GCSE French - Higher or Foundation

[ErraticBadger]

Would appreciate some advice from some people who understand the vagaries of GCSE French papers.

DD has had health issues so has been working on her French through a tutor rather than in school. She was originally predicted a grade 8, so is very capable, but having missed so much, is likely to be much lower than that, which is fine. Her vocab is excellent but I suspect her grammar may not be as strong. I would guess that 6 would be the absolute ceiling on her grade and 4 or 5 more likely.

At the moment she is entered for Foundation but she could be put in for Higher. She isn't phased by higher papers as a rule as she's still doing maths and science higher, so she knows it's normal to only get half the marks. She could go either way based on predicted grades and will need some support to come to a decision.

What I'm trying to work out is which level is likely to play more to her strengths and I'm second guessing myself. On the one hand, she's under enough pressure and if Foundation will genuinely be the easiest option, she doesn't need to push herself harder.

My worry is that in maths, she often does better on harder questions because they're a challenge and she pays attention whereas she'll lose simpler marks because she missed a detail or assumed something was too obvious to state so I'm wondering if French might be the same. On top of that I worry that the Foundation paper will mean a lot more questions to answer for the same grade and her energy levels may impact her performance. Her combination of Autism and ADHD means repetition and boredom hits accuracy and while she does normally finish exam papers, she can end up going at absolute slug speed if she gets too stressed.

Can anyone talk me through the differences please?

MFL is my area so I can give you the lowdown @ErraticBadger - will need to be later if that's ok but I am just posting to remind myself. There are other MFL experts here who will probably help too :)

With languages I think unless you are definitely going to get a 6 you should do the foundation paper. There are approximately the same number of questions in higher and foundation (although the number of words needed in the writing will be fewer in foundation, so she might get that done more quickly). I think language exams work differently from other exams because there is so much interlinking/crossover between topics (the verbs don't change, even though the context does).

She should do some higher and foundation past papers and ask her tutor to mark them to make the final decision.

Which board is it btw? that makes a difference to the detail of my advice (I know AQA best)

My son did higher French. It was a big mistake. He couldn’t understand it and struggled. But his teacher insisted. A week before the exam he saw a foundation paper and said he could do that. He gave up studying really, scraped by and got a 4 by 1 mark (in the higher). My DD, who I believe is more capable learnt from this , put herself in for foundation (by doing badly deliberately in her mock 😩) and is on for a solid 5 and doesn’t seem intimidated by the papers.

It is AQA. I guess that's what I'm wondering - if she took the Higher paper and, for an extreme example, if she got all the questions targeted at Grade 4 wrong, but all the ones towards grade 9 right, could that also get her the 4? It sounds daft but because her learning has been so patchy, prior to the tutoring, she genuinely had areas where she excelled and would have been top of her class in a test and others where she didn't have even the basics. Her tutor has been focused on plugging gaps but I would guess her grade will still depend on what comes up in the exam.

Obviously even more potential issues around speaking & listening.

Ok well to answer this quickly – in reading and listening H paper there are easier and harder questions – I cannot imagine how you would be able to do the harder ones and not the easier ones tbh. It's unlikely you would learn (for example) the vocab needed for a L9 question and not for a L 4 question.

For writing, the papers are very different with only one crossover question.

For speaking, the F set tasks are more structured and easier, while the difference with general speaking is in the mark scheme – so a level of ability in communication that would score a 1-2 in H would score 7-8 in F.

I'll look later for some examples.

Would it be an option to get one of the elements removed if she is struggling to access it? Anecdata only but my friend's daughter is not sitting the speaking as an adjustment for her autism.

Appreciate this is not answering the question you asked...

That's interesting. Am hoping to chat with her tutor this evening and we'll have to discuss which reasonable adjustments are in place as she can both lose speech and motor function under stress so needs a scribe on standby and obviously a speaking exam has potential to be a major hurdle(!), but on a good day she's pretty able across the board so if a bad day fell on writing and a good day on speaking it wouldn't reliably help and could bring her grade down in the end.

I’m not sure you can have a scribe in writing exams (I’m an invigilator so this triggered a rule). https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/JCQ-AARA-24-25_FINAL_accessible.pdf#page68

Of course. That's logical as otherwise spellings etc. would rely on the scribe. So if she lost motor control in a writing exam, school would have to treat it as a medical incident as the only other option would be a word processor, which she wouldn't be able to operate. All she could really do is take a rest break and hope she got her movement back in time to do some of the exam.

Also bear in mind the papers are shorter length for foundation which may also be a consideration. (Speaking 9 vs 12 min (but both have 12 min prep time), writing 1hr vs 1hr 15). Listening and reading are also shorter.

Thanks so much for the explanation. Do you have to achieve a 4 in each paper to get the 4 overall or is it all down to the total mark? We'll definitely have a look at some practise papers as well so she can see the difference.

Maybe I was oblivious but I really don't remember my GCSEs and sixth form choices being this complicated.

It's down to the total mark.

I would say that in general, if a student does not need a high grade for (eg) A level, and they are hovering around 4-5-6 grade, 6 on their best day, then F is the badger. (haha the ErraticBadger maybe?)

But if a 6 is a likely outcome then I would suggest the student looks and decides. I have known students capable of a 6 for sure take F as they didn;t need more than a pass and could see it was easier and would take pressure off.

