AQA vs WJEC

Is WJEC harder or more difficult than AQA in general for A levels? Also, would anyone say it's more/less respected than AQA by big universities? There's a sixth form I really want to go to next year, but both my French and Spanish A levels will be with WJEC. It's kinda putting me off, but this might be just because I don't know much about the exam board. Any advice appreciated :smile:

Thanks!

Reply 1

lemonyspongecakeII

Don't let that put you off!! I don't think universities mind tbh, they'd care more about the difference between an A and a B i think...

I do WJEC French and I'm finding it pretty straightforward but obviously I don't have experience with AQA lol.. just go for it!

Reply 2

linguisto

OP

Original post by lemonyspongecakeII

Don't let that put you off!! I don't think universities mind tbh, they'd care more about the difference between an A and a B i think...

I do WJEC French and I'm finding it pretty straightforward but obviously I don't have experience with AQA lol.. just go for it!

Do you find the topics with WJEC interesting? I found that from looking through the specification, the AQA ones looked alot more juicy, stuff like celebrities etc. I thought the WJEC stuff just looked like an extention of boring old GCSE topics. AQA seemed much more exciting.

Reply 3

lemonyspongecakeII

Original post by linguisto

Do you find the topics with WJEC interesting? I found that from looking through the specification, the AQA ones looked alot more juicy, stuff like celebrities etc. I thought the WJEC stuff just looked like an extention of boring old GCSE topics. AQA seemed much more exciting.

Personally yes, the immigration/racism/contemporary French soc. stuff is v. interesting but environment is incredibly dry in A2. At AS, we did films/tv/hobbies/school life/choosing a future etc which was fine.. The topics tend to overlap from WJEC to AQA to Edexcel (I have friends doing Edexcel French). We use excerpts from the AQA textbook all the time in class because the stuff we cover is so similar..

Reply 4

Lewis :D

3

WJEC is much easier than AQA. I do it, if you have any questions just ask. They're a lot fairer in their exams, especially in the oral exams :-)

Reply 5

username438348

5

Original post by linguisto

Is WJEC harder or more difficult than AQA in general for A levels? Also, would anyone say it's more/less respected than AQA by big universities? There's a sixth form I really want to go to next year, but both my French and Spanish A levels will be with WJEC. It's kinda putting me off, but this might be just because I don't know much about the exam board. Any advice appreciated :smile:

Thanks!

I can't answer which board will be 'easier' to get 'good' marks in - but even though I don't know much about AQA French, I would assume both boards will be quite similar to each other in terms of the topics covered.

As far as I know, the exam boards you sit your exams with make no difference when it comes to universities - they're all seen as equal. Again, I'm not really sure about this, though!

I'm currently doing WJEC French AS at the moment, and many of the topics we're learning about were covered at GCSE (I did AQA for GCSE, by the way). This doesn't seem to have made it any less interesting for me, though. A2 looks good, too. The jump from GCSE and AS seems quite big in terms of the content, although I'm coping well with it at the moment. :smile:

I hope that made some sense :P

Reply 6

Folie

1

Don't worry about the 'reputation' of the exam boards: most students won't have a choice of boards, so it seems unlikely that universities would hold it against you.

Topics are very similar between boards. The style of exams varies, but the content is much the same. Choose your sixth form based on the college, support you'll get, whether you'll be happy there etc. You don't really need to worry about this.

PS: I'm on WJEC for French at A2 now, so if there's anything you want to know that could help you decide if French is right for you, don't be afraid to ask :smile:

Reply 7

Butters94

I personally find that AQA spanish is easier than the WJEC and thats after changing exam board only last week. Everybody in my class went up a grade with AQA and the texts in the exams are a lot easier.

Reply 8

Lewis :D

3

Original post by Butters94

I personally find that AQA spanish is easier than the WJEC and thats after changing exam board only last week. Everybody in my class went up a grade with AQA and the texts in the exams are a lot easier.

But AQA are more inconsistent and unfair with marking, just something my teachers picked up :smile:

Reply 9

Butters94

Original post by Lewis :D

But AQA are more inconsistent and unfair with marking, just something my teachers picked up :smile:

The worst thing about WJEC was the gap fill exercise and the completely un relevant texts that you were given. In one past paper there were 3 sides of A4 text whereas in AQA the texts are a lot more simplistic and also the paper is shorter and accounts for more of the overall mark.

Reply 10

Claramom

As WJEC does not have a lot of past paper to practice. May I know what can I do if I want to do more practices?

AQA vs WJEC

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