Studying French for a Year

I'm in year 12 and I've always wondered whether I could learn a language from scratch to a decent level within 1 year. My aim is to do this with French in time to talk about it in my interview and essays for university (US, UK and Canada).

At GCSE I studied my Spanish very hard to get from a 6 in Year 10 mocks to a 9 in the exams through revising my books, revising a set of almost 2000 flashcards daily, and watching Spanish media, e.g. Money Heist. This really helped me develop a love of languages and is the main reason I feel I would like to try learning a language again.

Do you think I would be able to gain a basic level (GCSE level?) of French in a year or is it a hopeless idea? Please also link any useful resources I could use in my french study.
Thanks

Reply 1

tiredgiraff

GCSE is definitely possible within a year, but it can be tricky to get the speaking and listening in. If you can afford it, seeing a tutor on italki, MyTutor, babble, or somewhere like that (also private tutors in your area) can be great, but using AI you can also practice written conversation. You’ll need about 1500 words (I’d recommend doing no more than 10-15 new ones per day so you don’t get overwhelmed) and then grammar books like the Practice Makes Perfect Complete French Grammar or just the exam board or cgp books. If money is tricky as it is for a lot of us, there are also so many online resources like Easy French on YouTube, Lawless French and lots of free grammar questions.