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French a level

predicted 9 for gcse ( high 90s in reading and listening) - can anyone tell me their experience doing French a level ( aqa) and how difficult it is do get an A/A*?
Im doing it alongside English lit and politics so would appreciate all insights xx

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Original post by klnlljkklhklll
predicted 9 for gcse ( high 90s in reading and listening) - can anyone tell me their experience doing French a level ( aqa) and how difficult it is do get an A/A*?
Im doing it alongside English lit and politics so would appreciate all insights xx

It really depends on you. I personally found the A level relatively easy/ relaxed whereas others who got 9s at GCSE struggled. As long as you're willing to be consistent with learning french from day one it will be super easy by the time of the exam
(edited 5 months ago)
Original post by firestudent
It really depends on you. I personally found the A level relatively easy/ relaxed whereas others who got 9s at GCSE struggled. As long as you're willing to be consistent with learning french from day one it will be super easy by the time of the exam

tysm for your answer! yay that's made me feel slightly less ambivalent towards taking on a mfl, which other a levels did u do alongside?
Reply 3
Hi! I do English lit, History, Politics and French (AQA) and i'm starting yr13 in september. I also found GCSE French easy to the point where I made a bet with my friends not to revise in order to test my 'raw French ability' in the exam and I went into yr 12 picking it because I didn't really know what else to do and I knew that I liked languages in general. I genuinely gained a passion for French this past year and doing it in sixth form made me realise I wanted to do it at uni so I'm applying for French & Linguistics!

I would say, if you like languages and you find it fairly easy at GCSE, give it a shot! It is quite different from GCSE in the sense that you learn about actual culture, politics and history, not just random floating topics. It's like you put all the random bits and bobs you learn at GCSE into real world context and that's what makes it so fun because you get to debate real issues. The focus is less on you and your life (such as your family, fav sport, fav subject etc) and more about topics like tourism, diversity, music in a wider sense, french cinema, etc, however nothing you learn at GCSE is wasted. My school taught us A LOT of grammar at GCSE and I found that at a-level, it wasn't really anything too new. It's either just developing a grammar point or brushing up on old points, but since my school covered everything from subjunctive to object pronouns to the pluperfect, it wasn't much of a struggle.

You use a lot of what you've learnt before like grammar and vocab, so a-level is just about developing your analytical voice and being able to confidently explore contemporary francophone issues and areas of interest. You also get to study a book and a film (which I loved as I also do english, so analysing them is so fun) and the a-level gives a much more holistic view of french studies in multiple areas that you don't get at GCSE because it has to be quite general. If you're also interested in politics, we look at french politics and it's so interesting (especially with the recent elections that took place in france and now the olympics). What made it so easy for me to enjoy French was definitely my passion, because if you can't truly be bothered, it won't be enjoyable.

Sorry for the PARAGRAPHS, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask, regarding French or any of your other two subjects as I also do them. I do both OCR English lit and OCR History btw.

P.S: If the school you want to go to has their curriculum/ scheme of work which tells you what you learn in the a-level, you can have a look at it and do some research around the topic by looking at revision materials to see if it interests you or not. Good luck!
Original post by etudbee
Hi! I do English lit, History, Politics and French (AQA) and i'm starting yr13 in september. I also found GCSE French easy to the point where I made a bet with my friends not to revise in order to test my 'raw French ability' in the exam and I went into yr 12 picking it because I didn't really know what else to do and I knew that I liked languages in general. I genuinely gained a passion for French this past year and doing it in sixth form made me realise I wanted to do it at uni so I'm applying for French & Linguistics!
I would say, if you like languages and you find it fairly easy at GCSE, give it a shot! It is quite different from GCSE in the sense that you learn about actual culture, politics and history, not just random floating topics. It's like you put all the random bits and bobs you learn at GCSE into real world context and that's what makes it so fun because you get to debate real issues. The focus is less on you and your life (such as your family, fav sport, fav subject etc) and more about topics like tourism, diversity, music in a wider sense, french cinema, etc, however nothing you learn at GCSE is wasted. My school taught us A LOT of grammar at GCSE and I found that at a-level, it wasn't really anything too new. It's either just developing a grammar point or brushing up on old points, but since my school covered everything from subjunctive to object pronouns to the pluperfect, it wasn't much of a struggle.
You use a lot of what you've learnt before like grammar and vocab, so a-level is just about developing your analytical voice and being able to confidently explore contemporary francophone issues and areas of interest. You also get to study a book and a film (which I loved as I also do english, so analysing them is so fun) and the a-level gives a much more holistic view of french studies in multiple areas that you don't get at GCSE because it has to be quite general. If you're also interested in politics, we look at french politics and it's so interesting (especially with the recent elections that took place in france and now the olympics). What made it so easy for me to enjoy French was definitely my passion, because if you can't truly be bothered, it won't be enjoyable.
Sorry for the PARAGRAPHS, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask, regarding French or any of your other two subjects as I also do them. I do both OCR English lit and OCR History btw.
P.S: If the school you want to go to has their curriculum/ scheme of work which tells you what you learn in the a-level, you can have a look at it and do some research around the topic by looking at revision materials to see if it interests you or not. Good luck!

