how hard is a level spanish ?

9

hi i am thinking of taking spanish a level, i am not a native speaker but i am quite good at gcse but i don't know how it would be at a level.

is it very content heavy? i am taking physics maths fm and i just want to know more about how people find it

i know it involves and essay and is that part quite hard ? since i am more of a maths person more than english so just want to know how hard the essay part is in general

and just in general how is it and do people recommmend it, is it manageable, and a main thing is how hard is it to get good grades? because my school gets quite good grades on average bc it is a grammar skl but apparently no one got an A star last year and that kind of scared me

just how is it in general

thanks!!

Reply 1

20

Reply 2

19

Original post

by username7544918

hi i am thinking of taking spanish a level, i am not a native speaker but i am quite good at gcse but i don't know how it would be at a level.
is it very content heavy? i am taking physics maths fm and i just want to know more about how people find it
i know it involves and essay and is that part quite hard ? since i am more of a maths person more than english so just want to know how hard the essay part is in general
and just in general how is it and do people recommmend it, is it manageable, and a main thing is how hard is it to get good grades? because my school gets quite good grades on average bc it is a grammar skl but apparently no one got an A star last year and that kind of scared me
just how is it in general
thanks!!

Hey! I'm in year 12, doing Spanish alevel. I have had 90%+ in all of my grades so far (A+) so I think that it's unlikely nobody got an A 😅

How "good" were you at GCSE if you don't mind me asking- what grade did you receive/have predicted?

By means of content, there is really not much to remember. You study 2 books in year 2 (with edexcel at least) and learn about Spanish and Latin American culture, etc.

If your strength is writing in Spanish, the essay work is not so hard. But if you struggle with writing, I wouldn't recommend Spanish (or at least without putting some work in).

Assuming you have at least B1 level Spanish, you will fly through the course. The main aspects I find are confidence in your grammar and vocab, to be honest. With a good tutor, the course is pretty easy.

Best of luck xx

Reply 3

LittleFire10

14

Original post

by username7544918

hi i am thinking of taking spanish a level, i am not a native speaker but i am quite good at gcse but i don't know how it would be at a level.
is it very content heavy? i am taking physics maths fm and i just want to know more about how people find it
i know it involves and essay and is that part quite hard ? since i am more of a maths person more than english so just want to know how hard the essay part is in general
and just in general how is it and do people recommmend it, is it manageable, and a main thing is how hard is it to get good grades? because my school gets quite good grades on average bc it is a grammar skl but apparently no one got an A star last year and that kind of scared me
just how is it in general
thanks!!

Hiya! As a year 13 Spanish student I’ll give you my opinion. I also do sciences (biology and chemistry) and Spanish is 100% more manageable because it’s less about memorising endless facts and more about your actual grasp of the language. It is very different to GCSE and the grade boundaries are high so it’s hard to get A*. Also the essays are really short (only 300 words which is about a side and a half of A4) so it’s really not bad. If you have any more questions feel free to ask!

Reply 4

ari_hf

1

Original post

by LittleFire10

Hiya! As a year 13 Spanish student I’ll give you my opinion. I also do sciences (biology and chemistry) and Spanish is 100% more manageable because it’s less about memorising endless facts and more about your actual grasp of the language. It is very different to GCSE and the grade boundaries are high so it’s hard to get A*. Also the essays are really short (only 300 words which is about a side and a half of A4) so it’s really not bad. If you have any more questions feel free to ask!

hi did you folow the aqa exam board and also what did you get in your gcse spanish if you don't mind and one more question (sorry) are you a native spanish speaker?

Reply 5

LittleFire10

14

Original post

by ari_hf

hi did you folow the aqa exam board and also what did you get in your gcse spanish if you don't mind and one more question (sorry) are you a native spanish speaker?

Yep I did AQA. I just scraped a 9 at gcse (literally on the boundary) and no I’m not a native speaker, but I was worried about native speakers pushing up grade boundaries. I ended up getting an A, which I’m very happy with as I did neglect Spanish a bit in favour of the sciences as they were what I wanted to pursue at uni.

Reply 6

user2879102

9

Original post

by LittleFire10

Yep I did AQA. I just scraped a 9 at gcse (literally on the boundary) and no I’m not a native speaker, but I was worried about native speakers pushing up grade boundaries. I ended up getting an A, which I’m very happy with as I did neglect Spanish a bit in favour of the sciences as they were what I wanted to pursue at uni.

hey, congrats on ur alevels! do you have any tips for spanish, i just started after getting an 8 at gcse and im lowkey struggling🥲

Reply 7

LittleFire10

14

Original post

by user2879102

hey, congrats on ur alevels! do you have any tips for spanish, i just started after getting an 8 at gcse and im lowkey struggling🥲

To be honest I was getting like Bs and Cs on some of my unit tests in year 12. I would actually say I found past papers easier than the unit tests.
My advice is:
- learn your vocab and grammar really well
- make flashcards on characters/themes/quotes in your book and film to act like essay plans as they often repeat similar questions
- learn key “essay phrases” with subjunctive and stuff
- do loads and loads of speaking practice (you can use chat gpt to practice if you want) and know your IRP topic super well, including having a few “predicted” questions memorised
- watch Spanish TV/radio to help with listening exams
- make flashcards for all the units to use for the speaking card

Hope that helps, feel free to ask any more questions!

how hard is a level spanish ?

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