A level help - French or science

[BeingGrownUp]

Dd is year 11 and can’t decide on that third a level. Definitely wants to do maths and history, predicted a 9 in each. The third is tricky. She enjoys French and is predicted a 9 but we’re worried about how different it is to GCSE. The only real alternative is chemistry or physics which would go well with maths but she’s predicted a 7 or 8 in those. She hasn’t a clue yet in terms of careers.

Any advice please? People keep saying to go for a science. Especially because it’s tricky to do well in French due to the native speakers

Tell her to pick the one she enjoys the most. A levels are tough enough without doing something you don't like but feel you should have picked.

It is unlikely to affect what she does at Uni (unless looking at medicine perhaps).

Science makes more sense unless she particularly wants to do languages at university.

It's much easier to learn french independently than it is to learn physics - mostly because the resources available are so much better and there are more affordable part time classes she could do if she wanted to pursue the interest

I did maths, French and a humanities subject so would naturally say that is a great combination!
French, Physics and Chemistry are all a step up from GCSE so they will all be hard work. The most important thing is to pick the one she enjoys the most - then she will want to work for it. There is no benefit to taking a science above a language unless she ends up wanting to study a science at university. Either option would give her a great spread of subjects.

French a level is more like English lit gcse just in French,

So she will read a French novel (for example Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse) and write essays on it.

I think there is a French culture and language paper.

I wouldn't advise doing either Chem or physics unless she really really wants to do it; they are hard and chem in particular has a lot of memorisation.

Thanks so far. She does have a very good memory - which works well for a few subjects

Check which french a-level they do. My French a-level wasn’t literature based at all. We wrote essays about culture, current affairs etc. My oral exam was all about nuclear power (my choice). I can’t remember which exam board this was - and it was 25 years ago - but don’t assume the course will be all about French literature.

is class size something to consider? They usually only get about 10 people doing French.

What about a subject she hasn't done at GCSE? Econ

Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Politics would all fit.

she should go with whichever she enjoys more and is more interested in.

as @titchy said, do look at other subjects that weren't there at GCSE. for example, psychology counts as a science for A-level and has some stats but also plenty of writing / thinking. It does not have to lead to psychology at university, but can be a base for all sorts of things.

When I did French and Spanish GCSE they were both 25% for each of reading, writing, speaking and listening. However, for A level, speaking went up to be 40%. My accent was appalling so - despite doing really well at GCSE - I was advised against doing either language at A level.

Worth checking if the proportions change and how.

Quality of cohort is more important than class size - which unfortunately you won’t know in advance. 10 is a good number for an a-level class, but only if those students are engaged.

this is so helpful thank you. She was thinking about economics but hated it at the open evening! Hence why we are now having a rethink

She could ask to start on 4 a-levels and potentially drop one after half a term. Quite a few of our students do that.

My daughter got 9s in Biology and Chemistry and found the difference in A level to be quite big. There is a lot of content to learn in both subjects and then you have to apply your knowledge. She had to do them (studying vet med) but had to work incredibly hard to get As.

Ask the school / college about timetabling. A-levels are blocked in groups that complement. Sometimes, students can't study certain A-levels because there isn't a class running at that time. It's also worth looking ahead to university. I had to stay a third year at college and study a second science for for my degree- I would have chosen different A -levels if I'd known.

My dc did maths, a science and French. Went off French during a level.

I think dc had always found it easy up to gcse. Didn't like writing longer passages.

Can't really agree re eng lit comparison tbh.

French A level (assuming AQA but in fact the specs don't vary that much) involves studying one French book (Eng lit even at GCSE is rather more than that) and one French film. They will have to write one essay on each in French. I would agree approx high level GCSE Eng lit in terms of analysis (tho obvs the Fr language scores marks too). This is worth 80 marks out of 400.

Then there is a speaking paper with a topic card plus an individual research project (on anything relating to France or French culture such as another film, a football team, a specific topic). Speaking paper is worth 120 marks; then the reading, listening and writing paper which examines language skills and is by far the most important (marks for this are doubled - again I am speaking of AQA here, so it is worth 200 marks out of the 400 total).

It's of course a big step up from GCSE but IMHO with the new GCSE spec is not that wildly different.

@Moonlaserbearwolf the specs have changed massively since 25 years ago. I did French A level in the 1980s and we studied four books but wrote essays in English, much to DD's horror (she took French A level four years ago). Things do change.

@BeingGrownUp I'm well impressed with a class of 10 taking French! There were two in DD's class (which she does agree was a massive advantage esp in terms of speaking practice tbh).

I think either of her possible combos is good - both would leave an outlier (maths or history) but that's fine. Two sciences would pave the way to a science degree or even engineering; two arts would complement each other too.

If you can find out which board for A level French I can give more advice if helpful.

DD is doing both chemistry and French. Both have the reputation of being hard subjects, but are probably easier for her than any subject she rejected. It depends so much on the individual and their strengths/weaknesses.
She's finding French the hardest work, but I think that's partly down to one teacher being a harder task master, and being in a class of one!

I wouldn't worry about the native speaker aspect. If you look at the grade distribution, you'll see that there are more Astars than in other subjects - I think they set the boundaries so that it's realistic for the non-native speakers.

Check out what the teachers think about her doing A-level. DD was only ever predicted 8 in chemistry, because the teacher was over-cautious about predictions - as far as she knows, nobody was predicted a 9. I'm just glad that didn't deter her from doing it at A-level, because she's loving it.

DS is doing French A level along with Geography and Economics. I’m delighted he chose a language which is a real skill in its own right. His school recently had a talk by a senior guy in the city who said one reason he’d made it was because he unlike anyone in his cohort spoke Spanish. DS is enjoying it.