you're actually the perfect person for me to ask bc u do all the 4 subjects that im possibly considering. I'm quite positive about english lit but i still want to hear your experience and point of view (esp bc i heard a lot of negativity aimed at ocr icl) and I'm doing spanish (as im fluent ) and french bc i love languages. I'm still stuck between choosing history and politics tho, so if u could delve deeper into those two (which one do u prefer and why, which was one is easier, workload, how dificult it is to get the essay structure, grade boundaries etc). tysm i rlly appreciate it x
Reply 5
Original post by klnlljkklhklll
you're actually the perfect person for me to ask bc u do all the 4 subjects that im possibly considering. I'm quite positive about english lit but i still want to hear your experience and point of view (esp bc i heard a lot of negativity aimed at ocr icl) and I'm doing spanish (as im fluent ) and french bc i love languages. I'm still stuck between choosing history and politics tho, so if u could delve deeper into those two (which one do u prefer and why, which was one is easier, workload, how dificult it is to get the essay structure, grade boundaries etc). tysm i rlly appreciate it x

i think I might have seen your other post and replied in a diff thread (THIS WEBSITE IS SO CONFUSING)

OCR eng lit is a different kind of beast. The grade boundaries are ridiculous. I'll give an example: in 2023, an A* was 55/60 for paper 1, 57/60 for paper 2 and 37/40 for paper 3. HOWEVER, it's really enjoyable and i love the texts we do in my school such as A Streetcar named desire, The Tempest and A Doll's House. If you like the subject, you will just have to cope with the grade boundaries unfortunately but don't let that put you off, it's so so fun!

I love history and politics equally but i found politics way easier. The grade boundaries for politics are like 70 smth % for an A* and OCR history is around 78% so it's fairly similar. I found politics easier because it's literally happening RIGHT NOW so revision was always fun and it's easy to keep up to date. History was annoying at times because there is a lot of content you just have to get into your head no matter what, but it's not the worst. When it comes to exam technique, i found history more demanding because for a 30 mark question there's a lot more steps you need to include and knowing evidence is so important because you can't just drop some lousy piece of info that's not super relevant. This made politics more appealing to me because I could read a news story and now that's something i can remember for my exam, and all I have to do is be able to argue it well in my answer and make sure it's relevant. Also, this general election that just happened was literally HISTORICAL and i can't wait to use it in my exam because I feel like if you live through an event, it's much easier to remember and recall. If I had to pick between the two, I would pick politics based off of how much easier I found it, but I'm a history nerd deep down so I will always love history.

I have to do coursework for history and english and i LOVE history coursework because I love to YAP (if you couldn't tell) so writing long essays is my thing. I've been lazy on my english coursework but I need to get onto it because it allows you to go into your literary interests more and study what you like, rather than being told what to read all the time.

As I said in the other post, you are more than capable of doing 4 if you really can't decide. If you school lets you, you can try 4 out and maybe drop one depending on how it goes. For me, I had to sit external AS exams (like proper ones by the exam board which was kinda scary) and I'm getting my grades in august to see if I can continue 4 in yr 13 or drop one. I'm considering dropping english because i'm a bit lazy but I'm probably going to keep 4 because I'm an overachiever lol. It's doable, I promise.
Original post by etudbee
i think I might have seen your other post and replied in a diff thread (THIS WEBSITE IS SO CONFUSING)
OCR eng lit is a different kind of beast. The grade boundaries are ridiculous. I'll give an example: in 2023, an A* was 55/60 for paper 1, 57/60 for paper 2 and 37/40 for paper 3. HOWEVER, it's really enjoyable and i love the texts we do in my school such as A Streetcar named desire, The Tempest and A Doll's House. If you like the subject, you will just have to cope with the grade boundaries unfortunately but don't let that put you off, it's so so fun!
I love history and politics equally but i found politics way easier. The grade boundaries for politics are like 70 smth % for an A* and OCR history is around 78% so it's fairly similar. I found politics easier because it's literally happening RIGHT NOW so revision was always fun and it's easy to keep up to date. History was annoying at times because there is a lot of content you just have to get into your head no matter what, but it's not the worst. When it comes to exam technique, i found history more demanding because for a 30 mark question there's a lot more steps you need to include and knowing evidence is so important because you can't just drop some lousy piece of info that's not super relevant. This made politics more appealing to me because I could read a news story and now that's something i can remember for my exam, and all I have to do is be able to argue it well in my answer and make sure it's relevant. Also, this general election that just happened was literally HISTORICAL and i can't wait to use it in my exam because I feel like if you live through an event, it's much easier to remember and recall. If I had to pick between the two, I would pick politics based off of how much easier I found it, but I'm a history nerd deep down so I will always love history.
I have to do coursework for history and english and i LOVE history coursework because I love to YAP (if you couldn't tell) so writing long essays is my thing. I've been lazy on my english coursework but I need to get onto it because it allows you to go into your literary interests more and study what you like, rather than being told what to read all the time.
As I said in the other post, you are more than capable of doing 4 if you really can't decide. If you school lets you, you can try 4 out and maybe drop one depending on how it goes. For me, I had to sit external AS exams (like proper ones by the exam board which was kinda scary) and I'm getting my grades in august to see if I can continue 4 in yr 13 or drop one. I'm considering dropping english because i'm a bit lazy but I'm probably going to keep 4 because I'm an overachiever lol. It's doable, I promise.

