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Overview of AS/A levels
- GCE (General Certificate of Education) AS (Advanced Subsidiary) and A (Advanced) level Language qualifications are a possible progression route for students after GCSE or other level 2 qualification. AS is normally completed in one year and students can either stop at that point or continue to A2 (Advanced Level).
- Many people use AS and A levels to go on to higher education, but they're also useful if you want to go straight into a job.
- AS and A levels are at level 3 on the National Qualifications Framework.
- A levels are made up of the AS level and the A2. Each part makes up 50 per cent of the overall A level grade.
AS level
The AS level can be either a free standing qualification, or can be valued as the first half of the full A level.
At the end of the AS year, students have two options (depending on the preference of your school or college):
Take the AS level qualification only or continue to the second year and go for the full A level.
Year two: the A2
In year two of a full A level, you take the A2 - this is not a separate qualification, but rather the second half of the A level. The A2 is designed to deepen the knowledge gained during the AS level.
Advanced Extension Awards
Able students expected to gain an A grade at A level may also want to consider taking an Advanced Extension Award (AEA). Advanced Extension Awards (AEAs) were introduced in summer 2002 to replace Special Papers. They are designed to challenge the most able A level students and to provide them with opportunities to show a greater depth of understanding than required at A level. Details of the AEAs offered by different awarding bodies can be found on the QCA website.
Awarding bodies which offer GCE AS and A2 language qualifications are:
AQA, CCEA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC. Consult the Post 14 qualifications spreadsheet on the qualifications page for more details.
New GCE qualifications have been developed and will be available for teaching from September 2008. For full details of the specifications and training events, visit awarding body websites.
AQA
CCEA (Northern Ireland)
Edexcel
OCR
WJEC (Wales)
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