Take our quiz to find out what your revision personality is! >>

sitting a level portuguese privately

i’ve been trying to search how to go about sitting it next summer but i’m finding little to no options/ information. any advice?

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by comicsanns

i’ve been trying to search how to go about sitting it next summer but i’m finding little to no options/ information. any advice?

As far as I know, there are only 3 exam boards in the UK for A Levels: EdExcel, OCR, and AQA

The only board that does Portguese as an A Level is EdExcel (I'm not sure how I feel about that): https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-a-levels/portuguese-2018.html

To sit the exam privately, you need to look for an exam centre (usually a school) that would take you (ideally a local one) approved by EdExcel. See the following:
https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/understanding-our-qualifications/where-can-i-take-edexcel-exams.html

Once you have found your exam centre (and they respond back to you), you need to liaise with the exam officer of the exam centre to book your exams. You would then need to pay for your exam fee and admin fee (the fees would be set by EdExcel) made payable to the exam centre. You would ideally want to book all this before February if you intend to take the exams this May/June; any time after that and you would incur late fees (which can be relatively hefty) until April when they will cut you off completely for May and June exams.

In terms of material, you can try to look for textbooks on A Level Portguese by EdExcel.

Alternatively, you can try to look for online A Level courses on Portugese. I could not find an online course for this as yet, and the next best thing that I have found are the following:
https://www.katemarialanguages.com/portuguese-a-level
https://www.portugueseondemand.co.uk/a-level-courses

Portguese A Level isn't one of the popular A Levels unfrotunately, so it's difficult to find the appropriate material for it.

If you really are stuck for material and need the help, then you can try university language courses (usually available to the puiblic) that are aimed at B1 and B2 levels as a last resort. This would more or less defeat the point in doing the A Level in my opinion, but it's a better prep than having nothing at all.

If you have the opportunity to meet a Portguese native and he/she is happy to spend a lot of time working alongside you to work on your Portguese, so much the better.

Reply 2

Edgar483

Original post by comicsanns

i’ve been trying to search how to go about sitting it next summer but i’m finding little to no options/ information. any advice?

Yea the advice by Mind Max is great. I'm sitting Portuguese A level now and received tutoring from Kate Maria (link is in the other response). She's honestly been super helpful and supportive. It's really tough with little to go off but hopefully, more resources for it will become available. Good luck!