In your DD's case i do hear you about the spiky knowledge. I'm not sure how much diffference it will make tho in MFL. Deffo look at some papers. Is she sitting the exam in school and will the speaking be done by a known teacher?

A prompter and/or invigilator who is well known to her might help avoid full on freeze. Rest breaks are fine as far as they go, but even thinking and asking for one is a skill.

We are having a similar dilemma with Chemistry. You put your finger on it - it's about which paper will play to her particular strengths? I think we'll be leaning quite heavily on her tutor's view.

Also autistic DC in particular can find the exam period utterly gruelling. It might be worth considering her exam timetable. Eg if she has another exam then same day, or 5 exams that week, then she might have less capacity to grind out a Higher listening paper than if it falls at a lighter time in her schedule.

Ok here are some thoughts: Essay incoming!

In 2024 half marks on the H paper got you a very high 4 (almost a 5) if that helps when thinking about getting marks for harder qus and not easier ones. I wouldn’t get too bogged down in that tho. Would she really not be able to answer a question (randomly plucked from a recent paper) which required knowledge of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ and days of the week – but would be able to confidently answer questions based on an extract from the French novel Le Grand Meaulnes (one of the crossover questions in the same exam series)?

Speaking (bc this one is first) – as I say, the difference for general convo is simply that the mark scheme is more lenient as obvs the level of answer is self-selecting (candidate answers to the best of their ability). The roleplay and the photocard have easier questions or more structure. So to pick a recent example, “who is your favourite teacher” for F tier but “do you want to continue studying – why or why not?” for H tier.
So for sure F will be more approachable especially if freezing up might be an issue.

Writing I think this one has the most marked difference. For H there is a shorter essay of 90 words (16 marks) with four bullet points (so a good deal of structure) – this is the crossover question. Then there is a 32-mark question with just two bullet points, on a harder topic IMHO eg in 2023 it was on positives and negatives of your school and a recent visit, or the environment and what you will do to help it. Finally there is a 12-mark paragraph in English to translate into French.
For F you have the 90-word essay, five sentences to translate – much easier, “my sister plays football” was the easiest in 2023 – a picture to write four sentences about, for which you can write “il y a xyz” four times if that’s possible (so for June 2023 you could have written literally “il y a une famille; il y a du pain; il y a un homme; il y une femme” and got full marks) then a 40-word essay with four bullet points so literally a sentence per bullet.
Again F much more accessible. If your DD is inclined to panic then F will be better. More short tasks to work on. I’ve seen students really just blank out at the second, longer essay in the H paper and score very badly.

Reading and listening are broadly similar; some crossover questions both in the section you answer in English and the one you answer in French. It’s not as simple IMHO as “this question is aimed at a 4 candidate and this at a 9 candidate” but ofc there are easier and harder questions. The crossover ones are broadly the easiest (in terms of vocab and difficulty of answer) on the H paper and the hardest on the F paper, obviously. Both papers finish with a translation into English but ofc the F one is markedly easier – not much shorter but much simpler vocab and structure. The best thing for this IMO would be for your DD to have a go at a F paper and maybe the same year’s H to see how she did. Honestly tho I think she will find the F paper easier. Is there some reason that you think the gaps in her knowledge relate to easier questions? Tbh MFL is so very linear that even the earliest knowledge may come up in the hardest question. In the translation on the H writing paper in 2023 the words “teacher” and “biology” and “subject” and “good” all come up – all vocab you would learn in year 7.

HTH and sorry it is such an essay. Would be interested in your thoughts.

I can only provide anecdote - my DC did AQA French and his school put him in for the Higher paper. I think they were trying to get some high grades from the group and improve the MFL dept's standing in the school. He then regretted taking French, which didn't help, but the teacher still seemed to think that he could be on track for a grade higher than a 5. In the exam he didn't do too badly in most of the papers but he had an absolutely terrible listening paper which totally dragged his mark down (he said he couldn't understand what was being said so he made most of his answers up) he ended up being a few marks below a 4 which meant he ended up with a U, as for Higher paper the lowest grade awarded is a 4. He would have been better off doing Foundation which I think he would have managed a 4 in. Possibly even a 5 on a good day. If we had the time over again I would have pushed the school to enter him for Foundation not Higher

Thank you all so much. This is incredibly helpful and I really appreciate your breaking it all down for me. Have had a chat with her tutor tonight and he is leaning towards higher as she can easily do the foundation papers but wants her to do a past paper in exam conditions before they make the call. He's happy her reading and writing are more than up to speed but she is less confident with speaking.

I believe the tutor will be doing the speaking exam and as all the students have medical needs, invigilators are always teaching staff who she knows well, which really helps. Having said that, as tutoring is on Zoom we probably need to make sure she meets her French tutor properly before the exam just in case he's distractingly tall or short in person and it throws her 😀

She currently feels she would like to do the higher papers, but mainly because her grammar school did higher as default, so she hasn't ever seen a foundation paper, which isn't perhaps the best reasoning. Hopefully if she compares past papers, she can make a sensible decision.

Luckily her French result shouldn't affect what she does next, even if she shoots too high and ends up with a U. She fought very hard to keep learning it when she had to move school though so there's a bit of personal pride at stake. We'll follow her lead and keep everything crossed either way.