GCSE German speaking exam: complete guide to getting a 9 - what to do and what not to do #grade9

Hi and H, today I'm going to talk to you all about the GCSE German Speaking

exam

and I'm going to tell you how to get a grade n in conversation, so there's quite a bit of crossover in

what

I'm going to do. let's say also for the French and German

speaking

exam

s, but the focus is on German, so we will look a little at the marking scheme,

what

exactly you need to do with your answers to get a grade n and then we will continue. to see some real examples of what to do and what not to do in the oral exam, let's get into it, let's start with the first part of the oral exam, the role play, in fact, before we even get into the role play you have.

Your preparation time is 12 minutes, so you have 12 minutes to prepare the role play and photo card. Role play answers should be short and simple so that you can spend 6 minutes doing the role play. 6 minutes to make the photo card, but your sentences for the photo card will need to be a little more complex, so spend a few more minutes on the photo card. State your answers clearly. Write them in bullet form on separate lines and this reflects the format of the role. game card which we'll look at in a second keep answers as short and simple as possible, as you mentioned you don't get credit for complex answers but you could lose points for your knowledge of the language if you make mistakes trying to extend once you've answered the question , the examiner stops grading, so you really have no benefit in trying to extend your answers in this part of the test, so let's take a look at this role-play example so you can You are given this when you enter the preparation room, there are five points you need to consider, you are going to answer three questions that you have prepared where the exclamation point is, you get a surprise question. or maybe two surprise questions and then when you see the question mark you have to ask the examiner a question, so if you look briefly at the role play marking scheme, as you can see the role play is worth 15 points. a total of 60 for the oral essay. and you have five bullet points on your role play card that you are given, as we saw in the previous slide, and each bullet is marked between two, so the focus is really on communication.

Are you conveying the message clearly and understandably to the The examiner yes or no and you also receive an overall rating of five for your knowledge and use of language, but it is only very good knowledge and use of language, so no makes no reference to complexity, so keep it short and simple because you won't get any credit for extending, but you might lose points if you try to extend and then make some grammatical mistakes, as you can see, I'm presenting my notes in bullet form too when there are a surprise question. put a bullet point in there when the examiner talks to me, even if I'm not sure what they're asking or it doesn't quite match what I expect them to say.

I'm just reading my notes and I know exactly what to say when and I'm going to keep them as short and simple as possible so we just looked at an example of a role play in context let's break it down a little bit what you can see on your screen right now is the examiner script you're not going to see that on the exam, so the first question and you can go into Dam and think Fest to Smith What the hell does that mean? This is actually a pretty common type of question in roleplaying. So what about foreign languages ​​at your school?

This is where setting out your notes in bullet form is really helpful, because even if you don't understand what the examiner is asking you, you know you just need to do it. first questions you know you need to read the first point you have written so just answer with three words short simple job done question two so since when have you been learning

german

in school and why do

german

s they use the present tense with a foreign meaning, so again it's a very short and simple answer, it doesn't even have to be a

complete

sentence, then the next one is your surprise question and that's where it's really important that you have presented your notes in the form of bullets and Or you have left a space or you have written a surprise question to know that the surprise question is coming and you have to think about the place so as not to continue reading your notes because then You are going to mix it up and you are going to answer a question that you don't yet has been done, so make sure you've set up your notes in bullet form like I showed you earlier in the video.

There are some surprise questions where you actually get two surprise questions, most of them are just one, but occasionally you will get two and you will have to answer both to get two points. It's okay to ask the examiner to repeat something like sour V. um will make the examiner repeat the question if necessary and that's absolutely fine, you're not prepared for that so that's fine you have to say why so it will be a slightly longer answer but still quite short um and then , when you get to the question at the end, it may seem obvious, but ask a question that fits the context of the role-play.

So you are talking to an exchange partner. What question would you ask an exchange partner? Anyone in Germany? Because? they learn foreign languages ​​what foreign languages ​​they learn something you could actually ask in that context um so that was my answer to the number yes because I like the language and then my question why do you learn foreign languages ​​well role play done now let's see in the second part, which is the photo card, so going back to the preparation time, first of all, when you're preparing, you need at least three to four clauses per question for three of the questions, so that you have three prepared questions and then you will receive two surprise questions, you also have to give an explanation and opinion and the answers to all the questions must be clear, so not only the three prepared questions but also the two unprepared questions must be answered clearly, but for those two, if you have expanded on the first three prepared questions, then you only need to give an understandable answer to the two unprepared ones.

One doesn't have to be as long for those, as long as you've expanded on the first three, so To take the pressure off yourself by making three or four clauses for those three prepared questions, you can feel very confident with the two unprepared ones and give them a pass. three to four clauses too, but the first question doesn't always have to be what's in the photo, so your answer should be related to the photo, although you can use guesses like I guess a question will ask your opinion, too you have to explain it, so use, for example, vile because you don't have to. it only gives your opinion but also explains it, because you can write 3 to four clauses for the prepared questions that you are reading in the notes, so make sure you prepare your answers exactly as the marking scheme requires. because then you're just reading it and it's easy marks, so as we just mentioned, this is the marking scheme, so to get into that top band, you're answering the five questions clearly developing most of the answers. most means three out of the five questions and develop means giving at least three Clauses so three to four Clauses for your three prepared questions and that will be safe then and give and explain an opinion so here is an example photo card , so that's what you need.

You will get it when you enter the preparation room. Although yours won't be in color, but first skip to the first question for each photo card. What's better in the photo? So where can you best spend your holidays? All of that will naturally lead you to give an opinion and what did you do last year during the summer holidays? So we've talked a lot about three or four clauses, what do we mean by that exactly, a ski street, there's a beach? so that is a Clause a ski Str sh so there is a beach and the sun shines are two Clauses so the Clauses are often separated by a connective like and but because although and so on skip an in strun and there are three Clauses so there is a beach where a lot of people are lying in the sun and relaxing, so they use a relative clause like who, which, that, that also means another clause, as you can see when I write my answers on the photo card.

I also do it in vignettes. form, making sure to write three to four clauses for each of the prepared questions, if I do that, that just takes the pressure off of the surprise questions, making sure I have an opinion there and explaining it in the photo SK this pH thing, so Don't make these common photo card mistakes often for G. This will be the start of your sentence for that first question every time you have that in the message. Don't change it. You know it's grammatically correct, so just. be careful, stick with that and that's also for the other two prepared questions use the words in those prompts to help you formulate your answer make sure you have at least three clauses, so three or four clauses will be safe Do that for all three prepared questions.

I can't emphasize that enough and here's a formula you can use for the first question because it's always the same thing as what's in the photo, so you could say frequently to clarify the dial. on your computer, lest in the photo there are four people playing on the computer, which is funny or funny, so you can use that formula all the time for the first question, so how many people are in the photo, what are they doing and what? your opinion on this is such, as you can see from my answer, often to get this lighter Fe, for example, in the photo there were four people who were playing the computer, so lustig so you can insert any adjective there and then I'm going to send the verb in this case is to the end of the sentence and you can use that formula every time and make sure you include three clauses in that first question and then explain your opinion, as you can see with the second question, there is a ask.

There, which will lead you to give your opinion, make sure you also explain it using vile Pho oh for foras, so here is the examiner script and of course you won't see this in the exam. because it has the two unprepared questions printed on them, but let's analyze these answers that I showed you in the previous one in the previous one, so three clauses in the photo there is a beach where many people are lying in the sun. and relaxing, you spend the holidays best of all disappointed because there is a lot to do two clauses third clause so that you don't get bored what did you do last year on the summer holidays leave one cl last year I was on holiday on the beach in Italy what were they? incredibly cool two Veta Clauses because the weather was always warm, third Clause, so I gave three Clauses for those first three questions.

I gave an opinion and explained it using vile, so now I've complied with the marking scheme. all I have to do is answer clearly the two questions asked and I will be comfortably in that upper band why vacations are so important so vacations are important because one must relax regularly so there are only two clauses in which It's not so extensive that I could extend it more if I wanted to, but it's not necessary. I've done it enough for the first three, but on an F of Z plane, what are your plans for this summer? So you can see, that's like asking me a question in the future tense.

One thing you should know is that if you receive a question in the past tense in your prepared questions, as you can see in my third question, you will receive a question in the future tense in the unprepared questions and vice versa. This summer I will travel to Türkiye. because the beaches are particularly or especially beautiful, so again only two clauses. I have answered it clearly, it is not necessary to extend it, extend it more than the work done. Now let's look at the final part of the oral exam, the general conversation, so for the general conversation before.

You start this part, you have done your roll play and you have made your photo card now you need to hand in the notes that you took in the preparation time to your teachers who take the test, so you will no longer have notes when you do the general conversation just you and the examining teacher but of course you should have been preparing your answers and memorizing the answers to the typical questions in the period before the oral exam, now is the time to expand the use of all the structures, all the vocabulary, all the grammar that you've been learning for the last few years, you basically want to show off your knowledge of German and this part is worth half of the entire oral essay, so this is the part you really want to do well, so quickly look at the mark. scheme for general conversation, so you have a score of 10 for your communication, speech sequences as extended as we have said, you need to give and explain opinions, so use vile and not voil because and although then a score of 10 for the scope and precision of language, you want a wide variety oflanguage, so vocabulary grammatical structures need three tenses or three time frames, so complex structures of past, present, future, so use things like V for because, so, for when or if I have another video . where you can see a full list of complex structures that you can use in the oral exam and just click on the link, you will also get a rating of five for your pronunciation and interpretation so it doesn't mean you have to sound like a native speaker, that's not expected, but there are some key sounds in German that a speaker of English or any other language should be able to pronounce or at least have good experience pronouncing things like V so W sounds like a V EI sounds like an i vil F so the V sounds like an f and the i e sounds like an e to f the CH H in so it is an s sound depending on the word that comes if it is followed by a vowel Z or if it is followed by a consonant and pay attention to oml sh ya sh beautiful sh sh thaten will be V, so try to focus on some key sounds to get them right because that will help you improve your pronunciation. and intonation and finally a fire note forces spontaneity and flow so yes, you are planning your answers, you are practicing your memorization, but you are trying not to sound rehearsed, you are still trying to sound natural and you want to extend, but that doesn't mean that you are talking for 2 and a half minutes just about that question in the first question that the examiners asked you, yes you want to, it is a conversation, it is not a speech, so you want to leave space for the examiner to ask you questions, so that if has answered a question and said something interesting, the examining teacher will ask you a follow-up question based on what you just said and that is where you can show your spontaneity and you don't have to extend it as long as your other answers, but the purpose of this It is simply showing you that you can think on the spot and that you can respond naturally and spontaneously and not just sit there, hesitating, wondering what to say, but only out of five the influence of spontaneity is not as much as the communication note and the variety. of the language, so words like of course, definitely and also different filler words like NAA cha, them.

