Any ideas on how to get high grades in A Level German (or other languages at a level)

I think i might do German A Level, as i do enjoy it and i like the idea of learning another language. However, at GCSE level, I got by with just memorising loads of sentences and paragraphs. My school didn't really teach us grammar, so i'm behind on that, and for the exams, i just memorised stuff. I'm worried that i'm now going to struggle with A Level because i don't think i'm naturally good at it. However, if i work hard at A Level German, is it likely that i'll get a high grade - or is this impossible to do unless you're naturally good at it?

Reply 1

Bekki S

Original post by Avocados102

Just finished my first year of a level French I would say that language learning is one of the hardest things you can do at a level. I struggled the most with French and there was definitely a lot of work to do. If you're prepared to dedicate your time to learning the language you should be okay. Some things that have helped me that could be useful to you are:
.watching youtubers who speak the language you're learning
.watching films or tv series
.reading books
.listening to podcasts/ music
.following influencers who speak the language (this is a good way to learn slang and sound more like a native speaker)
.I've heard of hello talk where you can talk to people who speak the language but I haven't tried it out.
.My French teacher always set us memrise tasks and we'd often have little vocab tests (this really helped me pick up new words instead of using the same things over and over)
.As for learning grammar and tenses, I'd recommend buying a grammar workbook and just working through that a bit at a time.
As long as you're using/learning the language frequently it should get easier and after a while you'll notice your confidence boosting. We did a lot of speaking throughout year 12 which is something I didn't do a lot of at GCSE and I wasn't confident at all when I started a levels. However now I feel I could have a decent conversation in French, mainly because of the methods I listed above.
Good luck if you decide to do German a level.