A-Level German

2

I’m currently in year 12, and am self-studying A-Level German, since my sixth form doesn’t offer it, alongside A-Level bio, chem and maths. I did well at GCSE GCSE, and really enjoyed lessons so I thought I could balance the four subjects. However, I’m finding it really difficult to fit in time for German during study sessions, but also making progress in the language is a struggle. I have all the resources (textbook, grammar workbook, vocab book) but I would like some advice on how to improve my situation with German. Thank you!

Reply 1

Kingston Vee

Official Rep

12

Original post

by IWantGrade9s

I’m currently in year 12, and am self-studying A-Level German, since my sixth form doesn’t offer it, alongside A-Level bio, chem and maths. I did well at GCSE GCSE, and really enjoyed lessons so I thought I could balance the four subjects. However, I’m finding it really difficult to fit in time for German during study sessions, but also making progress in the language is a struggle. I have all the resources (textbook, grammar workbook, vocab book) but I would like some advice on how to improve my situation with German. Thank you!

Hi @IWantGrade9s, I don't blame you for struggling, doing 4 a-levels is really tricky as it is, never mind when you're trying to self teach and one of them is a language. What I did for more passive learning that might help you since you have so much going on is to immerse yourself more in the language so doing things like:

•

listening to music

•

podcasts

•

tv shows/movies

•

Follow German influencers or people you like

•

books

This will develop your listening skills, your vocabulary and reading skills from seeing posts online and reading books.
I recommend reading a children's book first, then moving onto a book you already know well thats been translated into German, I read Harry Potter when I did my Spanish A-level and this really helped me. Watching shows and podcasts will also help you learn more conversational German and how real people talk instead of how textbooks talk.

Hopefully this helps!

Vee (kingston rep)

Reply 2

IWantGrade9s

OP

2

Original post

by Kingston Vee

Hi @IWantGrade9s, I don't blame you for struggling, doing 4 a-levels is really tricky as it is, never mind when you're trying to self teach and one of them is a language. What I did for more passive learning that might help you since you have so much going on is to immerse yourself more in the language so doing things like:

•

listening to music

•

podcasts

•

tv shows/movies

•

Follow German influencers or people you like

•

books

This will develop your listening skills, your vocabulary and reading skills from seeing posts online and reading books.
I recommend reading a children's book first, then moving onto a book you already know well thats been translated into German, I read Harry Potter when I did my Spanish A-level and this really helped me. Watching shows and podcasts will also help you learn more conversational German and how real people talk instead of how textbooks talk.
Hopefully this helps!
Vee (kingston rep)

It’s reassuring to hear that activities such as reading or even listening to music can be forms of revision.Thanks so much for the advice!

Reply 3

Kallisto

Entertainment Forum Helper, Life & Style Forum Helper

22

Original post

by IWantGrade9s

I’m currently in year 12, and am self-studying A-Level German, since my sixth form doesn’t offer it, alongside A-Level bio, chem and maths. I did well at GCSE GCSE, and really enjoyed lessons so I thought I could balance the four subjects. However, I’m finding it really difficult to fit in time for German during study sessions, but also making progress in the language is a struggle. I have all the resources (textbook, grammar workbook, vocab book) but I would like some advice on how to improve my situation with German. Thank you!

Do what I did to get a sense for the grammar and syntax to learn English as foreign language:

- listen to German music, with or without lyrics according to your skiils
- Watch films in German language (with or without lyrics)
- Read German books, and if you have very good reading skills, read even German literature.
- Ask someone to help you with grammar and syntax.

And by the by: I am a German! :smile:

Reply 4

emily1234!

Original post

by IWantGrade9s

I’m currently in year 12, and am self-studying A-Level German, since my sixth form doesn’t offer it, alongside A-Level bio, chem and maths. I did well at GCSE GCSE, and really enjoyed lessons so I thought I could balance the four subjects. However, I’m finding it really difficult to fit in time for German during study sessions, but also making progress in the language is a struggle. I have all the resources (textbook, grammar workbook, vocab book) but I would like some advice on how to improve my situation with German. Thank you!

Hi!

Firstly, massive respect for doing 4 subjects, especially self studying one! Wishing you the best of luck for that

I had a very similar decision to make, about whether to stay at my current post16 centre which don't teach A level, or travel to another one which did.

The stuff we are doing in class is a mix of the 4 disciplines (listening, speaking ect), as you would probably expect. For self study, we are expected to do an hour for an hour (an hour in class, for at least an hour of work outside of the classroom).

They have given us lots of suggestions about what to do outside of lessons including:

•

Watching German TV (including german news), with german subtitles (them noting down any vocab/ concepts you didn't understand

•

German music

•

German podcasts ect

•

Easy German yt videos (looking at the videos pitched at B1-B2)

They also set (far too much) homework for us to do which is usually writing practice. I think it is important to do a bit of everything, and if you know someone who would be happy to mark some german writing for you, I think that would definitely be worth doing!

About reading german outside of school, it might be worth going to your local library and seeing what kids books they have in german there, and speaking to the librarian there (they might be able to order stuff in for you??) Also, I would recommend having a look online and reading some things you are interested in online (e.g. if you are interested in fashion/ design, you might like reading German Vouge). Sourcing books to read in German might be a bit of an issue, so I would either do some research about that (if the library isn't very helpful) or get into reading some blogs in german. I am sure you can find all kinds of stuff about all manner of things.

https://www.vogue.de/ - a link to German Vogue

Wishing you the best of luck with your studies, I hope I have been at least a little bit helpful!