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German A-level

German A-level...
Anyone who's doing it -
- how much harder than GCSE?
- How is it made up (speaking, writing etc) in percentage terms?
- For speaking/writing exams are you given time to prepare answers beforehand?
- do you regret taking it/ pleased?
- General thoughts!

Would be much appreciated... thanks!

Reply 1

Octopus_Garden

Do you know what exam board your school/FE-college uses? It may well vary from board to board.

I'm in the middle of AQA's course. The marks for the AS are made up as follows: 2 hour exam, with listening section, reading section, and writing. That exam is 70% of available marks.

Simplified version here: the other 30% comes from a 15 minute speaking test. You have to discuss 4 subtopics: one you choose yourself in advance. The second you get to choose yourself from a choice of cue-cards, twenty minutes before the exam. So you get 20 minutes' thinking time. The third and fourth topics are a surprise!

Complicated version: The course is made up of four main themes, each covering 3 sub-topics. So, that's 12 subtopics- which is a frightening array, at first thought. But it's actually much easier than you're thinking right now!

You have to cover one and only one subtopic from each main area.

Your first choice of topic to talk about immediately means that the other two topics in that theme are out. So then, you're down to nine. Your choice of cue-card will rule out both its subject, and the other two topics in its theme. By the time you get to the surprise subjects, there are only 2 themes, covering six sub-topics, which the teacher can pick from.

Reply 2

Gallifreylives

- how much harder than GCSE?
- How is it made up (speaking, writing etc) in percentage terms?
- For speaking/writing exams are you given time to prepare answers beforehand?
- do you regret taking it/ pleased?
- General thoughts!

Well, I would say it is a massive step up from GCSE. The content is quite in depth. For example, learning about immigration, scientific and technological developments, the environment etc (aqa) is quite challenging anyway so learning it in a different language is even more so.

A good speaking assistant will really make a good impact. I'm in A2 now and my AS speaking assistant was not very good. However, my speaking assistant this year was fantastic.

I do not regret taking it at all. It's a hard subject that not many people take but that is really really recognised.

If you're considering taking it, I would say go for it. But you have to be prepared to learn loads of vocab, grammar etc if you want a good grade. That sounds so long but its worth it.

You can look at the ocr/aqa websites to see how its properly broken down

hope i could help :smile:

Reply 3

mimile

do you mean the abitur? my sisters doing it. it's actually quite hard. pretty similar to the IB but much more confusing. you have 5 subjects for the finals but you also have to take some other subjects and some of them also count for the abitur,but i dont really now how. its all pretty confusing. thats why i chose the IB :biggrin: