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AS German Oral Help

I have my German Exam this Thursday, panicking lots because I find some of the topics awful! Does anyone have any last minute revision tips?

Reply 1

cookiemonster15

Original post by hann__

I have my German Exam this Thursday, panicking lots because I find some of the topics awful! Does anyone have any last minute revision tips?

Have you thought about potential questions thy may ask you and answers you can give?

Reply 2

pizzanomics

Original post by hann__

I have my German Exam this Thursday, panicking lots because I find some of the topics awful! Does anyone have any last minute revision tips?

Copying this from a comment I made in a different thread. This advice is mostly related to the way the WJEC speaking exam is carried out, so don't worry if you don't use "oral cards" or whatever - if your teacher hasn't mentioned oral cards then you don't use them and it's nothing to worry about, don't be scared by anything unfamiliar I've mentioned below.

After completing the oral cards, you'll have a 10 minute conversation about yourself, what you're studying, what you like to do in your free time, simple things like that. The second half is literally just talking about yourself - the only difficult part is that you might get asked a question that you don't understand, in which case, ALWAYS ask what the examiner means. You score well for keeping the conversation going, not just being accurate and knowing extensive vocab. When in doubt, stick in a "Wie heisst das/Was bedeutet das auf Englisch?" or something similar.

You can always lie in the second part obviously, but beware that the examiner will take the conversation wherever you want it to go. So for example, if the examiner asks what you do in your freetime, and you say you like dancing, then you can bet s/he will ask you questions about dancing and why you like it. If you don't know any German vocab related to dancing, then say that you like to do something that you can talk about.

Whatever you end up talking about, make sure it's something you can give a lot of opinions on. Even if you don't agree with those opinions... Also, try not to remember full sentences because the examiner will pick up on it - try and remember good words/phrases and know how to put those words/phrases into sentences. However having said that, try and remember one really good sentence with an advanced sentence structure in it, because remembering one and using it correctly wont hurt, and even if you butcher it, it'll look like you're trying. I'd recommend something like the subjunctive - "Wenn ich viel Geld haette, wuerde ich eine Weltreise machen".

Another good tip is to use a more German way of saying something as opposed to translating directly from English. Compare "Ich mag Basketball" with "Basketball gefaellt mir gut".

Any other questions then feel free to ask. :smile: