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The best student:teacher ratio ever, but still...

Well there is a grand total of 1 student in my A2 German class... I was just wondering if anyone else had found themselves in the same situation as me? I know German seems to be a subject in decline, so class sizes have been hit by that. Even if it's just a small class in any language, how do you think it's going to/did affect your grade chances.

Myself, I find it pretty good. It's damn intense, but I think three 1h40 lessons a week on my own is a nice little preparation for uni-style teaching in a way! Also it means we can cover complex grammar points without having to worry about the class falling behind, 'cause we can go at my speed.

Although it comes to something when there are two German teachers and one pupil... that's got to be a good student:staff ratio...

Reply 1

kellywood_5

17

There were 5 people, including me, in my AS French class and 3, including me, at A2, but the others didn't have great attendance, so most of the time, there were only 2 of us, and quite a few times, it was just me on my own. It was fine with one of our teachers because the lessons were really interesting and fun and the small class meant it was a good atmosphere, but the other teachers' lessons were really dull and tedious, pretty much constant textbook work and nothing else, so they were a nightmare on your own! Even though it was a small class, it was still almost impossible to get the pace right. Our final grades were ADE, so a lot of the time, the lessons were both too easy for me and too hard for the others, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been really.

Reply 2

deutschsweetie

8

Wow that must be so cool! .. Although I must say I couldn't live without my class coz they are great :smile:

We always have a laugh in German... when we arent studying politics hehe! There are only three of us in French so hence we have 2 make a considerable amount more of input into speaking and opinions and stuff and I would be screwed if my 2 friends wern't there to help me out as I help them.I much prefer working in a group to being alone. I was put with the french assisstant on my own last year however and it was absolutely fine.. I suppose you get to know the teacher/assisstants much better on a one to one basis and they can give you their undivided attention.. but seeing as I already see one of my languages teachers every day for bothFrench and German- its strange enough already!. To see her every day ON MY OWN would just be freaky! Because of our decreasing numbers in French this year they have taken one of our lessons away from us so now we only have 5.. but 6 with the assisstant included :smile:

.

Reply 3

menu

2

my A2 class decreased from a class of 9 pupils to a class of 3 (after AS). as there are less people, i now have less lessons, this would be ok but the 2 pupils i study with got Es at AS so the teacher has to teach at their ability..

Reply 4

Karvel

There's only 3 (including me) in my A2 German class in college... which is pretty shocking considering the amount of A2 students there are...

Reply 5

shyopstv

15

There were about 15 people in my GCSE class and we had a teacher and as he isn't a native French speaker, they decided to get a gap year student from France to be an assistant. Well one day, I was the only person who turned up so I had a 2:1 ratio. I hated languages at this point (prefer to teach myself classroom teaching turns me off) but even so, it was very interesting. Most people in my class back then were only doing GCSE French because they couldn't be bothered to hand in their options form on time so they got dumped in the emptiest courses so there was often very small class sizes

Reply 6

Banana Blossom

i'm the only person doing higher spanish in my school and i have two teachers which is fun, i sort of get spoiled :p:

i sit in the base watching videos and eating chocolate mostly! :biggrin:

Reply 7

hannah_dru

2

:O You too?! OMG I thought I was the only one. We had two at the start of term, but only for one lesson, as the boy with me wanted to take Further Maths and Economics and they clashed with German. We used to have 8 last year, and the current AS class has 8.

It is really intense, and sometimes I find things quite hard, but I find that it's better if there are things I don't understand. I feel really mean if I have a sick day though because I know the lesson will have gone to waste.

Everyone else seems to think I'm going to become really fluent. I'm hoping this will mean I get a good A2 German result, seeing as it's my best subjecty anyway. We'll see.

