How GCSE Speaking Practice Is Marked: Scores, Estimated Grades and Feedback

If you practise for the GCSE French or Spanish speaking exam with an app, the scores it gives you are only useful if you know what they measure. This guide explains how the real exam is marked, how Tête-à-Tête marks your practice to match it, what an estimated grade can and cannot tell you, and how to use the feedback to improve.

Disclosure: This guide is written by Tête-à-Tête, which makes an AI speaking examiner for GCSE and IGCSE French and Spanish. Where we describe how the exam boards mark, we use their official current specifications.

How the real exam marks each part

The exam boards do not give one overall "speaking score". Each part of the test is marked in its own way, for its own number of marks.

Board	Parts of the speaking test	Total
AQA (French 8652, Spanish 8692)	Role-play (10 marks); reading aloud plus a short unprepared conversation (15); photo card with two photos plus an unprepared conversation (25)	50 marks
Edexcel (French 1FR1, Spanish 1SP1)	Read aloud; role play; picture task followed by a conversation	50 marks
Cambridge IGCSE (French 0520, Spanish 0530)	Role play, then two topic conversations	40 marks

A few examples of how different the parts are:

• AQA's role-play has five tasks, each worth 2 marks, for getting the message across without ambiguity. Edexcel's role play assesses communication only.
• AQA's photo card gives 5 marks for what you say about the two photos, then 20 for the unprepared conversation: how much you say and how well you develop it, and the variety and accuracy of your language.
• Cambridge IGCSE's two topic conversations are marked together, for communication and for quality of language.

So a good speaking score is really several good scores, earned in different ways.

How Tête-à-Tête marks your practice

Tête-à-Tête is a real-time AI examiner. You choose your board and tier before you start, and it runs that board's speaking tasks at that level for the whole session.

• Every answer is scored as you speak, not just once at the end.
• Each part is marked the way your board marks it. Role plays are marked task by task, and reading aloud phase by phase: the reading itself, then your answers to the questions. A role play mark out of 10 is never averaged with a photo card score.
• Photo card and conversation answers are scored on six skills: pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, interaction and confidence. These are our feedback categories, chosen to show you what to work on; they are not the boards' own criteria.
• Everything is calibrated to GCSE, for 15 and 16 year olds at your tier, not to native-speaker standards.
• In practice sessions, coaching feedback is on by default: the examiner gives you spoken feedback after each answer. Switch it off to practise in silence, as in the real exam. Your scores are recorded either way.

Why your role play might score lower than your conversation

This is one of the most common surprises, and it comes straight from how the parts are marked.

• The role play is marked task by task. Each task has a specific message to get across: at AQA, 2 marks if it comes across clearly, 1 if it is partly or ambiguously conveyed, 0 if it is missing. Miss a task, misunderstand the prompt, or forget to ask the question you were told to ask, and those marks are gone, however good the rest of your French or Spanish is.
• The conversation rewards development. Long, detailed answers with opinions, reasons and a range of structures build up marks, and one weaker answer does not cost you a whole task.

To lift a role play score, read each task carefully in your preparation time, plan one clear sentence per task, and check you have covered every one, including the question. Accuracy of message matters more than impressive language here.

Do any apps give predicted grades like the real exam?

No app can predict your GCSE grade, and you should be wary of one that says it can. Your real grade depends on the whole qualification, on the day, and on grade boundaries that are set after everyone has sat the exam.

What Tête-à-Tête gives you is an estimated grade:

• After a full mock exam, you get estimated marks on your board's own official mark scheme (out of 50 for AQA and Edexcel, 40 for Cambridge IGCSE), part by part, and the GCSE grade those marks point to.
• After practice sessions, your scores convert to an estimated GCSE grade so you can see how you are tracking.
• At Foundation tier the grade is capped at 5, as in the real exam. Cambridge IGCSE uses A*–G.
• If a mock stops early, the result says so and names the parts that were not marked, rather than inventing a grade.

How do I know if my estimated grade is accurate?

Treat any AI grade, ours included, as an estimate, not an official result. The best ways to check it:

• Compare it with your teacher's marks on a school mock. If they are close, the estimate is a useful guide; if not, your teacher's judgement comes first.
• Look at the trend, not one session. A single score moves with the task you drew and how you felt that day. Several mocks over a few weeks tell you much more.
• Look at the part-by-part marks, not just the grade. They show where the marks are being lost, which is what you can actually change.

Can I get a detailed report on my speaking?

Yes. On Tête-à-Tête:

• A full mock ends with estimated marks for each part on your board's mark scheme and the grade they point to.
• Every session gives written feedback on what went well and what to fix, and the photo card and conversation add scores for the six skills.
• Every session is saved with its transcript, marks and feedback, so you can go back to exactly what you said.

How do I get feedback on my pronunciation?

Pronunciation is one of the six skills scored on every photo card and conversation answer, and reading aloud is marked on how you read the passage. With coaching feedback on, the examiner tells you after each answer what to work on, so you can try again straight away.

For a specific sound that keeps catching you out, listen to native audio for it, record yourself, compare, and then use the sound in full practice. Drilling a sound on its own only helps once you use it in real speaking.

How do I track my progress over time?

Tête-à-Tête keeps every session, and your progress view shows your scores over time. A skill profile shows your strongest and weakest skills, and you can compare your exam-mode and practice-mode scores to see whether you hold up under exam conditions. If your teacher has set up a class, they can see who has completed each assignment and their most recent score.

Which app gives the most realistic feedback?

Realistic feedback comes from realistic practice. Look for an app that:

• follows your board's tasks, in its order, with its preparation time;
• keeps to your tier's level instead of making the questions easier as you go;
• marks each part the way the board does, not with one blended score;
• is clear that its marks are estimates, not official results.

That is how Tête-à-Tête is built. For a side-by-side look at the main options, see our guide to the best GCSE French speaking practice apps or Spanish speaking practice tools.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are AI speaking scores the same as the exam board's marks?

No. They are estimates. Tête-à-Tête marks each part the way your board does and, in a mock, gives estimated marks on the board's own mark scheme, but only the exam board awards official marks.

Why is my Foundation grade never higher than 5?

Because Foundation tier papers can only award grades 1 to 5. Tête-à-Tête caps the estimated grade at 5 on Foundation, as the real exam does.

Do I get six skill scores for the role play?

No. The six skills (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, interaction and confidence) are scored on the photo card and conversation. Role plays are marked task by task and reading aloud phase by phase, the way the boards mark them.

Can I practise without feedback, like the real exam?

Yes. Switch coaching feedback off in a practice session and it runs silently, and your scores are still recorded. Full mock exams always run under exam conditions.

Is it free to try?

Yes. You can start free with no card, and try practice sessions and a full timed mock on your own board.