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GCSE German

Hiya,

I am going to be doing GCSE German next summer (IGCSE) as a private candidate and am particularly looking for a course book with a listening CD included as I am learning the language from scratch. The tutor who will be conducting my speaking exam (at the moment my spoken German is very very very basic) has suggested any course book but none seem to have listening CDs included.

I have found a few good websites, but a book would be much more useful.

Could anyone reckon a grammar book too? I have the Acción gramática (Spanish), Azione grammatica (Italian) and Action grammaire (French) when I was doing my A-Levels in these languages years ago (am doing French A2 now at night school as it turns out) and was thinking about getting Aktion Grammatik for German, but it seems it is more tailored to German A-Level students, whereas I am only going to be doing GCSE.

Do any of you have any advice?

Thanks!

Jordan

Reply 1

hannah_dru

I used this CD which came with a book when I did GCSE German. The book was particularly good. I've used The German Handbook for grammar.I don't have it on me at the moment but I think it might have both basic and specific parts of grammar in it.

Reply 2

chicoinglés

Thanks a lot for that! I shall certainly be considering those. However is seems The Essentials of GCSE German is more of a revision guide than a coursebook...

Reply 3

hannah_dru

Original post by chicoinglés

Thanks a lot for that! I shall certainly be considering those. However is seems The Essentials of GCSE German is more of a revision guide than a coursebook...

Yeah it is. It's quite difficult to get course books in German which can be a problem.

Reply 4

LRJones

Our school used this before they switched exam boards. I don't think it's exam board specific, as I sat my GCSE as a native speaker 2 years early and didn't need a text book, so I couldn't say for sure. However, I flicked through it at school once, and have cast an eye over the website, and it is very accurate German, and my non-native speaker friends and classmates have all said that the textbook was very good. So it might be worth considering.

On the down side, it is VERY expensive! The CDs are over £100......

If you do need any help with written German or reading and understanding, I can help you with this! :smile:

Good Luck! :smile:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

chicoinglés

Original post by Rory Vogel

Our school used this before they switched exam boards. I don't think it's exam board specific, as I sat my GCSE as a native speaker 2 years early and didn't need a text book, so I couldn't say for sure. However, I flicked through it at school once, and have cast an eye over the website, and it is very accurate German, and my non-native speaker friends and classmates have all said that the textbook as very good. So it might be worth considering.

On the down side, it is VERY expensive! The CDs are over £100......

If you do need any help with written German or reading and understanding, I can help you with this! :smile:

Good Luck! :smile:

Danke schön für deinen Hilfe :smile:

Reply 6

chicoinglés

Just to update: I've just done a past listening paper (well sample one) for IGCSE and got 28/30...I have been nice to myself but I still would have got at worst 25/30 for it so that's not bad going I don't think seeing as I can't really even write/speak the language...maybe I should go for an A*!