Reply 8

Banana Blossom

yea same! my friend left a few weeks in because she moved away! My AH french class isn't much bigger there's four of us there but ones a german exchange student leaving at christmas so it'll just be the three of us soon! sort of gutting because theres no one to hide behind in class now and we all hafta speak out :frown:

Reply 9

hannah_dru

2

I hate not being able to work with a partner and having to come up with all the ideas myself. That's a challenge!

Reply 10

Terrafire

OP

3

hannah_dru

:O You too?! OMG I thought I was the only one. We had two at the start of term, but only for one lesson, as the boy with me wanted to take Further Maths and Economics and they clashed with German. We used to have 8 last year, and the current AS class has 8.

Yes me too... the other guy at the start had to drop out cause it clashed with Maths! :biggrin:

The killer is the lesson length... I have three 1h40 lessons, they're just so difficult. I really would prefer several small lessons in this position... it's not helpful at all to shove German down my throat 'til I fall asleep!

Reply 11

hannah_dru

2

Terrafire

Yes me too... the other guy at the start had to drop out cause it clashed with Maths! :biggrin:

The killer is the lesson length... I have three 1h40 lessons, they're just so difficult. I really would prefer several small lessons in this position... it's not helpful at all to shove German down my throat 'til I fall asleep!

Coincidence! :biggrin:

That is rather long...I only have one hour, and have conversation lessons twice a fortnight for half an hour.

Reply 12

gunners r us

2

i would love to have a small class

Reply 13

Paula

7

Theres me and one other person in my A2 German class, Im glad Im not totally on my own and we're both the same kind of ability which is good. Still find the lessons pretty intense though cause the pressure is almost always on me. Have to say though my teachers are ace and hopefully I'll come out with a decent grade at the end of it all

Reply 14

Karvel

I agree with people's comments about the intensiveness of A2 lessons. The teacher I had for AS was pretty dire looking back. The woman I have for A2 German gets us, when we're doing a reading, to read paragraphs each - and then asks us to each translate into English on the fly the paragraph we've just read. At first I was a bit "OHMYGOD!!!11" but now I really love it. It's *SO* satisfying when you can do it accurately. And since the other 2 people both got C's at AS level there's no real pressure. :biggrin:

Reply 15

brimstone

7

Eight people in my French class. It's good because it's small enough to allow for proper individual focus, yet big enough to avoid certain people being picked on all the time.
I like it, hopefully it'll get smaller towards A2 though.

Reply 16

Paula

7

Karvel

I agree with people's comments about the intensiveness of A2 lessons. The teacher I had for AS was pretty dire looking back. The woman I have for A2 German gets us, when we're doing a reading, to read paragraphs each - and then asks us to each translate into English on the fly the paragraph we've just read. At first I was a bit "OHMYGOD!!!11" but now I really love it. It's *SO* satisfying when you can do it accurately. And since the other 2 people both got C's at AS level there's no real pressure. :biggrin:

yeah, i know what you mean we do the same thing every time we read an article or whatever. I get really excited when i know ive traslated something properly, it is really satisfying. *Saddo Alert*

Reply 17

james99

1

Hey,

I was on my own for AS and A2 German as well. Although I think it had its advantages in some ways (like I could move at my own pace), sometimes I really wish there was somebody else in the class to take the focus off me occasionaly. It's always good to be able to pool ideas and things, so if there was somebody else in the class it would have been pretty much perfect I think.

Having said that, I got an A at the end so I'm not complaining!

Reply 18

Bex.

I'm in a class of four for A2 French at the moment (there's around 250 people in the year and on top of that I'm the only one who passed AS) and my friend is in a German A2 class of 2, which was 1 person last year as well.

As people have said there are pros and cons - you get a lot of attention but sometimes too much. In French at the moment it sort of ends up as a them (the other 3 students) vs me as even though we're all studying A2 we're in totally different situations.

Edit - as for affecting my grade I'm not sure actually. I much prefer this class to last year but I am still a bit embarassed about speaking out, I feel like I do it way too much and piss off the others as they'll think I'm being a smart arse or something. Who knows.