How to prepare for an AS German Speaking Exam?

Hay!

The speaking exams were always the worst for me, too. They're the ultimate test of your language abilities and there's a lot of pressure to do well. What is the set-up of your exam? I was on Edexcel so it might be a little bit different.

My advice would be to make the conversation sound natural and un-rehearsed. I used to have mini conversations with myself about everyday routines and issues just to improve my fluency If you make mistakes, don't worry too much and just keep going - one missed genitive isn't going to set you back from reaching the highest grade. The AS one is the hardest, too, in my opinion, because it's such a massive leap from GCSE and it's the first exam where you actually have to think on your feet! The examiners are not expecting perfection.

I made some horrific mistakes in my AS one, such as calling Victoria Beckham a man and saying that she was 'zu glatt', because I forgot the word for skinny and could only think of straight! My examiner was honestly trying so hard not to laugh.
I also screwed up right at the start by asking to start again in English... haha

Don't have the mindset that you'll do badly; try and be as confident as possible (I know this is easier said than done!)

Hi how did your speaking turn out in the end? Are you doing A2 German now?

Basically, we get given two sources, they can be either two pictures or two short (and hopefully simple) passages, and there's three questions that follow. The first one is always 'how different are these two pictures/opinions', the others could be anything. That's the first half, I think it's supposed to be 8 minutes long. The second half is spontaneous conversation - in which the examiner asks you stuff about school/future plans/hobbies, that sort of stuff.

It's reassuring to hear that, they're the sort of mistakes I imagine myself making but yeah, obviously it would be a bit unreasonable to demand perfection from an AS oral. Fingers crossed it all turns out alright

Ah ok, it's pretty similar to what we had to do I'm sure it'll be fine, you've just got to think of it as having a normal conversation with your teacher in the language.

I got 44/50 for that particular exam, which turned out to be an A haha; I thought my performance was C grade standard. I finished A2 in the summer and I'm studying German at uni now

Yeah, I'm just reminding myself that there's no point in getting worried about stuff going wrong until stuff actually goes wrong. Ah nice What's German at uni like? It's probably my weakest AS on balance so probably won't be for me, but still curious!

That's defo a good strategy! I hope it all goes well for you

Languages are one of my hobbies, so luckily I'm really, really enjoying it! The language and grammar counts a lot more, though. But we learn a lot about German literature and history, and it's super interesting

Thanks, appreciate it Yeah, I've enjoyed German so much more than I thought, I was convinced that I'd be dropping it at AS but now want to carry on with it. That's awesome Sounds like an interesting course, do you only do German or combine it with another language?

Yay! It's a fab language It'd be great to continue to A2. And I do German and French :P