Which A level French syllabus to choose

[poshfrock]

Hi
I am thinking of taking A level French via distance learning and have found about 4 different providers. Two offer AQA and cost about £650, the other two offer Edexcel and cost about £450. Other than the price I can discern little difference in the courses; they are all very similar in terms of course materials and tutor support etc.
Would any MFL teachers out there be able to offer any observations on either syllabus (good or bad) to help me decide. I have looked at the sample papers for each and they seem very similar in content so the price discrepancy seems odd.
The AQA providers do both offer a guaranteed place at one of their exam centres although the nearest to me is 60 miles away so I'm hoping my local 6th form college will accept me as a private candidate ( they did 3 years ago when I took an AS level in another subject). However as French requires an oral exam and the college doesn't offer French as a subject itself I don't know if they would be able to facilitate this. Would the guarantee of an exam centre place account for the extra £200 in fees ?
Any help or guidance much appreciated.

[ohreallyohreallyoh]

Exam boards offer a visiting examiner but it has a minimum number of students before they will do that - some schools get together to make up numbers but most schools conduct their own speaking exams as numbers are small. Your local school will struggle to help you if they are not teaching French at the moment, although you may find somewhere closer than 60 miles. It may be that they have a French teacher on staff who teaches something else whilst they wait for students to come through in enough numbers so they can still offer the course even if it doesn’t go ahead every year - you basically need to ask.

I have taught AQA and I would say the new spec is better than the old one in some ways and worse in others! I am not familiar with Edexcel.

[poshfrock]

Thanks for your response. It's very helpful.