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Further Maths or German A-level?

I am a Y11 student and I want to do medicine. I was going to take Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths next year but today I found out half of the FM paper would be mechanics and statistics, which I'm not a fan of. So now I'm deciding whether to take German or Further Maths. I'm not a massive fan of German, but I just thought taking a language for A level would be helpful (perhaps not in the medical field, but just in life in general). I am pretty good at Maths I would say, but I could always do German a level and do a Maths EPQ right? What do you guys think?

Reply 1

Anonymous0305

Hi! I haven't done further maths or maths, but I did German A level and I could tell you more about the course if you like?

Reply 2

missxvibes

Original post by Anonymous0305

Hi! I haven't done further maths or maths, but I did German A level and I could tell you more about the course if you like?

Hey, thanks so much. Yes please. I did my german gcse a few weeks back then, and I struggled quite a bit with the listening. But it would be great if you could give me an overview of what it is like. xxxxxx

Reply 3

Lozilo

Original post by missxvibes

Hiya! sorry for the long reply but i'm in year 13 having just finished my exams (i took four subjects) and think I might be able to help. If you think you can get behind German as a passion subject and want to put a ton of work in to broaden your interests in language, go for it! but after the past two years of studying Spanish A-level, I wouldn't suggest doing it for potential life experience at this stage. In year 12 I found myself discovering more external subject interests that weren't available at my sixth form, and this actually influenced me to apply for a Uni course in my fourth subject (studied out of school) combined with an additional language. In fact, I actually applied to do German rather than Spanish which is something I never would have anticipated in year 11!! What I mean by all of this is that if you have a love for learning German already it will be a lot easier to deal with all the essay writing, translations and speaking, whereas if your heart is set on medicine and you have a strong mathematical mind (like one of my classmates in Spanish) it might be more of a struggle to balance priorities in taking German, even if the grammar structures etc would suit your style of learning. In the end it's your choice of course and it might be worth weighing up with your teachers about it. Remember that there will be plenty of opportunities to explore language learning in your own way in University, and maybe also some useful time abroad if that's your style, so don't feel too much pressure now!
Best of luck and I hope my comment helped somewhat! :smile:

Reply 4

Anonymous0305

Okay! I do edexcel German A level, for reference.
There are three exams - Speaking, German 1 (listening, reading, and translation into English), and German 2 (Writing and translation into German).
You learn topics, just like in GCSE, and the German 1 paper is similar, just harder. The first half of the Speaking exam is also based off the topic areas. You get to pick a card topic area and then answer one of the two questions of that card. It's not a photo card, like in GCSE, but has two bullet points that will be brought up.

The second half of the speaking exam is different. You have to do an IRP (Independent research project) in which you pick something to research about a German speaking country (I did my IRP on Clara Schumann, a composer from the 1800s who lived and worked in Leipzig). Then you have to research and provide articles you researched in German, and 6-10 bullet points which can be asked about in any order by your teacher in the exam. Most people practically pre-learn their answers for this section, so you have paragraphs to answer your bullet points with, but obviously it's still a conversation so you have to answer about what they asked, regardless of what order you learned you answers.

The German 2 exam is the writing and translation into German. The translation is pretty self-explanatory, just harder than GCSE. The writing part:
You study a book and a film. Your teacher may choose instead to study two books, but it can't be two films. The book and film are German and you have to learn about them well enough to write essays about them. In the writing, you choose a question to answer for each of them, so overall in the writing section you write two 350 word essays, one about the book, one about the film.

I will not lie, I struggled with German A level. I also did Drama and Music, and am quite artistic. Music is an extremely content heavy course so doing German as well was difficult for me. I got a 9 in German GCSE (I haven't got my grade for German A level yet, am doing my A levels now). You're right, German is a very useful skill and in this course you learn about the following topics:
The environment
The school system
The world of work
Music
The Media
Festivals and traditions
Immigration and integration
The reunification of Germany

The last two topics are quite big topics and you spend a lot of time on them. I think learning German, despite it being difficult, changed my perspective on the world now, politically and socially.
I started 6th form doing 4 A levels (always with the intent to drop one, I just didn't know which), and found it insanely difficult for the month I did 4. Doing four is a lot of work, but so is medical school, so do what is best for you :smile:

German is quite a content heavy subject, so make sure it doesn't bring your other grades down as a result, but if you decide to do it, I think it's a very rewarding course in the long run.