Arabic GCSE

Arabic is only offered by Edexcel.

Schools often enter native/bilingual students for language exams without teaching, but...

It’s very late in the year. It’s not quite past the final deadline for entry so you could speak to your school about them entering for you. But they might charge you as it’s late (they’d have to pay late entry fees) and you’d need someone to do the speaking exam. And they may well refuse as it’s a lot of last minute hassle for them setting up the exams just for one student, and they’re likely to think it’s in your best interests to focus on your other subjects. And you’d have next to no prep time cos Speaking exams are held in a window around Easter/May time...

Even as a fluent speaker you’ll still need to be familiar with the specification and exam format so I’d say this summer is probably unrealistic. I’ve seen native speakers struggle with MFL exams just because they weren’t ticking the right boxes for the examiner, and it seems silly you rushing it when you could get a high grade with a little prep. Not saying a fluent speaker would fail... but it’s not an easy 9!

Alternatively you could speak to your college/sixth form in year 12 if you’re going to one, or you could sit as an external candidate if you can find a test centre to host you (a little harder with languages due to the speaking)... again, I’d expect to pay.

One argument you could use with your school for why it’s in their favour is the Ebacc... if you’re not doing a language but are doing history/geography then taking Arabic would mean you count towards their Ebacc statistics.

Arabic is only offered by Edexcel.

Schools often enter native/bilingual students for language exams without teaching, but...

It’s very late in the year. It’s not quite past the final deadline for entry so you could speak to your school about them entering for you. But they might charge you as it’s late (they’d have to pay late entry fees) and you’d need someone to do the speaking exam. And they may well refuse as it’s a lot of last minute hassle for them setting up the exams just for one student, and they’re likely to think it’s in your best interests to focus on your other subjects. And you’d have next to no prep time cos Speaking exams are held in a window around Easter/May time...

Even as a fluent speaker you’ll still need to be familiar with the specification and exam format so I’d say this summer is probably unrealistic. I’ve seen native speakers struggle with MFL exams just because they weren’t ticking the right boxes for the examiner, and it seems silly you rushing it when you could get a high grade with a little prep. Not saying a fluent speaker would fail... but it’s not an easy 9!

Alternatively you could speak to your college/sixth form in year 12 if you’re going to one, or you could sit as an external candidate if you can find a test centre to host you (a little harder with languages due to the speaking)... again, I’d expect to pay.

One argument you could use with your school for why it’s in their favour is the Ebacc... if you’re not doing a language but are doing history/geography then taking Arabic would mean you count towards their Ebacc statistics.

TLDR : I am fluent in arabic, I wanna do a GCSE exam in it. I am in year 11 and theres no arabic subject in my school, How, if i can, do an arabic gcse?

Hello
So I am fluent in arabic , but I did not take it as a GCSE subject as it was not available in my school.But recently, I have considered doing a GCSE in arabic as well I think its good to have a language in my GCSE's.Anyways, I have no idea how to do it? I am pretty good at arabic and arabic literature/writing that I think I would *atleast* pass it. but can you even do a GCSE without taking the subject? And how would I go about it? What exam board etc?

I sat my GCSE Arabic in 2017 when I was in year 9. It was the Edexcel exam board and i wasnt taught it but my school offered me the chance to sit it. Yes I looked at the spec but honestly I hardly revised and I managed to get an A*. It is super easy and I 100% recommend you do it because its an additional GCSE and language.
Good luck if you haven't already done it

If you go 6th form, they should be able to offer you to sit the paper, or you can find an external center

Ah, thats amazing. but oh well its too late now (im almost done with my GCSE's), if only I had known about this earlier, no one has told me



I will ask about that for next year, thank you very much