The Student Room Group

Just had AS & A2 WJEC German speaking exam! AMA!

(I'm too bored.)

AS first, then 10 minute break, then preparation, then A2.

It's an ask me anything.
(edited 7 years ago)
Good luck!
Were you frightened?
Original post by Nikki.96_S
Good luck!


Ty!

Original post by TheonlyMrsHolmes
Were you frightened?


Up until I was there (and especially so after my awful AS mock / practice yesterday.) As it had really been like a year since I revisited AS content in terms of speaking, I screwed up yesterday, but then in the night I was just randomly saying answers to possible questions to myself. That helped a lot, and it came very easy today. (I still remembered a lot of the vocabulary though, so that wasn't the issue.) After 6 hours of sleep (my typical is like 4 max on school nights, and after I had 2 nakd bars, and a drink of flavoured water (I didn't want anything heavy, or I'd get jittery), we went to the centre, and talked with the examiner. She was a very good one. Once I was there though, and after talking to her, my anticipation kinda dissipated.

I mentioned the student room when she asked what I done in my free time. :smile: :thumbsup:
Reply 4
Were you able to understand the oral card and expose questions if you do that unit? I have mine this week and I am really nervous that I wont understand the card or her questions :/
Original post by Carina123
Were you able to understand the oral card and expose questions if you do that unit? I have mine this week and I am really nervous that I wont understand the card or her questions :/


Just speak possible answers to yourself. As this was a resit I had the benefit of an extra year of practice for AS by the way. Think up questions in English right now like "what do you do in your free time?" And speak an answer.

Think possible questions on future / free time / hobbies / sport / etc etc.

About the cards, usually they ask for the differences, so say anything. Think weather, no. of people, context, if something comes up about alcohol, think dangers.

Third question is usually about your own opinion, what you prefer. Say anything. It is better that you have said something, then taking ages to say something to get perfect grammar. If taking stuff out of text, there isn't a need to reword the entire sentences, as long as it makes sense. (Like if someone said "Ich" in text, you clearly can't say ich when referring to what the person said, use "er / sie / name of person".

Don't overcomplicate sentences if you know it's going to be too hard.

Another main thing is to learn the most vocabulary. If you can't think of a word for something, move on & / or think of another way to say it.

For example can't think of the word "admirable", say "they have my respect" instead.

e.g. Sie haben meinen Bezug (I think.)("meinen" because "der Bezug" is being used in the accusative case.)(Soz if wrong.)

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Reply 6
I aren't resitting AS, just doing A2, thank you
How did you find the examiner?

I was in your position last year, did both my AS (resit) and A2 German orals with WJEC, although my A2 was the day after luckily so I had a good amount of time to totally forget the resit stuff and focus on my expose. My examiner was a really nice guy and made me feel super comfortable which helps.

Considering I got one mark into a D the first time around, I got an A in both the resit and the A2 oral, so anything is possible. Good luck. :smile:
Reply 8
I'm still in ks4, but I'm doing my AS German oral next week. I have no idea what the exam is about...so could you briefly tell me what it is I'll have to talk about? I've been told that we have to describe a photo and choose some topics???
Original post by CarmelaH
I'm still in ks4, but I'm doing my AS German oral next week. I have no idea what the exam is about...so could you briefly tell me what it is I'll have to talk about? I've been told that we have to describe a photo and choose some topics???


They can ask you on topics about what you do in your free time / your hobbies / sport / your future/what would you like to be etc. / what you do in college/why you picked that/what you do.

Though first you pick two random cards out of a set, and then you prepare to answer the questions on that.

usually differences are asked first (one card is a text, other two picture)
then something else
then your own opinion / preference (on something.)
Original post by CarmelaH
I'm still in ks4, but I'm doing my AS German oral next week. I have no idea what the exam is about...so could you briefly tell me what it is I'll have to talk about? I've been told that we have to describe a photo and choose some topics???


If you're doing it with WJEC then you'll pick two pieces of paper at random from a selection of around 8-10. One of these sheets of paper will have two pictures, and the other will have two short paragraphs. Each bit of paper will have 3 questions on - the first two questions are usually quite straightforward and can only really be answered one way. The third question will relate to the topic that the pictures/paragraphs are based on, (e.g. health/sport/freetime) and will also allow the examiner to ask you extra questions and start a discussion. You get 20-25 minutes to prepare your answers to these questions.