Tysm for your answerrr! What r u predicted atm for all of them? and also what did u get in gcse for English and history? I heard that ppl getting like 9s in both then drop down to c bc it gets that difficult 😭 idk to what extent that is true
Reply 7
Original post by klnlljkklhklll
Tysm for your answerrr! What r u predicted atm for all of them? and also what did u get in gcse for English and history? I heard that ppl getting like 9s in both then drop down to c bc it gets that difficult 😭 idk to what extent that is true


I haven't got my yr13 predicted yet cos my school does AS first but in Politics, History and French I've gotten an A every time (which is the highest you can get for AS) but in English I'm always 1 or 2 marks off an A, which shows what I mean about grade boundaries but I'll see how I do on AS results day. I'm predicted 4 As in my AS exams so my predicted for yr13 should be a mix of As and A*s hopefully.

I got 9s in English Literature, history and french at gcse. I didn't do any type of citizenship or gcse politics. I got 999999887 overall with my 8s in maths and a 9, 8 in Combined Science and a 7 in art.
Original post by etudbee
I haven't got my yr13 predicted yet cos my school does AS first but in Politics, History and French I've gotten an A every time (which is the highest you can get for AS) but in English I'm always 1 or 2 marks off an A, which shows what I mean about grade boundaries but I'll see how I do on AS results day. I'm predicted 4 As in my AS exams so my predicted for yr13 should be a mix of As and A*s hopefully.
I got 9s in English Literature, history and french at gcse. I didn't do any type of citizenship or gcse politics. I got 999999887 overall with my 8s in maths and a 9, 8 in Combined Science and a 7 in art.
Omg well done!! Where r u planing to go for uni? Those r insane stats x
also how much further reading do u do for your subjects or like your revision timetable in general
Reply 9
Original post by klnlljkklhklll
Omg well done!! Where r u planing to go for uni? Those r insane stats x
also how much further reading do u do for your subjects or like your revision timetable in general

Thanks! I'm applying to Oxford this year so fingers crossed :smile:

For revision, I based it loosely on my school's timetable in a way. I had 2 teachers for each subject that taught two different topics e.g for history I had 1 teacher for Early Tudors and 1 for Russia. I used google calendar to schedule in 3 subjects a day based on the teacher's side of the course. I'll put a ss from Google Calendar so it's easier to visualise.


I created each event and set it to repeat every 3 days and because I had 1hr of independent study at school, I only had to do 2 subjects when i got home and this took max 2hrs, except if I was doing timed essay practice. The night before, I would also edit the titles and specify in the description what exactly I wanted to get done so when it is time to revise I couldn't procrasinate by wasting time trying to figure out what I needed to do. There's a lot of french in here because I found it best to do at least something every day even if it was just 10 mins of vocab. BTW i did not strictly follow this every single time, if i couldn't be bothered, i wouldn't do it, and you don't need to do this from your very first week because it's a recipe for burnout. I followed this strictly leading up to exams but before that I'd do maybe 30-50 mins per subject depending on what I had to do. If I had homework, i'd also do it within this schedule so this is all the work i'd ever be doing in a full week. I took 30 min breaks between subjects and made sure to not work past 7pm unless I had a really good reason like having a club or smth.

