The Student Room Group

A2 German Students (2016-2017) (mostly AQA)

Well it's all over now guys. I hope you all did well in your A-Level exams, especially German, and I hope some of you lucky lot are off to do it at uni! :smile:

This was the last year for the old, modular specification of German (excluding one final year for resits), so please be aware all information in this thread will be related to that. Search for a more recent thread for linear A-Level German.

Hello!!! I am making this thread a little early but o well, I'll edit out prospective when we get to September.
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So I guess a few qs you could answer:

Exam board:
(I think most on here are AQA, so am I)
AS grade and will you resit?:
(I got A, no I won't)
What cultural topics are you doing and which specifically?:
(I am doing history; DDR 'n' all that + musician: Alligatoah)
What A2 grade you aiming for?:
(I promised myself if I got an A in anything I'd aim for A* so gl to me - I ended up with an A, 7 marks off an A* but nevertheless elated!)
Bonus: How many people are gonna be in your class?
(We have 4)
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So what have people been doing to prepare for A2? I've been recording so much vocabulary it's unreal, I've gone through 1 textbook and parts of another and I've been trying to finally crack on with learning dreaded German prepositions properly!!
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September is here! Good luck this year everyone :-)
(edited 6 years ago)

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Reply 1
Hallo!!!! Congratulations on your A! That's amazing! I got a B two marks off an A which I am really happy with, but I am going to retake just the AS reading and writing exam as that was what I got a B in and I know I messed it up, I haven't actually done anything but I did attend the Oxford German summer school if that counts 😂 I am going to work extremely hard throughout the year though, I am just giving myself a break 😂 I am doing der Besuch der alten Dame and a history period! I am hoping for an A next year and there will only be 2 of us in the class again this year, most unpopular subject, I find that hard to believe!
Reply 2
Original post by Anna1909
Hallo!!!! Congratulations on your A! That's amazing! I got a B two marks off an A which I am really happy with, but I am going to retake just the AS reading and writing exam as that was what I got a B in and I know I messed it up, I haven't actually done anything but I did attend the Oxford German summer school if that counts 😂 I am going to work extremely hard throughout the year though, I am just giving myself a break 😂 I am doing der Besuch der alten Dame and a history period! I am hoping for an A next year and there will only be 2 of us in the class again this year, most unpopular subject, I find that hard to believe!


Vielen Dank! :smile: Dein B ist auch überkrass und ich hab' Stolz für dich!!!

Yeah that counts and I hope you had fun though :redface: Only 2, yikes.
You probably already know me from the German AS thread but I'll still introduce myself...

Exam board: AQA
AS grade and will you resit?: I got an A, and no.
What cultural topics are you doing and which specifically?: History such as the DDR, Berliner Mauer, etc. and Das Leben der Anderen
What A2 grade you aiming for?: I'm trying to aim for the elusive A*.
Bonus: How many people are gonna be in your class? 4 or 5 (depending on who drops the subject)

So basically, we're almost identical...

EDIT: In terms of preparation, I have prepared all my vocab for the 9 topics in the A2 course, I have began working through a workbook based on Das Leben der Anderen by doing translations. I am also refreshing my memory on both AS and A2 grammar and I am learning German phrasal verbs.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 4
I found out today we only have a class of 4, and in worse news, we only get 2.5 hours of lesson a week (normally subjects are 4.5 hours).

I'm still furious about that it's complete bull****
Reply 5
Wow congratulations to both of you! I was also on UNIQ! I managed to get a B ( basically scraped it) and for my cultural topics i;m doing Sonnenallee and Sommerhouse, spaeter! ( baso what we did on uniq) - how are you preparing for your cultural topics? I'm doing german independently and so, I have no clue haha
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 6
Original post by glumfish
Wow congratulations to both of you! I was also on UNIQ! I managed to get a B ( basically scraped it) and for my cultural topics i;m doing Sonnenallee and Sommerhouse, spaeter! ( baso what we did on uniq) - how are you preparing for your cultural topics? I'm doing german independently and so, I have no clue haha


We have literally not even covered our cultural topics in class yet :s-smilie: the only thing I've done outside is record down all the words from the film subtitles tht I didn't know and start learning them... that's all I know LOL
Reply 7
Exam board:
AQA
AS grade and will you resit?:
B, and I'm not going to resit
What cultural topics are you doing and which specifically?:
I'm doing a region (Bavaria) and a film (Goodbye Lenin)
What A2 grade you aiming for?:
Hopefully an A
Bonus: How many people are gonna be in your class?
1
Reply 8
Original post by Anna1909
Hallo!!!! Congratulations on your A! That's amazing! I got a B two marks off an A which I am really happy with, but I am going to retake just the AS reading and writing exam as that was what I got a B in and I know I messed it up, I haven't actually done anything but I did attend the Oxford German summer school if that counts 😂 I am going to work extremely hard throughout the year though, I am just giving myself a break 😂 I am doing der Besuch der alten Dame and a history period! I am hoping for an A next year and there will only be 2 of us in the class again this year, most unpopular subject, I find that hard to believe!


Hey, I'm a German AS student applying for the UNIQ summer school for German. . I was just wondering if anyone had a personal statement I could look at just to get an idea? I have written a lot about why I want to study German but could do with all the help I can get :colondollar:
Reply 9
How's everyone enjoying A2 German? I have now reached the point again where I'm bored out of my mind by the topics lmao.

As for cultural topics; I'm going to try and persuade my teacher to let me study a musician instead of a director (which is what everyone in the class is meant to do) because I'd enjoy it a whole lot more lmao gl to me.
I'm stressing over the essays. I just can't get the structure right. Have my German mocks on Monday.
Reply 11
im ok with the essay for history but literally... trying to write an essay on a musician (or a director) ... kill me?
Hey do you guys have any tips on how to get high grades in German? I'm currently doing AS, my mocks weren't the best I got 38/90 for RWL and 30/50 for writing and am yet to do my speaking. I want to aim for a top uni and I adore German but I'm worried I'm not going to get high grades like I need and will have to drop it at AS. What do you guys do to help your German??
Reply 13
Original post by jasminglynne
Hey do you guys have any tips on how to get high grades in German? I'm currently doing AS, my mocks weren't the best I got 38/90 for RWL and 30/50 for writing and am yet to do my speaking. I want to aim for a top uni and I adore German but I'm worried I'm not going to get high grades like I need and will have to drop it at AS. What do you guys do to help your German??


You meant 30/50 for speaking right?

What has your teacher said you need to improve on for speaking? Is it grammar or pronunciation or use of opinion phrases or relevant points etc.

Likewise, where are you dropping marks in RWL because if your score is only 38 I can only but assume that means you're really really struggling with the essays?
ah no i'm on the new spec so there is a writing paper, RWL and a speaking
Reply 15
Original post by jasminglynne
ah no i'm on the new spec so there is a writing paper, RWL and a speaking


Ohhh I see, okay I have really absolutely nothing to offer here then as I don't know about how to perform well on the new spec and as such. All I can do is iterate about finding out specifically from your teachers what you need to focus on.
Has anyone here got any notes/practice questions about 'Das Leben der Anderen' or the remaining three topics?
I'm doing das leben der anderen and der Vorleser! luckily the book der Vorleser has a english film we can watch too. But I'm finding it quite difficult however we only speak about the book and its only about 4 minutes which is actually pretty short.
Reply 18
Das Leben der Anderen honestly makes me want to jump off the nearest bridge. My teacher is letting my study a musician instead and honest to god i am so thankful because talking about that film would make me cry
Do you guys have any other German A level reading and listening resources?

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