French A level grade boundaries

[cafedesreves]

Is anyone else perpetually frustrated by French grade boundaries being higher than Spanish and German. The case yet again this year!
Any reasons why?

Yes! And it’s so demoralising. I don’t really know why they’re so high, but would be interested if anyone has any insight?

I think it may be that more people who enter it have it as their mother tongue so the top end answers are much much higher than those for other MFL options.

@DomPom47 I felt this too but research suggests not. My other theory is more selective (old fashioned) schools do French and comps tend to do Spanish, so average ability is higher. It's soooo annoying!

On the flip side, German grade boundaries at GCSE are much higher. Plus, French at that level has more cognates than German at that level.

I think there's also the (false) idea that Spanish is easier to learn, so weaker students might be more swayed to continue with Spanish than French, amending the grade boundaries.