A level French Course
Exam Board: AQA
The A level Examination
This qualification is linear, which means that students will sit all their exams at the end of the course. The A level exam consists of three exams taken after two years of study. Papers 1 and 3 are focused on four central themes:
- Aspects of French-speaking society: current trends
- Aspects of French-speaking society: current issues
- Artistic culture in the French-speaking world
- Aspects of political life in the French-speaking world
Paper 1: Listening, reading and translation
Questions
- Listening and responding to spoken passages from a range of contexts and sources covering different registers and adapted as necessary. Material will include complex factual and abstract content and questions will target main points, gist and detail. Studio recordings will be used and students will have individual control of the recording.
- Written exam: 2 hours 30 minutes
- of A-level
- This is a written examination lasting 2 hours and 30mn, worth 50%of the qualification (100 marks), drawing on vocabulary and structures across all four themes. The examination is made up of:
Section A: Listening (30 marks), a listening assessment based on a recording, featuring male and female French speakers. Students will respond to comprehension questions based on a variety of contexts and sources.
Section B: Reading (50 marks), a reading assessment based on a variety of text types and genres where students will have to respond to comprehension questions.
Section C: Translation into English (10 marks), an unseen passage to be translated from French to English
Translation into French (10 marks) an unseen passage to be translated from English to French
Paper 2: Written response to works and translation
- 2 hours
- 80 marks in total
- 20% of A-level
This is a written examination of 2 hours, worth 20% of the qualification (80 marks)
- This paper draws on the study of two French works: one literary text and one film and includes two essays on one literary text and one film.. Students must also study one text and one film. At David Game College, we will study the novel No et Moi and the movie Entre les Murs.
Section A: Written response to literary texts (40 marks). Students must write an extended response on one literary text.
Section B: Written response to films (40 marks). Students write an extended response on one film.
Paper 3: Speaking
Internally conducted and externally assessed. Total assessment time: between 21 and 23 minutes, which includes a single period of 5 minutes’ formal preparation time. This assessment is worth 30% of the qualification (60 marks)
- Task 1 Discussion of a sub-theme with the discussion based on a stimulus card (5–6 minutes). The student studies the card for 5 minutes at the start of the test (25 marks).
- Task 2 Presentation (2 minutes) and discussion (9–10 minutes) of individual research project (35 marks).
students discuss a theme based on a stimulus containing two different statements.
French AS level
Students wishing to take French to AS level only, finishing at the end of the first year of study, will also take three papers, based around the four themes described above.
Paper 1: Listening, Reading and Translation from French into English (1hr 45 minutes; worth 40% of the AS level)
Paper 2: Written Response to one film or one book, including translation from English into French (1 hr 40 minutes; worth 30% of the AS level)
Paper 3: Speaking (27-30 minutes, including 15 minutes preparation time, worth 30% of the AS level)