After completing the oral cards, you'll then have a 10 minute conversation about yourself, what you're studying, what you like to do in your free time, simple things like that. The second half is literally just talking about yourself - the only difficult part is that you might get asked a question that you don't understand, in which case, ALWAYS ask what the examiner means. You score well for keeping the conversation going, not just being accurate and knowing extensive vocab. When in doubt, stick in a "Wie heisst das/Was bedeutet das auf Englisch?" or something similar.

You can always lie in the second part obviously, but beware that the examiner will take the conversation wherever you want it to go. So for example, if the examiner asks what you do in your freetime, and you say you like dancing, then you can bet s/he will ask you questions about dancing and why you like it. If you don't know any German vocab related to dancing, then say that you like to do something that you can talk about.

Any more questions, feel free to ask. Or ask the OP, I feel bad for hijacking their AMA. :biggrin:
Reply 11
Thank you so much! I'm doing it with Edexcel, but I doubt the procedure will be much different. The people in sixth form have told me that they are being prepared to answer questions about the topics "Youth, culture and concerns" and "Lifestyle"...I think. So if they do, I'm probably going to go for the Youth, culture and concert, because I've lived in Germany and I'm guessing I can just make something up. Thanks again!!

Original post by pizzanomics
If you're doing it with WJEC then you'll pick two pieces of paper at random from a selection of around 8-10. One of these sheets of paper will have two pictures, and the other will have two short paragraphs. Each bit of paper will have 3 questions on - the first two questions are usually quite straightforward and can only really be answered one way. The third question will relate to the topic that the pictures/paragraphs are based on, (e.g. health/sport/freetime) and will also allow the examiner to ask you extra questions and start a discussion. You get 20-25 minutes to prepare your answers to these questions.

After completing the oral cards, you'll then have a 10 minute conversation about yourself, what you're studying, what you like to do in your free time, simple things like that. The second half is literally just talking about yourself - the only difficult part is that you might get asked a question that you don't understand, in which case, ALWAYS ask what the examiner means. You score well for keeping the conversation going, not just being accurate and knowing extensive vocab. When in doubt, stick in a "Wie heisst das/Was bedeutet das auf Englisch?" or something similar.

You can always lie in the second part obviously, but beware that the examiner will take the conversation wherever you want it to go. So for example, if the examiner asks what you do in your freetime, and you say you like dancing, then you can bet s/he will ask you questions about dancing and why you like it. If you don't know any German vocab related to dancing, then say that you like to do something that you can talk about.

Any more questions, feel free to ask. Or ask the OP, I feel bad for hijacking their AMA. :biggrin:
Original post by CarmelaH
Thank you so much! I'm doing it with Edexcel, but I doubt the procedure will be much different. The people in sixth form have told me that they are being prepared to answer questions about the topics "Youth, culture and concerns" and "Lifestyle"...I think. So if they do, I'm probably going to go for the Youth, culture and concert, because I've lived in Germany and I'm guessing I can just make something up. Thanks again!!


No problem.

The procedure might be a little bit different - I had a friend who did Spanish with AQA. He was allowed to choose a topic in advance to talk about and had to inform the examiner of this, as well as talk about things in two unknown topics which he couldn't prepare for (other than by revising and hoping for the best obviously). From what you've said, Edexcel sounds more similar to AQA rather than WJEC.

Whatever you choose, make sure it's something you can give a lot of opinions on too. Even if you don't agree with those opinions. Also, try not to remember sentences because the examiner will pick up on it - try and remember good words/phrases and know how to put them into sentences. However having said that, try and remember one really good sentence with an advanced sentence structure in it, because remembering one and using it correctly wont hurt, and even if you butcher it, it'll look like you're trying. I'd recommend something like subjunctive - "Wenn ich viel Geld haette, wuerde ich eine Weltreise machen".

Good luck. :smile:
Reply 13
Yes, I think so.
Thank you :smile:

Original post by pizzanomics
No problem.

The procedure might be a little bit different - I had a friend who did Spanish with AQA. He was allowed to choose a topic in advance to talk about and had to inform the examiner of this, as well as talk about things in two unknown topics which he couldn't prepare for (other than by revising and hoping for the best obviously). From what you've said, Edexcel sounds more similar to AQA rather than WJEC.

Whatever you choose, make sure it's something you can give a lot of opinions on too. Even if you don't agree with those opinions. Also, try not to remember sentences because the examiner will pick up on it - try and remember good words/phrases and know how to put them into sentences. However having said that, try and remember one really good sentence with an advanced sentence structure in it, because remembering one and using it correctly wont hurt, and even if you butcher it, it'll look like you're trying. I'd recommend something like subjunctive - "Wenn ich viel Geld haette, wuerde ich eine Weltreise machen".

Good luck. :smile:

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