Expected improvement in French A level between year 12 and 13?

[Frenchalevelquery]

DD is in year 12 and doing three A levels. She is flying with the first two and will have predicted grades of A or probably A*. She is struggling much more with French despite working hard. She is currently getting Ds, but this is based on full exam papers and she is obviously less than half way through the course. She's pretty average within her class. She really needs a minimum of a B to do what she wants to do. I've asked her to talk to her teacher (who doesn't seem worried, but may not know she needs a B), but she's really worried her predicted grade will be lower than this. Does anyone have any experience of how much grades progress throughout the two years? She's doing an EPQ as "insurance" in case she does drop a grade, but this obviously doesn't change the need for a predicted B.

What did she get at GCSE? Is she perhaps missing some of the basics in grammar and vocabulary?

If not that, can she ask for her papers back and see where she lost marks? What does her hard work look like and what is she struggling with?

She got a 7 at GCSE and yes I do think there were gaps - she missed quite a bit of year 10 for health reasons. She is working hard on grammar and vocab - the main issues are minor inaccuracies and she is going through corrected work as well as doing drills / apps etc. to try and address this. I think it took her a while to realise what "hard work" at A level looked like and the need for accuracy but she's got it now. She has a lot of suggestions from teachers which she is doing - just wondering how much progress can be expected in just over a year based on the fact her assessments are full A level papers?

Encourage her to read song lyrics and magazines in French. This will really help with endings and tenses.

Also, if she works hard and knows what is pulling her marks down, it should be easy for her to move up by two grades in a year.

It was some years ago now but I did French A Level and went from As in first year to Cs in second year because the technical grammar part of it is so much harder. I was great at the vocab, reading almost fluently but the grammar was so complex in second year. If her strengths are more evenly spread she’ll be fine.

Yes I would expect improvement by year 13 always, but it will only happen with hard work.

If she got a 7 it may be that there are gaps so she is doing the right thing to work at plugging them. It’s dull sadly and a case of repeated drills and learning as you say (sorry but I am not convinced that reading French magazines will answer the case; you need to practise the ones where you are going wrong).

If she is getting feedback from teachers then great, follow that.

Did she actually sit a full A level paper, including essays about a book and a film (which she cannot possibly have finished yet) and all the vocab for the A2 topics? If so then yes for sure once she has covered that work her grades should improve. Bit odd tho - I would set a paper based on topics covered, but including similar tasks to A level.

Thanks - it's difficult to know what's "normal". In her other subjects she has covered discrete parts of the syllabus and only those are included in assessments. In French it is different - they do full A level papers despite obviously not having completed the syllabus so you would expect more progress but difficult to know how much.

Hmm, one of mine is studying French at uni, has finals in about a month and still quite often gets the verb endings wrong, so we may not be the best to advise here! But I'd second reading, listening and trying her best to immerse herself in as much French as possible.

@clary - they seem to be full A level questions - so her last assessment was to write an essay about the set film.

Proofreading skills can help. If she can keep time at the end to scan what she has written for her typical mistakes, she can grab a few marks back.
I also used to think of what grammar charts I wish I could take into the exam, learn them by heart, and spend the first few minutes writing them out from memory.

@Zeitumschaltung she is getting much better at that - and better about focusing on accuracy rather than trying to make her answers "interesting" - which was an issue for the film!

Has she studied the film tho? If so fair enough. Presume if she has not finished or started the book she hasn’t had to write about that?

Like I say, the reading and listening exam tests skills and uses vocab from all topics but I would be surprised if students in year 12 were expected to be able to understand and use vocab from A2 topics like immigration and how criminals are treated?

@clary yes they've studied the film but not the book yet. It is marked as if it were the A level itself. She's fine with the content but I would have thought that accuracy and vocab would improve over the next year anyway? So while it's OK to use these questions you would expect some natural improvement on degree of fluency, complexity and accuracy?

Ah ok I see what you mean. I would set a full A level question on the film if they are finished with it. And mark it as such. Yes, accuracy should get better if that is an issue but they are not going to revisit the film related vocab or topics of the film tbh, except at the very end in revision time.

Was the R/L paper actually covering all topics inc A2 or was it using the skills (translation, summaries) but based on AS topics already covered?

There’s a lot of content to cover in the A level and while I agree that some more complex grammar is covered in year 13 I would expect a good grasp in year 12. But if she has feedback on how to improve and acts in that then yes, grades should go up.

Thanks - I've asked her to talk to her teacher as she is very worried about her predicted grade - more so in many cases that what she can actually achieve as she feels (probably with some justification) if she applies for a course with a tariff of ABB and actually gets AstarAC (with the Astar in the subject she'll be studying and the A in a closely related topic) as well as a strong EPQ she'd probably be accepted. The problem would be getting the offer in the first place if her predicted grade is C. I don't know the extent to which the exam questions she's give expect vocab they haven't yet covered.

Can she get her paper back and look at where she is losing marks? She also should check her grammar rules knowledge - is she applying agreements correctly, is she using the subjunctive where required? In her essays, is she expanding her points effectively and using appropriate conjunctions?

The other issue is her self-confidence, if she is trying hard and not getting the results she is aiming for. Perhaps a tutor for a while mught help get her back on track?

Yes she needs to look at the paper. She should know tho if it included topics not yet covered? I’d genuinely be surprised if it did.

Worth talking to the teacher about possible PGs but there is time yet if her written work improves.

Hi @clary - she is looking at her papers and working on this - she knows what she is doing wrong I think - minor errors with e.g. accents, spelling and she is working on this to improve her accuracy - her grammar is generally OK I think. I think she is only doing the topics covered, but I suppose I am wondering if generally you would expect general grammar improvements. I probably haven't explained myself very well, but I suppose what I am asking is if a teacher would be worried if as student is only getting Ds at this stage (albeit is improving) on questions from an A level paper.

Her predicted grades will be decided in June (she has exams after Easter) so I think this is what is concerning her.

I see that you want me to say yes, she will make great strides over the next 12 months in terms of improving the quality of her work. I can’t really say obviously but in general, yes, I would expect the increased immersion in French (from GCSE 2-3 lessons a week to A level 5+ lessons a week) along with extra work outside of class to improve understanding, accuracy and knowledge of vocab and grammar, and that will increase over the next 14 months. So that’s all good.

Tbh tho if her recent assessments were actually based on what she has already covered, rather than as I inferred from your initial posts, a full final A level exam (which did seem odd) then she needs to realise that there is a lot of content as I say and these topics are unlikely to be covered again. So how she did in her recent assessments feels about equivalent to her other A levels, also testing what has been covered. Apols if I have misunderstood.

If she has the paper and can look, she needs to focus carefully on where she lost marks. Missing off accents is a minor accuracy error and may not lose a huge number of marks (depending on the question). Where else did she drop marks?

I will add that I would expect a candidate coming in with a GCSE 7 to achieve a C or maybe a B at A level. It is very much a linear subject which builds on the GCSE instead of side-stepping it as some subjects do.

@clary - thanks that's useful. To be honest we were always a bit concerned about her taking French as it wasn't one of her stronger subjects but she didn't really want to do anything else. I feel she now knows what is needed to make progress so hopefully will start really seeing a difference -she's just done another assessment and not yet got the results. She can do quite a bit over the summer if needs be as she is very motivated, but that won't change her predicted grade. I think we are just a bit surprised at such a wide gulf - she's done better than expected in the other two subject and worse in French so seems a huge divide!

My DD’s also doing French A level, and her group have been told that barring exceptional circumstances they will be predicted to achieve one grade up from the grade they are given in their April (Y12) exams.

@JessyCarr thanks, that's useful. I think she is hoping she can get a C in the end of term exams so that would be fine.