My best revision technique is to learn the content however you wish (flashcards, mindmaps, recall qs, blurting, whatever works; I used all of these at one point and they all worked well for me), then make essay plans. My essay plans would just be bullet points of arguments and evidence I would use to answer specific exam questions. Sometimes I did these without notes to test how well I could recall facts (history & politics) or quotes (English & French as you have an essay writing paper for French as well :biggrin:) then I'd check with my notes and fill in what I might have missed. The simpler you make these, the better as all you need to do is make sure you've covered all bases so you are prepared for anything to come up in the exam. Know your specifications well because ANYTHING can come up and at level, if you haven't revised a certain topic and they give you a whole 30 marker on it, you're finished 😭😭 Aside from this and homework, I didn't do any thing extra :smile:
(edited 5 months ago)
hi! i’ve just finished year13 doing french, spanish and englit- very much recommend! i am a bit of a languages nerd but i’d say getting an A/A* in french is not particularly difficult? and it’s great doing english alongside it as the analytical skills you learn there are very useful for the book and film studies in a-level mfl. languages are cumulative though so the thing to remember is that you’re building on your linguistic ability constantly and if you implement this an A/A* is very much in your reach by the end of the course (or even throughout). good luck!!
Original post by sophiiiiiiiecmfl
hi! i’ve just finished year13 doing french, spanish and englit- very much recommend! i am a bit of a languages nerd but i’d say getting an A/A* in french is not particularly difficult? and it’s great doing english alongside it as the analytical skills you learn there are very useful for the book and film studies in a-level mfl. languages are cumulative though so the thing to remember is that you’re building on your linguistic ability constantly and if you implement this an A/A* is very much in your reach by the end of the course (or even throughout). good luck!!

What did u get in gcse for spanish and French vs what u’re predicted now at gcse? xx
Original post by klnlljkklhklll
What did u get in gcse for spanish and French vs what u’re predicted now at gcse? xx


in gcse i got a 9 in French and in Spanish, and i’m predicted A* for both this year (languages nerd, as i say😅🫶🏼) i know others who didn’t get 9s at gcse who are also predicted A/A* now though xx
Original post by sophiiiiiiiecmfl
in gcse i got a 9 in French and in Spanish, and i’m predicted A* for both this year (languages nerd, as i say😅🫶🏼) i know others who didn’t get 9s at gcse who are also predicted A/A* now though xx

Tysm xxx do u have any advice for speaking questions ( for gcse) like was there a specific checklist u used? I’m writing mine rn and idk what things to include 😂
Original post by klnlljkklhklll
Tysm xxx do u have any advice for speaking questions ( for gcse) like was there a specific checklist u used? I’m writing mine rn and idk what things to include 😂


the main thing i worked on was a list of «*golden phrases*» which included complex language + could be applied to pretty much any question, like «*il faut qu’on fasse*» or «*pour autant que je sache*», they vary your answers + the examiners hear «*je joue au foot*» 1000 times but «*il faut qu’on fasse des efforts pour encourager les gens à participer aux sports*» will catch their attention!
Original post by sophiiiiiiiecmfl
the main thing i worked on was a list of «*golden phrases*» which included complex language + could be applied to pretty much any question, like «*il faut qu’on fasse*» or «*pour autant que je sache*», they vary your answers + the examiners hear «*je joue au foot*» 1000 times but «*il faut qu’on fasse des efforts pour encourager les gens à participer aux sports*» will catch their attention!

tysm!! did u memorise your speaking answers? or do u have any more examples I could see? x
Original post by klnlljkklhklll
tysm!! did u memorise your speaking answers? or do u have any more examples I could see? x


i didn’t memorise full or lengthy answers to questions, mostly just nice phrases or ideas i could use for themes- i’d argue this better for spontaneity in the long term especially if you’re thinking of taking a-level but many people that aren’t going for that can get high grades memorising instead- i can send you some phrases if you like, do u mean gcse or a-level ones? x
Reply 17
Original post by klnlljkklhklll
predicted 9 for gcse ( high 90s in reading and listening) - can anyone tell me their experience doing French a level ( aqa) and how difficult it is do get an A/A*?
Im doing it alongside English lit and politics so would appreciate all insights xx


hey, i’m planning to do french a level from this september, so i don’t have any experience of it as of yet. however, from what i’ve heard it’s alright provided that you’re willing to put the effort in to continuously revise. good luck!!
Original post by sophiiiiiiiecmfl
i didn’t memorise full or lengthy answers to questions, mostly just nice phrases or ideas i could use for themes- i’d argue this better for spontaneity in the long term especially if you’re thinking of taking a-level but many people that aren’t going for that can get high grades memorising instead- i can send you some phrases if you like, do u mean gcse or a-level ones? x

yess gcse french would be great tysm! xx
Original post by klnlljkklhklll
yess gcse french would be great tysm! xx


ok of course, here’s some more of the ones i can remember: j’ai de la chance parce que, j’ai toujours aimé, je viens de…, quand je serai plus grand(e), il est important qu’il y ait, comme tout le monde sait, il faut tenir en compte que, il ne fait aucun doute que, quoi qu’il arrive- i hope these demonstrate that it doesn’t have to be super complex! just nice phrases to add interest/variety to your discourse

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