Am I still able to take A-Level Spanish without doing it for GCSE?

I’m currently a student in Year 11 who is intending on staying for sixth form and while I have a few months to go until I choose what I would want to do at A-level, I have a few ideas in mind of what I want to do with one of them being Spanish. I think it would go well with what I want to do and I have a passion for learning languages.

Fortunately, I can say that I know how to make basic conversation in Spanish from previous years (Year 7-8) and that during that period I excelled in it compared to my classmates. I also have a knack for learning languages which I thoroughly enjoy.

While I did take GCSE Spanish for a few weeks, within a month of the course I dropped it for art after my teacher embarrassed me in front of my class (biggest regret ever) and ever since then I have been eager to go back to Spanish.

Back to my point, when checking my school’s entry requirements they said that you need a grade b in Spanish GCSE which I don’t have while other subjects like drama or art said ‘GCSE desired but not required’ and I’m starting to doubt that they will let me go on with it. I still need to talk to the Head of Spanish and I would like to speak to either the Careers officer (or Head of my school’s sixth form but closer to the time) so I’m praying that there is some alternative way to doing A-level Spanish without doing it at GCSE. I am willing to get a tutor before the start of the course to go learn the basics of GCSE Spanish, do extra work outside of school and even an external exam if I have to!

Any advice or suggestions?? Please and thanks for reading. I just realised how much I’ve yapped, I’m so sorry 😀

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 1

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

My suggestion would be to learn as much Spanish as you can now so if they do let you (or they assess suitability) you wont struggle so much. Study a load of vocab, get on Duolingo and other apps, watch some videos in the language etc to expose yourself as much as you can! Also it might help your case if you do manage to learn some to do some past papers and prove you can get the standard of a B if at all possible. Basically the requirement is there because that’s the minimum knowledge you need to do struggle immensely due to lack of having learnt content at the start of the course.

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 2

sophiiiiiiiecmfl

i’m not sure if this will be much help but i could explain my situation with this… i did do gcse spanish but very early (a couple of years before i started the a-level alongside everyone else at my school), despite the long break with literally no spanish practice (i’m not a native speaker) it worked brilliantly for me! i’ve just finished year 13 with an A* in spanish! the a level course is structured in such a way that you are reviewing gcse content and building on it both at the same time. i am so thankful that i did this, a level spanish was fab !best of luck xx :biggrin: