Advanced Higher German 2011

Hey, I'm sorry if this thread has already been made this year, but I couldn't seem to find one.

I'm really just curious as to how everyone's going about revising for this exam? Especially what you're all revising for the essay section.

Also, how did everyone's orals go?

Reply 1

DavidHowie

Hey, i'm doing my standard grades but i've been fast-tracked to higher german - it's a breeze to be honest, although my family only stay in german hotels when we're on holiday so speaking german has always been like second nature y'know ? - and last night i done an AH past paper... urgh... ! >.< Well i'm doing my highers soon of course and i'd like to continue german on the side, although, neither my school or any in the area run the AH course D: ! So I was wondering what exactly you do in AH ? What books do you use ? Revision sources etc. ? I asked my german 'teacher' and he replied with "erm... in the AH class they just learn about the economy and watch the news and ****...." :biggrin:

lmao (he's hilarious but his lackadaisical approach has started to piss me off now as i'm wanting to take languages further and do them at uni etc. etc.) x) !

David ;D

Reply 2

LoopyLuna

Hi, I'm doing it this year. I did my oral (hoping I got at least 30! but would really like 40)

I'm sooooo scared for this exam! I don't think I've ever been so scared, I need a B for my university firm, which should be OK hopefully argh! I've been doing it as a kind of crash course because I have another class on at the time of German. It's been so bad and there's so much vocab! Also higher was such a joke that the advanced higher feels so much worse.

Do you think there will be an umwelt essay? I'm really hoping there will be because it's my best topic. What are you learning for writing?

Reply 3

LoopyLuna

I'm bumping this thread out of terror; does anyone have ANY advice? ANYTHING at all will be useful!

Reply 4

murderofone

OP

Original post by LoopyLuna

Hi, I'm doing it this year. I did my oral (hoping I got at least 30! but would really like 40)

I'm sooooo scared for this exam! I don't think I've ever been so scared, I need a B for my university firm, which should be OK hopefully argh! I've been doing it as a kind of crash course because I have another class on at the time of German. It's been so bad and there's so much vocab! Also higher was such a joke that the advanced higher feels so much worse.

Do you think there will be an umwelt essay? I'm really hoping there will be because it's my best topic. What are you learning for writing?

Unlucky that you need it :frown:

I'm fortunate to have an unconditional. I know, it's so difficult, i think i've just kind of given up on vocab. I'd love an umwelt essay but there was a recycling one last year so i think it's unlikely. I'm realy hoping for nuclear power. The writings seem to be incredibly unpredictable, so i really don't know what/how to study for it. I'm trying to learn phrases but i think i've left it far too late! I hope you get your B :smile:

Reply 5

LoopyLuna

Original post by murderofone

Unlucky that you need it :frown:

I'm fortunate to have an unconditional. I know, it's so difficult, i think i've just kind of given up on vocab. I'd love an umwelt essay but there was a recycling one last year so i think it's unlikely. I'm realy hoping for nuclear power. The writings seem to be incredibly unpredictable, so i really don't know what/how to study for it. I'm trying to learn phrases but i think i've left it far too late! I hope you get your B :smile:

Nuclear power/alternative energy would be a god send! There actually hasn't been an energy question in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010!

I've written about 90 words on 11 different topics and I'm trying to learn them in hope that a couple of them might be useful. The writing is hard to revise for because they're so random. Some of the questions even if I was answering in English are a bit nuts. Like the 2009 (I think) about the role of aunts and uncles? 300 words on that?

Reply 6

murderofone

OP

Original post by LoopyLuna

Nuclear power/alternative energy would be a god send! There actually hasn't been an energy question in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010!

I've written about 90 words on 11 different topics and I'm trying to learn them in hope that a couple of them might be useful. The writing is hard to revise for because they're so random. Some of the questions even if I was answering in English are a bit nuts. Like the 2009 (I think) about the role of aunts and uncles? 300 words on that?

Ah yea i'm the same :frown:

the 2010 question on women was pretty impossible too. I have nothing on europe or the euro so i'm really worried about that coming up. The 90 words is a good plan, i just don't have enough time left to learn much. I don't think i've ever seen a question that i'd be fully confident about answering. STRESS.

