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Edexcel AS German Unit 2 Thursday 19th May

How are you guys studying for this? Any tips? :smile:

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My tips would be:
1.Read through the exercise before you play the listening track. Circle and translate any key words likely to come up. This could be specific nouns, names or the questions words "who" "why" "where" etc

2. In the reading exercises, particularly the "who said what" one, look out for different ways of saying things, sometimes you swear somebody didn't say something, but if you look more closely, they did, just not in the wording you're familiar with!

3. For the writing: Stick to the bullet points!! I like to (approximately) plan about a paragraph per bullet point. Also when a bullet point appears to be suggesting that you should come up with ideas, make sure to have at least two, if not more. However, you also need to go into a little bit of detail, and you'll run out of your word count quickly if you have to explain many points. Conversely, if yoou're not going into detail and instead just listing, you're missing out opportunities to show off your language skills :smile:

4: Spend a lot of time planning your writing, so many times I would just go straight into writing and then keep adding more and more ideas, and this meant I ran out of space! So plan and then you can pick the best ideas.

5. Sometimes pre-learnt phrases can be useful, but don't just chuck them in if you're not 100% confident about using them as this can just make them look weird and misplaced and like you don't know what you're talking about.

Good luck and don't stress!
Reply 2
Did it last year, I had a fair bit of time to revise because I only had 2 GCSEs that year. My advice is for listening tasks think of the german words for all the possible answers, and write them down. Also for the big writing thing at the end, learn all the types and what style to use. For example how to start and end a letter.
Think logically! E.g ich brauche ein Kopfkissen would be easy to say someone needs a head kiss- but they really need a pillow :h: forgot the other words my teacher told us to look out for but hey ho. Dreading the writing- my writing is my worst skill :frown: how did your speakings go?
Reply 4
Original post by Kugelmugel
My tips would be:
1.Read through the exercise before you play the listening track. Circle and translate any key words likely to come up. This could be specific nouns, names or the questions words "who" "why" "where" etc

2. In the reading exercises, particularly the "who said what" one, look out for different ways of saying things, sometimes you swear somebody didn't say something, but if you look more closely, they did, just not in the wording you're familiar with!

3. For the writing: Stick to the bullet points!! I like to (approximately) plan about a paragraph per bullet point. Also when a bullet point appears to be suggesting that you should come up with ideas, make sure to have at least two, if not more. However, you also need to go into a little bit of detail, and you'll run out of your word count quickly if you have to explain many points. Conversely, if yoou're not going into detail and instead just listing, you're missing out opportunities to show off your language skills :smile:

4: Spend a lot of time planning your writing, so many times I would just go straight into writing and then keep adding more and more ideas, and this meant I ran out of space! So plan and then you can pick the best ideas.

5. Sometimes pre-learnt phrases can be useful, but don't just chuck them in if you're not 100% confident about using them as this can just make them look weird and misplaced and like you don't know what you're talking about.

Good luck and don't stress!

Thanks for the tips! :smile: Any recommendations for pre-learnt phrases that I could use under any topic in the writing?

Original post by FatShit
Did it last year, I had a fair bit of time to revise because I only had 2 GCSEs that year. My advice is for listening tasks think of the german words for all the possible answers, and write them down. Also for the big writing thing at the end, learn all the types and what style to use. For example how to start and end a letter.

I did it last year too, re-taking it though. Thanks!
Reply 5
Any predicted writings guys??

Original post by ImagineCats
Think logically! E.g ich brauche ein Kopfkissen would be easy to say someone needs a head kiss- but they really need a pillow :h: forgot the other words my teacher told us to look out for but hey ho. Dreading the writing- my writing is my worst skill :frown: how did your speakings go?

Question 7 will be my downfall.. Speaking went alright, could have been better but could have been worse.
Original post by Egge
Thanks for the tips! :smile: Any recommendations for pre-learnt phrases that I could use under any topic in the writing?


I did it last year too, re-taking it though. Thanks!




Here's a bunch attached to this post.

Also don't forget that while writing a letter, you need to say "Sehr geehrte, _____!" at the start.
(edited 7 years ago)
Good learnt phrases:

Es ist zum Thema geworden = it's becoming an issue (if it's a particularly controversial or problematic issue then use Streithema)
Ich bin der Ansicht, dass... = I am of the view that...
Ich bin davon überzeugt, dass... = I am convinced that...
Ich bin der Meinung, dass...
Es ist ein sehr umstrittenes Thema = it's a very controversial issue
Das ist aus der Luft gegriffen = that's out of thin air (aka you/they made it up and it's not a fact)
Es ist fraglich, ob... = it's questionable whether...
Es kann nicht bezweifelt werden... = it can't be doubted that...
Oh by the way, when I said plan a paragraph per bullet point, I didn't mean a paragraph of planning haha! I meant a paragraph of writing for each point - as much planning as you need!

Keep in mind though that some don't need that much attention, for example in the e-mail/letter ones where they want you to say who you are any why you're writing. To cover that bullet point literally all you need to do is write "Ich heisse ... und ich schreibe, weil..." or variations on that theme! I've seen examiners reports say that's all they want. Apparently they like stuff that's more imaginative, but if you limit it to those two sentences approximately) then you have more words left for the more important stuff which can get you more marks!

I hope that makes sense haha :smile:
I'm finding it quite hard to revise for tomorrow. I've always found that when I don't overcomplicate the vocab but show off my grammar I do better. That might just be me though. My speaking went really well so I'm not too worried about tomorrow, My listenings are generally fine and I need to try and not second guess myself. I would say make sure you check your Grammar in the writing, because although it doesn't have to be perfect, it will definitely improve your grade if it is. Best of luck to everyone tomorrow. This feed has been extremely helpful..
Reply 10
Just wanted to thank everyone for the tips, hope it goes well for everyone! Best of luck! :smile:
How did everyone find it?
It was OK, not fabulous. Not too sure how I did. You?
I found the listening okay but the first reading question about school uniform quite hard because Sophia and Wilhelm said really similar things!
Yeah I agree! Do you know what happens if you write slightly over the 220 word limit? Also how much did you write for the last bullet point about 'any questions you have'?
I found it Alright, it could have gone a lot worse. The listening as alright, the second reading I found quite difficult, mainly because I didn't know the vocab. And the writing, I'm not sure I've put enough content in. But overall it was okay
Original post by shivani_10
Yeah I agree! Do you know what happens if you write slightly over the 220 word limit? Also how much did you write for the last bullet point about 'any questions you have'?


I asked them whether I would be working with other volunteers or by myself, when they wanted me to travel there and whether I needed to have any vaccinations! What did you say?
I found it quite hard and I'm native so :frown: the question about Austria was the worst..I couldn't remember the English words e.g. for Lavine even though I knew what it meant


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Listening was fine, but the first 2 on the reading made me want to cry :frown: and my writing was too simple, I used so much GCSE vocab and wrote worse than my A grade writings last year. Not good at all :frown: :frown: Praying my speaking lifts the grade to a C
Reply 19
Was the last bullet point on the writing asking you to ask for further information from the organisation, or about them?? I did the former but then crossed it out and did the latter, but only one question since i ran out of words !

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