The whole test runs 7–9 minutes at Foundation tier and 10–12 minutes at Higher, and speaking is worth 25% of the GCSE. You'll have 15 minutes of supervised preparation (with the role-play card and photo card in front of you) before the exam begins — use it to plan, not to script word-for-word answers. You can make notes, but you can't use a dictionary, and you're not allowed to rehearse the reading-aloud text out loud.

You get a card with a scenario — buying train tickets, talking to a French exchange partner's parent — and five tasks to complete, with clear instructions in English about what to say. One task always requires you to ask a question in French — practise your est-ce que patterns so it's automatic. Examiners here reward communication, not perfection: complete every task, even with simple language, and you're scoring. The classic mistake is freezing on a task instead of saying something — a simple, relevant sentence beats an elaborate silence every time.

New to the 2026-onwards specification, and the part students know least. You read a short French text aloud (at least 35 words at Foundation, 50 at Higher), then answer four set questions on the text's topic in French. Here's the part most students miss: the reading itself is the warm-up — the four questions after it carry 10 of the 15 marks. So practise talking about everyday topics, not just reading beautifully. The pronunciation still counts (silent final consonants, the -ent verb ending, nasal vowels, liaison), and reading French aloud for five minutes a day genuinely helps — but don't stop there.

The longest and highest-mark part. You describe a photo, then the conversation widens into the photo's theme — school life, festivals, the environment. Description is the warm-up; the discussion is where marks live. Examiners want opinions with reasons (j'adore… parce que…), references to past and future (hier…, l'année prochaine…), and answers that go beyond one sentence. If you can reliably produce an opinion + reason + example on any topic, you're operating at the top bands.

Your teacher conducts and records the exam, and the recording is marked by an AQA examiner against AQA's criteria, which reward communication, range and accuracy of language, and pronunciation. Roughly: can you complete tasks and convey information? Do you use varied vocabulary and structures (including different tenses at Higher)? Are you understandable? Nobody expects native-speaker French — the standard is what a well-prepared 16-year-old can do.

Speaking is the one paper you can't revise from a book — you have to actually speak, ideally to something that responds. Options: practise with a classmate using past-style scenarios; record yourself and listen back (painful, effective); or use an AI examiner.

Our app, Tête-à-Tête AI, runs the full AQA speaking exam — role-play, reading aloud and photo card, timed, with preparation time — and gives you six examiner-style scores plus an indicative grade at the end. The practice scenarios are written in-house to AQA's published format and cover the specification themes, and they're pitched at GCSE level using the informal tu register, like the real exam. The first 7 practice sessions every 30 days are free, no card required.