AQA A-Level French Past Papers & Mark Schemes

AQA A-Level French (specification code 7652) asks three genuinely different things of its students simultaneously: linguistic accuracy across four skills, critical literary and film analysis conducted entirely in French, and the sustained preparation and discussion of an independent research project on a French-speaking cultural or social topic of the student's own choosing. These three demands require different types of preparation and reward different skills. Paper 1: Listening, Reading and Writing (2 hours 30 minutes, 100 marks, 50%) is the broadest paper, testing all four major language skills. The listening component uses authentic French recordings — news broadcasts, interviews, documentary extracts — at natural speed, requiring both comprehension and the ability to select relevant information quickly. The reading component presents texts across different registers and topics, including journalistic, literary, and documentary writing, with both comprehension questions and a translation from French into English. A translation from English into French completes the paper. The thematic content covers la famille et les amis, les problèmes sociaux, la politique, l'immigration et la société multiculturelle, le patrimoine culturel, and global issues including the environment and technology. This thematic grounding means that cultural knowledge — not just grammatical knowledge — supports performance across all Paper 1 questions. Paper 2: Writing (2 hours 40 minutes, 80 marks, 20%) narrows to a single task: an essay in French of approximately 300 words on one of the student's studied set texts or films. AQA provides a choice of set literary texts (options include works by Zola, Camus, Sartre, Vian, and others) and films (options include works by directors such as Truffaut, Demy, and Klapisch). Students study one text and one film (from two separate groups), and Paper 2 questions offer a choice within each. The essay must demonstrate both literary or cinematic analysis and advanced written French — the mark scheme specifically assesses language quality (grammar, vocabulary range, register) alongside the quality of argument. Paper 3: Speaking (21–23 minutes, 60 marks, 30%) is conducted by an external examiner. It consists of two sections: a discussion based on a brief stimulus card related to course themes (7–9 minutes), and a presentation and discussion of the student's individual research project (11–13 minutes). The research project — selected, researched, and developed independently — can be on any aspect of French-speaking culture, society, or history, from the French Resistance to contemporary French cinema to Francophone literature from Senegal or Québec. Students may bring brief notes but must not read from a prepared script.