It will give you some time to think and will also help you sound smoother and much more natural in your conversation. So which topic should you choose well? Of course, it is a personal choice that is

complete

ly up to you what you are going to choose, but it is probably better to choose the topic that is more difficult in quotes. It's difficult because it just depends on the person. Whatever you find most difficult may not be the same as what someone else finds most difficult. Overall, topic two could be said to be the most challenging because it includes social and global issues that might be a little more difficult to talk about.

You may not have enough to say on those issues. You may need a little more thinking time to find the answer, so if you have planned for them. answers, then you'll probably have more to say and when you do, hopefully your surprise topic will be on an easier topic that you can think about a little more in the moment when you get a spontaneous question, but having said that, yeah. If you really want to plan your answers to all three topics, you'll probably just do your chosen topic in a little more detail and just to keep in mind that the photo card I showed you earlier in the video was a topic two card, so let's go. to see some general conversation answers for topic two, but keep in mind that if you choose topic two and your general conversation, you would have gotten a different photo card than the one I showed you earlier in the video, so for topic two.

These are some possible questions you might find there. You can find them on the AQA website. Like a previous paper, you won't get exactly these questions. You won't know exactly what questions you have. You will get, but there are only a limited number of questions you could ask and face on the exam. If you're talking about holidays, how many different questions can you be asked about holidays? Where have you been in the past? Where would you do? would like to go in the future, what you normally do, there is a limited scope to what you can be asked, so preparing answers to common questions will give you a good idea of ​​what you might face on the exam, but of course, you will not go. to know exactly what those questions are beforehand, so let's take a look at some examples of answers in um in a little more detail for Rec para in Canada feels while para so we just looked at an example of a general conversation. topic in the oral exam and we've seen and heard examples of answers you want to aim for when doing your general conversation, but here's just a summary of what not to do in the oral exam. only short answers no, you want to expand your answers as much as possible using short and simple structures again no, you want to give as many complex structures as you can forget to ask a question so that the person taking your test can remind you at the end of the general conversation that ask them a question if you haven't already, but it's best just when you're planning your answers to plan a question and ask it as soon as you can to make sure I've got it there, it sounds rehearsed in robotics again, it's not how you want it to be, Of course, you will plan your answers and memorize your answers, but there is still a difference between sounding rehearsed when you are reading and sounding really natural. when you're having the conversation and you start talking about something completely unrelated to the topic, yes, you want to extend the narration of events, but it still has to be related to it, otherwise you won't get credit for it, so that some final tips. prepare a question related to your chosen topic you will be penalized with one mark if you don't ask a question so prepare it and ask it as soon as you can some answers may be shorter yes that's ok you may not know what to say if the examiner asks you a question for which you are not 100% prepared.

Alright. Some questions. Some answers will be shorter, but in general you want to make them as long as possible. You have to speak from 2 and 1/2 to 3 and 1./2 minutes you can't escape that, so that's for each topic, so the topic chosen will be from 2 and 1 half to 3 and 1/2 minutes and its surprise theme from 2 and 1/2 to 3 and 1/2 minutes. So the shorter your answers are, the more questions you'll have to answer, so it's best to make them as long as possible. Leave space for the examiner to ask you follow-up questions. Yes, you are preparing questions. Preparing your answers to the questions.

Memorizing. but while you're at it, if you can predict what follow-up questions the examiner might ask you, that will help you now, the follow-up questions might be answered more briefly, which is totally fine, the purpose of those follow-up questions is to show spontaneity, which is okay five points in the marking scheme, and also the ability to think and respond on the spot by predicting what these follow-up questions might be, there is a better chance that you will be able to maintain your fluency and that you won't be sitting there wondering what to say. , so I hope the video was helpful.

Leave any questions in the comments and good luck on your oral exam.