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Best Exam Board for languages?

Opsimathmo

6

Opinions as to the best Examing Board for A Level French and German?!

Reply 1

generalebriety

16

Erm. I really don't think many people on here will have experience of two exam boards.

We do Edexcel for A-level. They're ok. We did AQA for GCSE. They were ok too.

Reply 2

Opsimathmo

OP

6

True, but people pick up things when discussing exams etc between different boards or their teachers say, 'urgh, not THEM' etc oh well lol

Reply 3

city_chic

13

WJEC is pretty good I think.

Reply 4

hermaphrodite

15

OCR. considered to be harder therefore more respected.

but to people who are none the wiser they're all the same.

it is easier to get an A with AQA and Edexcel - hence they are more popular amongst schools - ups their school league table results

Reply 5

brown

4

hermaphrodite

OCR. considered to be harder therefore more respected.

but to people who are none the wiser they're all the same.

it is easier to get an A with AQA and Edexcel - hence they are more popular amongst schools - ups their school league table results

Source? You mean in your opinion. You seem to be making a lot of dubious assumptions there. How can you say it is easier to get an A with AQA/Edexcel when you've not personally took an A-level language with them?

Reply 6

calcium878

18

AQA. Very favourable exam layouts/rubrics.

Reply 7

brown

4

calcium878

AQA. Very favourable exam layouts/rubrics.

I've only experienced AQA but I find them incredibly consistent, excellent for past papers and fair at marking. There are never any 'trick' questions and you can always demonstrate your true ability when it comes to the exams.

Reply 8

Chubasco

1

Although, AQA AS unit 2 (the writing exam) catches a lot of people out - I know several people who got As in the reading and listening paper and the speaking paper but who got Cs and Ds in the writing.

Reply 9

calcium878

18

I don't see how...in French at least the questions are so damn similar from year to year. You can practically rote learn the essay you intend to write!

Reply 10

brown

4

Crazy_emz

Although, AQA AS unit 2 (the writing exam) catches a lot of people out - I know several people who got As in the reading and listening paper and the speaking paper but who got Cs and Ds in the writing.

Yeah that is true actually. I was one of the lucky ones in my class who got an A last year - 79/90 I think :s-smilie:

. Lots of my friends failed Unit 2.

calcium878

I don't see how...in French at least the questions are so damn similar from year to year. You can practically rote learn the essay you intend to write!

That is what I did: simply regurgitated my prepared essay. But on all my practice essays I was getting full marks and on the real thing I only just got an A. The examiners mark this unit very strictly, and I think they do the same with Unit 5. But I did coursework instead.

Reply 11

calcium878

18

I'd assume FR02 has high standards...for a high A they'll be looking for more than just regurgitation, eventhough facts are half the marks.

Reply 12

brown

4

calcium878

I'd assume FR02 has high standards...for a high A they'll be looking for more than just regurgitation, eventhough facts are half the marks.

Very high standards. But if you are aiming for an A overall you should be able to get an A (albeit a low one) on Unit 2. Well I would say that :p:

. I think a lot of my friends just thought German was a subject for which they did not need to prepare, at all.

Spoiler

I wouldn't say anyone will come up with a definitive answer; only really their personal experiences, and what others have said too. OCR do have a reputation for being slightly harder because they're seen as the "traditional" exam board, but each board probably has areas which regularly stump candidates.

Reply 15

Gooner

14

OCR are (apparently) known and respected as the A-Levels examboard. They produce harder exams and really stretch you, whereas AQA is supposed to be more respected in terms of content for GCSE, as the exams aren't that stretching, if that makes sense :p:

Reply 16

generalebriety

16

History_Boys

Wow, I never knew some schools only did some exam boards for A-level. I do AQA, Edexcel and OCR. Generally i prefer AQA - depends on the results really :smile:

I was referring to French and German. :wink:

Though maths and further maths were also Edexcel for me.

I didn't see any huge difference between the exam boards last year when I was doing other exams, though.

Reply 17

hmjessop

13

This year's question on Edexcel FR02 was word for word the same question as last year!

Reply 18

Excalibur

15

At our school it's AQA for both French and German A level. Personally I found it to be quite nice; I think I prefer the reading/listening paper on AQA than on Edexcel from what I can see. I'm not sure whether difficulty varies that much between exam boards, though. I took a quick look at the German AS level paper on OCR and it seems easier than the AQA ones. And as others have said, the AQA Unit 2 is apparently quite tricky to get good marks on. From the horror stories on here I'm half expecting a C or something on that unit :s-smilie:

Reply 19

crankycaz

2

wesetters

OCR also has more of a culture element, requiring the coursework and speaking test topics to be linked to a target language country, whereas I think AQA are very lax about that.

Have you even done the AQA syllabus? I have and you are talking rubbish. Culture is always a dominant part of the syllabus. The unit 2 essay is based on what you know specifically about the country, and in the speaking exam you have to do a presentation on something relating to Germany (or France if you're doing French). At A2 it's the same. My knowledge of the BRD and the DDR and living in the communist DDR is quite extensive, and you're required to know details for your literature or your topic.

Anyway, I liked the AQA course - I thought it was challenging, whilst not completely demoralising. I can't speak for OCR, but I suggest if you haven't done AQA, that you don't make sweeping comments about the board.

OP, do you even get a choice of which exam board you do anyway? Surely your school will just do the one they like and that'll be that.

Best Exam Board for languages?

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