How hard are IB SL foreign languages?

I got an A in GCSE German 4 years ago (did it early, and I'm 18, not 16), but I can hardly remember anything. Will I be able to pick it up quickly again, or is this a difficult course?

Reply 1

RayApparently

21

Sorry I can't give any advice (starting next year - SL Spanish) but I'm interested in what other people have to say.

Reply 2

GorlimtheUnhappy

2

I did IB SL German and got a 6. If you work hard, you can get a 7. I had a tough time with devoting enough time to German but looking back, it didn't seem you really needed to know GCSE stuff. (I also got an A at GCSE German.) You need to have a solid grasp of grammar. You need to be confident and willing to talk in lessons. You then need to learn a lot of vocab - but that's the easy bit. If you can learn the vocab and the grammar, then the hardest bit about the course is the reading exam. You need to "read around" the subject and pick up a lot of vocab.

Reply 3

cheeriosarenice

OP

10

Original post by GorlimtheUnhappy

I did IB SL German and got a 6. If you work hard, you can get a 7. I had a tough time with devoting enough time to German but looking back, it didn't seem you really needed to know GCSE stuff. (I also got an A at GCSE German.) You need to have a solid grasp of grammar. You need to be confident and willing to talk in lessons. You then need to learn a lot of vocab - but that's the easy bit. If you can learn the vocab and the grammar, then the hardest bit about the course is the reading exam. You need to "read around" the subject and pick up a lot of vocab.

How much time should I devote to german? Do I need to do some every day? What are the best books for grammar and vocab? What exactly do you mean by read around the subject? Thanks

Reply 4

GorlimtheUnhappy

2

Original post by cheeriosarenice

How much time should I devote to german? Do I need to do some every day? What are the best books for grammar and vocab? What exactly do you mean by read around the subject? Thanks

I'm not sure it will vary from person to person. I'm only saying you should devote time because getting a 7 in SL German should be one of the easier 7s you obtain. I didn't put much time or effort and I got a 6, had I spent more time, I think I would have got a 7. To get a 7, you need to be on top of your work from the get go so mybae set aside 3 slots a week to learn vocab. Sorry I can't recommend any good books, I used the AS and A2 German books - it shouldn't really make a difference what textbook you use.

Okay so when you take your exams, you'll have a writing exercise where you need to know enough vocab to actually write about something. This is the easy bit because you can prepare for this. In the reading paper however, you get an extract which you need to analyze - and this extract has a whole tonne of vocabulary you will not meet if you only prepared by looking at the topics used for the writing paper. Even now I'm not too sure how one should try and come across this vocab but the only thing I can suggest is you get in the habit of reading German literature - this could be reading German newspapers and magazines or short stories - hopefully someone else can advise you here. In my opinion, the reading paper is the hardest section.

Reply 5

justified_chaos

I'm studying French SL. Any websites useful for background reading. I got an A* in the recent IGCSE exams but want to make sure i get 7. Any websites that deals with news or sport would be great.

Reply 6

I Like Turtles.

1

Original post by RayApparently

Sorry I can't give any advice (starting next year - SL Spanish) but I'm interested in what other people have to say.

Will you be doing Spanish ab initio? If so, then it won't be too hard to get a good grade in it. I had done a bit of spanish in middle school and barely remembered any of it by the time I began the IB and I managed to get a 7. I would suggest really learning the basics well. As in the simple describing words and basic grammar. Also look at the criteria for each assessment so you can prepare yourself accordingly.

I wouldn't mind answering any other questions :smile:

Reply 7

RayApparently

21

Original post by I Like Turtles.

Will you be doing Spanish ab initio? If so, then it won't be too hard to get a good grade in it. I had done a bit of spanish in middle school and barely remembered any of it by the time I began the IB and I managed to get a 7. I would suggest really learning the basics well. As in the simple describing words and basic grammar. Also look at the criteria for each assessment so you can prepare yourself accordingly.

I wouldn't mind answering any other questions :smile:

Unfortunately I'm doing SL not Ab initio. I've heard it'll make my life somewhat trickier.

I will of course be following your advice and if something strikes me I'll be sure to msg you if that's ok? :smile:

Reply 8

I Like Turtles.

1

Original post by RayApparently

Unfortunately I'm doing SL not Ab initio. I've heard it'll make my life somewhat trickier.

I will of course be following your advice and if something strikes me I'll be sure to msg you if that's ok? :smile:

Make your life trickier how?? And sure not a problem! Happy to help :smile:

Reply 9

MimiUNI

4

Teachers focus a lot on oral. So you have to know how to speak and understand it a lot more than just writing it. I'd reccommend watching German movies, or TV shows or whatever. To get through the writing aspect of it, that is honestly just memorization. You'll do great!

For more advice on IB, check out my IB blog!

ibinib.blogspot.ca

Reply 10

NancyRoseC

9

If you're good at the language, it's easy but if you're not so fluent it can be a bit tricky. i don't like the focus on the culture, and you have to learn facts and stuff about the country and language in your oral to score good marks. Just make sure you learn all the tenses and stuff beforehand, you can't afford to be lacking on the simple stuff with the amount of vocab you'll be learning

How hard are IB SL foreign languages?

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