Italian A level from scratch?

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DD is considering this as it’s offered at the local sixth form college. She’d like to take a language and is attracted by Italian and the joys of all things Italy! They study and take the GCSE in lower sixth and have to get at least a 6 to proceed to the A level in the upper sixth.

I’m hoping she could stay with a friend’s family next summer to really get to grips with it.

The results are very good - possibly because of the students it attracts - and the class is small so more opportunities for speaking and general learning.

Interested to hear if anyone’s DC has done this and how they found it.

It absolutely can be done. I did Spanish gcse ab initio in lower sixth and got an A then got an A in my A level Spanish a year later in the early 90s. I was very motivated though as I wanted to study it at university, and also very good at languages (A for gcse French and German) and did A level French too which helped massively.

As others have pointed out, the lower sixth lessons will be aiming beyond gcse level in terms of grammar and vocab if the pupils are aiming for A-level the following year, and prep for the A level will begin before the summer holidays. Your dd would also have holidays to read any books and keep improving in general. A trip to Italy would be fantastic!

If she's really keen it wouldn't hurt to get a head start now with something like Duolingo, for example, watching some Italian films or series on Netflix, etc.

Thanks to everyone for your helpful replies. It would appear to depend on how dedicated she is to learning Italian and if she will put in the extra time and hard work (although it can be done). You've given me a lot of interesting pointers to discuss with her.

I did this many years ago and got an A. Started learning Italian in lower six and passed the following year.

Italian is a very easy language to learn and I was already doing French which helped.

I did Italian in first year at uni, four hours a week for 25 weeks, it got you up to at least A level as if you got a good grade and went to Italy in the summer you could join second year with those who had previously done a level. I'd gave thought a level in two years was definitely doable with commitment and good teaching.

Not Italian but I did an mfl degree (French and Spanish)

it sounds doable for the very brightest most motivated students but a seriously tough ask

At my school you could do this with both Italian and Spanish, my friend went to a school which offered it with Russian. People did it and did very well, a lot went on to do Italian (in particular) at university. I did another language ab initio at university and got from 0 to degree in four years. So it absolutely can be done, you need to be an OK linguist though and I'd say it massively helps to have French/Spanish/Latin - ideally two of those three as a starting block.

What other languages does she have? If she has any Spanish (or possibly French) it will help a lot with the grammar. I think it’s doable especially if she has an aptitude for languages which some people just do and some people just don’t! If she does have the aptitude and has the opportunity to spend a summer in Italy then I think it sounds like it could be great!