GCSE French by Board: AQA, Edexcel, Eduqas, WJEC and CCEA Compared

Most GCSE French revision material online does not say which board it is for. That was survivable under the old specifications, when the boards were broadly similar. It is not survivable now.

The 2024 reforms landed unevenly. Three English boards rebuilt their qualifications for first assessment in 2026. Wales reformed separately, on a different timetable, with a different shape. Northern Ireland has not reformed at all. A student revising from generic material can quite easily prepare for a task their board does not set, and miss one it does.

Here is what actually differs.

The headline differences

• AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas — four papers, 25% each, tiered Foundation and Higher, graded 9–1, first assessed 2026. All three now include a dictation.
• WJEC (Wales) — a Qualifications Wales qualification, not available in England. First award 2027. Not tiered, graded A*–G, and it weights the skills unevenly.
• CCEA (Northern Ireland) — still running its 2017 specification. Four units at 25% each, and a completely different speaking assessment.

Weightings: not everyone splits it four ways

On AQA, Edexcel, Eduqas and CCEA, each of the four skills is worth 25%. Nothing can be neglected without capping your grade, and nothing deserves disproportionate revision time.

WJEC in Wales is the exception. Speaking — Unit 1, called Oracy — is worth 30%, and listening is worth 20%. That is the single biggest strategic difference between boards, and it should visibly change how a Welsh student allocates revision time.

The dictation: three boards, not five

The dictation is new, and it is the task students are least prepared for. AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas all set one, inside the listening paper.

On AQA it runs to a minimum of 20 words at Foundation and 30 at Higher, with two words drawn from outside the prescribed vocabulary list. Eduqas does the same, with two words outside the list at Foundation and three at Higher, worth 10 marks of the component.

That design is the point. It is not testing whether you recognise words you learned. It is testing whether you can write down French sounds you have never seen written. The full technique is covered in the listening guide.

If you are sitting Edexcel’s International GCSE (4FR1), there is no dictation at all — a different qualification with a different shape, covered in the 4FR1 breakdown.

Translation, in both directions

The reformed English specifications put translation on two separate papers, and students often prepare for only one of them.

Into English, in the reading paper. AQA sets a minimum of 35 words at Foundation and 50 at Higher, worth 10 of the paper’s 50 marks, with the other 40 going to comprehension answered in English. Eduqas splits its reading component the same way, 40 and 10. Edexcel’s reading paper also ends with a passage translated from French into English.

Into French, in the writing paper. AQA’s is worth 10 marks and is assessed entirely for AO3 — accurate application of grammar and vocabulary. It is marked in an unusual way worth knowing about: the passage is divided into 15 elements, and a tick is awarded for each element communicated despite minor inaccuracies, giving a mark out of five; a second mark out of five is then awarded for accuracy across all five sentences as a whole.

The practical consequence is the same as in the dictation. A rough attempt that conveys the meaning scores on the first grid. A blank scores nothing on either.

Speaking: how much you know in advance

This is where the boards diverge most, and it is the difference that most changes how you revise.

• AQA — you know nothing in advance. The specification is explicit that students must not know the conversation theme beforehand, and that teachers may not narrow the scope by agreeing topics.
• Edexcel — you choose your thematic context two weeks before the window, from a random pair generated by Pearson’s sequencing tool. The picture, the unseen questions and the conversation all sit inside it.
• Eduqas — cards are set by the board and opened by the centre up to three working days ahead.
• WJEC — you prepare a presentation on a subject of your own choosing, with preparation opening two weeks before the window. No English board has an equivalent.
• CCEA — Conversation Topic 1 is pre-released every September for the following summer. An entire conversation can be prepared months ahead.

Those last two are enormous advantages, and both are routinely underused. A CCEA student who has not thoroughly prepared the pre-released topic has given away marks that were available since the autumn.

Where the speaking marks sit

All three English boards concentrate the marks in the photo or picture task, but not equally:

• AQA — photo card 25 of 50 (two photos, 5 marks; conversation, 20). Role play 10, reading aloud and questions 15.
• Edexcel — picture task with conversation 28 of 50, of which the conversation alone is 16 — the largest single element on any board. Read aloud 12, role play 10.
• Eduqas — connected photographs 26 of 50. Read aloud and short conversation 14, role play 10.

On every one of them, more than half the speaking mark hangs on an unprepared conversation. Practising set-piece answers is not what this rewards. The detail is in the speaking guide.

Preparation time and notes

A small difference with a real effect:

• AQA — 15 minutes, notes with no restriction on length or content, conjugated verbs included.
• Edexcel — 15 minutes, notes on one sheet of A4.
• Eduqas — 15 minutes, notes on one side of A4.
• WJEC — 10 minutes.
• CCEA — one hour of supervised preparation, recorded on a Candidate Preparation Sheet, the only material permitted in the room.

Deciding what to write in that window is a skill in itself, and almost nobody rehearses it. On CCEA, with a full hour, it is arguably the most valuable hour in the course.

Which board is easier?

The honest answer is none of them, and the question is usually moot — your school chooses, and in Wales and Northern Ireland the choice is effectively made for you.

What is true is that they suit different students. A student who prepares meticulously and panics when surprised is better served by CCEA’s pre-released topic or WJEC’s self-chosen presentation than by AQA, which deliberately removes every opportunity to prepare the conversation. A student who is fluent but careless will find the dictation and the translation into French more punishing than the old specifications ever were.

The useful move is not switching board. It is finding out precisely which tasks your board sets, and practising those.

What to do with this

1. Find out your board and tier. Ask your teacher if you do not know. Everything else depends on it.
2. Check whether you have a dictation. If you do, start five minutes of daily self-dictation now.
3. Check whether you translate into French. It is 10 marks that reward technique more than flair.
4. Find out what you get in advance. If your board pre-releases a topic or lets you choose a presentation, that is the cheapest grade improvement available to you.
5. Practise the unprepared conversation. It is more than half the speaking mark on every English board.

Practice materials

A free taster course is available, and the other free resources cover each skill in more depth.

Working on this with me

If you are not sure which board you are sitting or what that means for your revision, book a free 15-minute call. Add it to your basket and check out — the total is £0 — and you will receive an email with the link to book a time.

For sustained work, I teach 55-minute one-to-one GCSE French lessons.