Changing A’levels - is French a good choice

[Elepahnt24]

My DD who is in year 12 is really re- thinking her choice of A’levels and what she wants to do at Uni. She now wants to do a combined degree with French. She is doing English lit, psychology and art at moment. It looks to me like unless she has french A’level access to any of courses with french won’t be in her grasp. Is it too late to change and catch up and is getting an A grade at french still notoriously difficult? She got an 8 at GCSE. Anyone with experience of French A’level and or degree courses?

I guess it’s up to the school whether it’s too late but I’d say that there are so many resources on the Internet to help her catch up that she could do so quickly. French Youtubers: InnerFrench, Piece of French, etc)

A combined degree would mean she visits France for a year which would be an invaluable experience. It would be worth checking out the universities to see where they typically go.

If you can afford it, pay for a few extra lessons on iTalki and she’ll have caught up in no time

If they don’t allow her and she decides to do it separately, the Institute of Linguists has an equivalent qualification which universities accept.

Oh thank you lessthan- is that a different qualification through the institute- so you could do alongside? She really wants to spend a year abroad and she likes her A’level but worried she will miss out on courses she wants to do at a competitive Uni..

Hi @Elepahnt24, I cant help with current info, but just wanted to say that 20+ ago I switched A-Level courses from Politics to French at half term in yr12. It took me a few weeks to catch up, but I wasn’t at any disadvantage longer-term. I had an A at GCSE and got an A in the A Level as well. I didn’t go on to study it at university, but it’s benefitted me throughout my career. I’d encourage your daughter to go for it. It’s most definitely not too late.

My dd switched to French in year 12 for several reasons, but a lot earlier than this. She found it ok tho wished she had kept up some French between May and Sept IYSWIM - as she probs would have if she had planned to take it.

MFL A levels are not easy to get a high grade in, I'm not going to lie. This is due to the high ratio of native or semi native speakers - proportionally many more than at GCSE.

An 8 at GCSE is perfectly fine for A level. What does the school say about a switch (assume they are on half term now)?

One thing I would mention - for some reason in the past, the mark for a certain grade in German A level has been much lower than in French (this is AQA) though the exams are identical. AQA explain this by saying the German language exam was harder which is a bit plus that is only half the marks. As an example, in French 2019 232-275 (out of 400) got you a C, while 236-282 in German got you a B. Of course Aqa may change this in the future.

yh

One thing I would mention - for some reason in the past, the mark for a certain grade in German A level has been much lower than in French (this is AQA) though the exams are identical. AQA explain this by saying the German language exam was harder which is a bit plus that is only half the marks. As an example, in French 2019 232-275 (out of 400) got you a C, while 236-282 in German got you a B.

That's very interesting. The German exams must have been a lot more difficult...?!

Well this is the thing @Blubells

The exam (I am talking about AQA here) has a total of 400 marks, 200 of which are from the reading, listening and translation paper. This was the paper the board said had been harder. I am a bit about that tbh. It really should not be that much harder.

The other half of the exam is the speaking assessment (120 marks) and the written paper on film and book (80 marks). For both of those, the paper is not harder or easier as such - the level will be set by the student, in other words, the detail of analysis in their answers on film and book and the accuracy of their language; and the level of depth on the topics in the speaking exam and in their research project (which is totally self-set). So I am a bit dubious about AQA's reasoning tbh. The figures are there for anyone to see tho.

My Dd is applying for joint honours with French.

Dd is doing A level French but I'm pretty sure most (all?) of her choices allow you to take French at "beginner" level if you have a language at GCSE. I think you do different modules in the first and second year (possibly have slightly less choice of optional
modules) but have caught up by the final year.

I don't know if this is the case at all universities, but I would think it's likely to be fairly common - dd's choices are Birmingham, Exeter, Nottingham and York, which I think are all fairly well-regarded and "traditional" institutions, so I wouldn't expect them to be outliers in this respect.