Official AQA German AS

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To learn vocab: stick German words with their meanings on bedroom wall. Read through every night and highlight the one's you remember (try using it in a sentence).

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Change the language on your phone to German, it actually helps a lot!

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Speak to yourself in German, crazy but it's useful.

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If you know someone that speaks German tell them to speak to you only in German when they see you

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Watch German things (I got through a whole season of a German soap opera, it was like friends forgot the name!)

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In your spare time write a story in German

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To learn vocab: stick German words with their meanings on bedroom wall. Read through every night and highlight the one's you remember (try using it in a sentence).

•

Change the language on your phone to German, it actually helps a lot!

•

Speak to yourself in German, crazy but it's useful.

•

If you know someone that speaks German tell them to speak to you only in German when they see you

•

Watch German things (I got through a whole season of a German soap opera, it was like friends forgot the name!)

•

In your spare time write a story in German

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First, I'd say the single-most important thing to work on is vocabulary. If your vocabulary isn't great, your grades in every single component will suffer - you need it to understand the stimulus cards, the reading, listening, cloze exercises and of course the essay. Get on Memrise or Quizlet (I prefer Memrise but it's a personal thing) where you'll find hundreds of related courses that, I am convinced, will improve your grades significantly provided you commit to learning the vocab regularly. These sites make what is otherwise quite a mundane task surprisingly enjoyable, and to this day I look forward to learning new vocab way more than writing an essay!

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Second is grammar - this was never really a major issue for me because I learnt most of the structures early on and found it pretty simple, but if you haven't nailed them already, be sure to ASAP. Languagesonline is good for practising, as are several of the grammar workbooks (I used the Zeitgeist grammar booklet quite a bit last year and found that very helpful too.)

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As for the oral - treat it like a chance to show off as many structures and as much advanced vocabulary as possible. The questions are fairly mundane in my opinion ("describe your favourite film" at worst, "why is divorce so common" at best) but that doesn't mean your answers have to be. I saw (and still do!) each question as a challenge to get as many complex structures in as possible. So, for my favourite film, I might say something like "if I hadn't seen this outstanding film, I never would have known so much about the fascinating world of science fiction". In one short sentence I've ticked several boxes - advanced grammar (pluperfect, conditional perfect), interesting vocab and subject-specific vocab - all while making sure I'm still answering the question. Examiners would love that.

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On that note, make sure you have decided well before the exam what your go-to answer will be for all of the standard questions. For AS, you should know things like your favourite film, band, advertising campaign, internet site, sibling, etc, and be able to explain why. Decide on these answers well in advance so that you don't have any shocks on the day. I used Quizlet to consolidate these things as well as useful sentences and vocab. Learning them made the whole thing far less stressful because I knew I had something to rely on if all else failed. At the same time, never learn your answers word-for-word because the examiner might ask something different from what you are expecting, and regurgitating a script won't impress them in the slightest.

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Finally, the essay. I was lucky that I had such a good teacher who knew the demands of the essay inside out, but even if you don't, don't worry about the essay, ever. Honestly. If you prepare thoroughly, it will be a breeze. Master the subject-specific vocab for each topic and learn the difficult grammar constructions and you will get them into every single paragraph without realising it and without breaking into a sweat. Getting a high content mark is all about writing clearly, relevantly and logically. That sounds hard, but you can go into the exam knowing exactly how you will structure every single essay, which will make the whole thing a whole lot easier. Start with a clear introduction outlining the issues and what you will discuss (good opportunity for future tense - "In diesem Aufsatz werde ich über ... diskutieren" ) then aim for 6 short-ish paragraphs. If it's a discursive essay (pros/cons) then have 3 points for, 3 points against. ALWAYS answer both parts of the question - if you don't, your content mark really will suffer. Start each paragraph with a topic sentence, throw in a wacky example, then explain why that helps you to make your point. The last bit is the perfect moment for a conditional - examiners seem to like it when you turn the issue on its head (e.g. "If the internet didn't exist, I couldn't look up the lyrics of my favourite song!" or something) because this not only expands on your point but also allows you to show off your advanced grammar. Make sure that for every sub-topic you have 3 for/3 against points in mind BEFORE you go into the exam because this will reduce the time needed to plan (which, ideally, should only be 4-5 mins max with 55 mins left for writing and checking.)