AS LEVEL AQA FRENCH, AND AQA AS SPANISH.
My French teacher tells me I don't need 20 individual content points in my essay for the writing section. HOWEVER, my Spanish teacher thinks we do. My French teacher says we only need about 6 ideas and back them up well with examples and stuff. But my Spanish teacher thinks we need 20, without even backing them up.

WHAT IS THIS? They're both the same board...
Anybody else in the same space ship as me?
How many points do I need? Boy doesn't understand!

Ok, first of all, stop stressing as its fine! It's an essay and as long as you've practiced them you'll be absolutely fine!

I know that for French and Spanish and in fact any language choice for A Level, the essay is the most important part. Your French teacher is going down the right track - three arguments for and against the statement with justifications and evidence (stats and stories) is enough to get exceptional marks; provided you do it right. Your Spanish teacher is "muy" wrong. You can't just have points without justifications; it's preposterous and ruins the whole point of an essay. They're not asking you to write a list of arguments they are asking you to discuss. Speak to your Spanish teacher and tell her that in the AQA Examiners Report they look for 5/6 well argued and justified points not 20. I am a victim of writing LOOOOOAAAAADDDSSSS in my essays and even though I get 30-35, she (my Spanish teacher) says to write less! The content marks are also marked on justification, reasoning and evidence thus it is impossible for you to write 20 points with justification.

Hope this helps.
¡Mucha suerte!

Reply 42

stripedbox

3

Original post by carbs1999

Ok, first of all, stop stressing as its fine! It's an essay and as long as you've practiced them you'll be absolutely fine!

I know that for French and Spanish and in fact any language choice for A Level, the essay is the most important part. Your French teacher is going down the right track - three arguments for and against the statement with justifications and evidence (stats and stories) is enough to get exceptional marks; provided you do it right. Your Spanish teacher is "muy" wrong. You can't just have points without justifications; it's preposterous and ruins the whole point of an essay. They're not asking you to write a list of arguments they are asking you to discuss. Speak to your Spanish teacher and tell her that in the AQA Examiners Report they look for 5/6 well argued and justified points not 20. I am a victim of writing LOOOOOAAAAADDDSSSS in my essays and even though I get 30-35, she (my Spanish teacher) says to write less! The content marks are also marked on justification, reasoning and evidence thus it is impossible for you to write 20 points with justification.

Hope this helps.
¡Mucha suerte!

This is a great response!!! Thank you very much! Very helpful

Reply 43

stripedbox

3

Original post by carbs1999

Ok, first of all, stop stressing as its fine! It's an essay and as long as you've practiced them you'll be absolutely fine!

I know that for French and Spanish and in fact any language choice for A Level, the essay is the most important part. Your French teacher is going down the right track - three arguments for and against the statement with justifications and evidence (stats and stories) is enough to get exceptional marks; provided you do it right. Your Spanish teacher is "muy" wrong. You can't just have points without justifications; it's preposterous and ruins the whole point of an essay. They're not asking you to write a list of arguments they are asking you to discuss. Speak to your Spanish teacher and tell her that in the AQA Examiners Report they look for 5/6 well argued and justified points not 20. I am a victim of writing LOOOOOAAAAADDDSSSS in my essays and even though I get 30-35, she (my Spanish teacher) says to write less! The content marks are also marked on justification, reasoning and evidence thus it is impossible for you to write 20 points with justification.

Hope this helps.
¡Mucha suerte!

For the AS speaking exam, for the nominated topic part, how long does an answer have to be?

Reply 44

Dfernandes

2

I am taking Spanish for AS and people have mentioned that paper 2 (reading and writing) is the equivalent or similar to writing an English paper. For people who are currently taking or have finished the subject, is it true? I know a few people who have taken the subject and say they regret it because it is too difficult compared to GCSE level and I would like to know if it is worth studying it.

Reply 45

username2224711

18

@iEthan thread for you possibly??????

Reply 46

wannabeedentist3

Spanish Maths Chemistry and Biology is exactly what I'm at doing at AS Level right now, and i'm pretty sure i'll be continuing with all four for A2too. When I chose to do a language alongside 3 other tough content rich subjects lots of people told me it was piling on too much but honestly doing a language like Spanish is truly a breath of fresh air alongside 3 similar sciencey subjects because it's a completely different style of study and subject. To be honest revising spanish is almost like taking a break from the other 3, but maybe that's cos i'm some sort of spanish obsessed weirdo lol. That said it is important that your definitely passionate and committed to the subject and see it as more of a life skill than just an a level. Also my chemistry teacher told me i'd definitely helped myself stand out to unis by choosing a language aswell which is always good. So yh overall it is definitely more than sensible even if people warn you against it as long as your commited! Hope you do go ahead with it! Buena suerte!

