German GCSE help!

On AQA's course, somebody can sit foundation listening, higher reading and still get an A*, because of the weighting of each section (though you would have to do very well on the other three sections). I'm assuming that you're going for higher if you're thinking about a B/C for listening (unless I'm mistaken and you can get a B on a foundation listening paper), so it is, in theory, definitely still possible.

(If you aren't on AQA, ignore the above :P)

In terms of how to tackle the exam- there are a few things you could try perhaps. The first is use the 5 minutes reading time to make notes on the paper, writing vocabulary that you might expect to hear. If there is a question with three multiple choice answers, write words next to each choice that you would expect to hear, were that the right answer.

I can't remember how applicable this is to German GCSE, but French GCSE uses negatives to try and lure you into putting the wrong answer sometimes. Listen carefully to exactly what they're saying, as sometimes they do lead you up a false trail talking about a wrong answer before hitting you with the right answer. And the only other thing I can really think to say is make full use of the fact that you hear each bit twice.

edit: One other point I just thought to mention is don't lose heart if you can't answer a couple of questions. The paper isn't always arranged exactly easiest questions to hardest and, even within questions, similar things happen. If you struggle to answer part (a) and (b) of question 6 [for example], part (c) may not be as difficult as the other two. If you switch off after struggling with part (b), saying that you can't do this question, you may lose a mark because you fully listened to (c), which you may find easier to tackle.


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