The Student Room Group

URGENT- Spanish A level

I liked gcse spanish a lot and i achieved a 9 and im debating whether I should take it for a level as I’ve heard it’s really hard? I have to choose my subjects tomorrow and I’m so stressed out whether it will be a terrible mistake choosing Spanish alevel, i will study bio chem history alongside Spanish as a fourth. Is spanish a level a good break from my normal subjects? I also heard it’s quite similar to english lit and I absolutely despised english lit and got a 7 sooo would spanish a level not be a good fit? I really like spanish but im suddenly not so sure anymoreeeee. Sorry for going on a rant but quick responses would be very appreciated :frown:(((((
Reply 1
Personally, if i was you i would pick Spanish for sure. If you enjoy it you will probably do well. I picked Biology purely because i loved it and everyone was telling me about how much content it had and how difficult it would be. I ended up getting an A*, and really didn't find it difficult at all, purely because i loved the subject. And you can always swap / drop it if you don't like it if your college allows it, just try and make this choice as soon into year 12 as you can. Goodluck and work hard 🙂
I'm going into year 13 with Biology, Chemistry, Geography and French as my A Levels so I can share my opinion which will hopefully be of some use.
I find French for me to be a good break from Biology and Chemistry!! It's definitely much less intense than my other subjects (other than maybe Geography where we have a lot of class discussions).
For AQA (my exam board), MFL A Levels have one essay writing paper where you will write one 40 mark essay on a piece of literature and one 40 mark essay on a film. However, these essays in my opinion are completely different to the essays I used to write in English Lit GCSE - the English ones could easily be over 1000 words for me whereas in French, my teachers recommend 300-400 words. Your points can be a lot more concise in MFL essays than English ones, and it's a different style of writing essays. I wouldn't let the essays being like English Literature put you off the A Level entirely - the marks for this paper are actually the least weighted of all the papers overall, you could do terribly in them and still get an A overall if your marks in the other papers (speaking, and reading + listening + writing (it's all one paper)) are high.
I got an 8 in English Lit which was the mark on an 8 so one off a 7 and I'm currently predicted A* in French so I wouldn't think your GCSE English Lit grade can prevent you getting a good mark in Spanish A Level. Similarly, 4 A Levels isn't always spreading yourself too thin, and I much prefer it to 3 A Levels. If you don't like Spanish, you can always drop down to 3 A Levels but you won't be able to pick Spanish up if you change your mind after the first few weeks.
I agree with the poster above - take Spanish for the reasons that you love it, you enjoy it, and want to learn more about the culture. :smile:

My only other note is if you are thinking at all of medicine at university (just thinking because that's what I'm applying to and I have similar subjects to you), Cambridge requires 3 STEM subjects at A Level which I wish someone had told me because I would have taken maths instead of geography haha.
Anyhow good luck with your A Levels! :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by Gcsestudentof24
I liked gcse spanish a lot and i achieved a 9 and im debating whether I should take it for a level as I’ve heard it’s really hard? I have to choose my subjects tomorrow and I’m so stressed out whether it will be a terrible mistake choosing Spanish alevel, i will study bio chem history alongside Spanish as a fourth. Is spanish a level a good break from my normal subjects? I also heard it’s quite similar to english lit and I absolutely despised english lit and got a 7 sooo would spanish a level not be a good fit? I really like spanish but im suddenly not so sure anymoreeeee. Sorry for going on a rant but quick responses would be very appreciated :frown:(((((

If you want to i think you should go for it. The similarity to english lit is only really on the essay writing but i personally don't find it as hard (you get cut some slack since it's in another language.) Plus since you're doing 4 you can always drop it later on if it's too hard or not enjoyable.

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