Reply 47

username1447874

10

Original post by Dfernandes

I am taking Spanish for AS and people have mentioned that paper 2 (reading and writing) is the equivalent or similar to writing an English paper. For people who are currently taking or have finished the subject, is it true? I know a few people who have taken the subject and say they regret it because it is too difficult compared to GCSE level and I would like to know if it is worth studying it.

What board are you on?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 48

Dfernandes

2

Original post by phantomspecialist

What board are you on?

Posted from TSR Mobile

CIE (Cambridge)

Reply 49

JManning

1

Original post by Don Joiner

What are they like at a level? Is there a lot of vocabulary/grammar to learn? Are the exams hard to score highly on?

I am doing GCSEs and found French and Spanish GCSE quite easy, is there a big step up in workload at AS level?

Cheers

Posted from TSR Mobile

Yes, if you enjoyed French at GCSE you will most likely enjoy it at AS. However it is a big step up from GCSE. One thing that's essential is grammar, you should know your verb conjugations and basic knowledge of tenses before you start really. After grammar comes vocab.
I am istudying A2 French and I would really recommend it. If you persevere and don't slack near exams, you'll love it

Reply 50

JadeBagley

Original post by HollyMead

Hey! I was wondering whether you all think it's sensible to take it alongside Chemistry, Biology and Maths A Levels or would that be too much work? They have scrapped AS now so I won't have the option to drop it. I'm predicted an A* at GCSE and have got A*s in all my writing and speaking coursework but I have my college interview next week so need to decide??
Thank you!!

Hey,

I am doing Maths, Geography and Spanish at AS level and doing them all next year. Maths is difficult even if you are very competent at it at GCSE. I got an A at GCSE maths and finding it hard now. At the same time, Spanish is one of the best AS levels you could pick. Yes there is a lot of vocab to learn because of all the different topics you have to cover and a lot of new grammar too but at the end of AS you have basically covered all the Spanish grammar in the world! The oral is ok if you find it easy to come up with ideas on various topics on the spot but otherwise you just have to learn different ideas.

I think you can definitely do maths and Spanish together and I think you could do biology and chemistry with them. My friends are saying there is an awful lot of work to cover in both of those and some of them say it is too much. Some of my friends do physics, biology, chemistry and maths and there is so much work for each but they cope and are fine. Its only the same as doing any combination of ASs. There is a lot of work but I think you can do it. ASs are designed to be hard and all ASs contain a lot of hard work so do what you want to do!

Hope that helps.

Jade

Reply 51

username1447874

10

Original post by Dfernandes

CIE (Cambridge)

Oh right, im on AQA so I'm not sure how your board works. Maybe look at the past papers?

Reply 52

Caitlin.Louise

1

Original post by HollyMead

Hey! I was wondering whether you all think it's sensible to take it alongside Chemistry, Biology and Maths A Levels or would that be too much work? They have scrapped AS now so I won't have the option to drop it. I'm predicted an A* at GCSE and have got A*s in all my writing and speaking coursework but I have my college interview next week so need to decide??
Thank you!!

This is probably a little too late to help you now, but I'm doing exactly this combination of subjects now so I'll give you my views on it. It's difficult to do all four, but from talking to friends, only as difficult as doing any other four subjects. There's a hell of a lot of content squashed into the Biology spec that I'm doing, whereas Chemistry is more about applying what you know. As for French, I think as long as you can pick up on the more difficult tenses and actually apply them, you should be okay with it.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing!

Reply 53

BloodRedRose

1

Original post by Don Joiner

What are they like at a level? Is there a lot of vocabulary/grammar to learn? Are the exams hard to score highly on?

I am doing GCSEs and found French and Spanish GCSE quite easy, is there a big step up in workload at AS level?

Cheers

Posted from TSR Mobile

Honey, GCSE languages are easy peasy, all you do is learn a script without even needing to understand what you are saying. Im doing a french a'level and the exam is out of 200 marks. You need to get 100/200 just to get a E/D grade.
The exams are extremely difficult and the answers you need to give need to be exact.
There is alot of vocab to learn because you will be reading articles out of french newspapers in the exams.
If you get a good teacher however that is from france, youll be fine :smile:

p.s im just telling you the truth

Reply 54

CaptainScrew

Original post by Don Joiner

What are they like at a level? Is there a lot of vocabulary/grammar to learn? Are the exams hard to score highly on?

I am doing GCSEs and found French and Spanish GCSE quite easy, is there a big step up in workload at AS level?

Cheers

Posted from TSR Mobile

I do French AS, I also found it very easy at gcse I got an A, I would look through a past paper and the specification for the exam boards before you make your choice.

To anyone who does/did French or Spanish as level

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you