Reply 7

Bubblegum Fairy

Hey,

I'm doing AH German this year and I'm quite worried about the exam! Oral went really well and to prepare for that I learned short essays on each of the topics I had studied so far, so I'm trying to re-learn them for discursive essay preparation, but it's not going very well! Also I hadn't studied the environment or Europe at that point, and I self-teach German so I still haven't really done much towards them. So I'm not hoping for an environment essay!

Does anyone else find the listening really hard? Especially section A, I can hardly ever understand it! And do you have any advice on inferencing?

Reply 8

Bubblegum Fairy

Original post by DavidHowie

Hey, i'm doing my standard grades but i've been fast-tracked to higher german - it's a breeze to be honest, although my family only stay in german hotels when we're on holiday so speaking german has always been like second nature y'know ? - and last night i done an AH past paper... urgh... ! >.< Well i'm doing my highers soon of course and i'd like to continue german on the side, although, neither my school or any in the area run the AH course D: ! So I was wondering what exactly you do in AH ? What books do you use ? Revision sources etc. ? I asked my german 'teacher' and he replied with "erm... in the AH class they just learn about the economy and watch the news and ****...." :biggrin:

lmao (he's hilarious but his lackadaisical approach has started to piss me off now as i'm wanting to take languages further and do them at uni etc. etc.) x) !

David ;D

Hi David,

I'm self-teaching AH German this year and I did an open learning course for Higher German as well. AH is a lot harder than higher! But it's still possible to do without a teacher. The resources vary from school to school but I've been quite lucky in that a teacher at my school has given me texts to work from about the various topics. But because the topics are so varied you can talk vary what you talk about within them, so as long as the resources you use fit the topic then it doesn't really matter.

The speaking is done by an external examiner and it is 20 minutes long and it's just a discussion of the things you have studied so far (the examiner will have been told in advance what you have studied).

In terms of the exam, if you find German quite natural then you can just prepare by doing past papers.

There's also either a writing folio (which I did) which is two essays of 750 words in English about two works of German literature. Or you can do a research report of 1500 words, but I don't know much about that.

I would recommend that you look into open learning courses at a college for your advanced higher. They send you resources and you use them at home and you occasionally have to send them an assignment as well.

Hope this helps!

Reply 9

Rhi93

13

Essay questions were AWFUL. Not a single one came up that I felt confident on, in the end I went for the one on Scottish independence and basically spent two paragraphs rambling about how we'll all be screwed when the oil in the North Sea runs out :s-smilie:

Listening was alright though, although I struggled about with question 6 on Part B.

Reading was actually better than I thought and on the whole the translation went well apart from that weird ""...mein Ziel dreimal zu umkreisen..." bit. I hope I've at least got a B :frown:

Reply 10

murderofone

OP

Original post by Rhi93

Essay questions were AWFUL. Not a single one came up that I felt confident on, in the end I went for the one on Scottish independence and basically spent two paragraphs rambling about how we'll all be screwed when the oil in the North Sea runs out :s-smilie:

Listening was alright though, although I struggled about with question 6 on Part B.

Reading was actually better than I thought and on the whole the translation went well apart from that weird ""...mein Ziel dreimal zu umkreisen..." bit. I hope I've at least got a B :frown:

I was actually really happy with the essay questions, i'd done loads on women in the work place. Which was question 6? There were a few that i didn't get but i thought it was fair overall. I'm glad someone else found that bit of the translation hard too, I really had no idea what to do with it.

I hope you get your B :smile:

Reply 11

Rhi93

13

Original post by murderofone

I was actually really happy with the essay questions, i'd done loads on women in the work place. Which was question 6? There were a few that i didn't get but i thought it was fair overall. I'm glad someone else found that bit of the translation hard too, I really had no idea what to do with it.

I hope you get your B :smile:

Question 6 was "Why does Anne consider the many Turks who have achieved professional success in Germany to be important?"

Arghhhhh I'm going to torture myself over this until August....I have an unconditional so it doesn't really matter what grae I get but I love to get a decent grade to make my tutor happy.

Reply 12

Rhi93

13

Original post by atomos

by the way, what was the answer to part A listening, when it asked (i think) the percentage of turkish people who go onto abitur? i managed to miss that part both times trying to answer other questions so had to make up a percentage haha...