German continuers Anyone? (5 Viewers)

[Kimbles2011]

Hi all,

Just wondering how everyone found the exam?

I found it very enjoyable, the listening was great, the reading tasks were easy, the reading-responding was nice and broad, providing plenty of scope. The writing tasks were good too.

Overall, a good exam

 

[yours]

Same! There weren't really any of those 'language features' questions which are thinly-veiled english analysis questions! Yay! There was just one compare question between the two guys who summarised the astronomy subject. Also Ramona was self-centred because she just wanted to watch the DVDs?

What writing task did you pick? I did the 'reflections on school life' final speech, it was SO corny.

 

[Kimbles2011]

Same! There weren't really any of those 'language features' questions which are thinly-veiled english analysis questions! Yay! There was just one compare question between the two guys who summarised the astronomy subject. Also Ramona was self-centred because she just wanted to watch the DVDs?

What writing task did you pick? I did the 'reflections on school life' final speech, it was SO corny.

The final listening question was so easy. Loved it!

The comparison between Christian and Robert was easy too - I just talked about the cynical tone vs the positive tone...

I did the first writing task on persuading people to host an exchange student- I was tempted to pick the second one though...

I wrote about the relationship you form with your exchange student, what you learn about yourself and how it was a wonderful experience. Really loved the exam, thought it was much easier than past exams.

Did you use the Sie form for writing A?

 

[HaplessPossum]

I found that I didn't have enough time. I was rushing the whole way through. Do you think we'll lose marks if we used du instead of sie? That's what I'm really worried about. Overall though, the listening was a lot easier than previous years.

 

[Kimbles2011]

I had so much time....

Um, I'm not sure about the Sie/du thing. A couple of my friends used 'du' but they said that the person was their age so that they could use du.

My teacher said that it didn't matter about du if you set up the task so that the person was your age or if you already knew them...

I said that I had never met them before and that they were older - I called her Frau Schmidt - so I used Sie...

 

[HaplessPossum]

Ok I should be fine then hopefully. I made it seem like they knew each other somewhat. The exam was really fair, I thought. The reading was easy to understand so I'm quite happy overall.

 

[yours]

I had so much time....

Um, I'm not sure about the Sie/du thing. A couple of my friends used 'du' but they said that the person was their age so that they could use du.

My teacher said that it didn't matter about du if you set up the task so that the person was your age or if you already knew them...

I said that I had never met them before and that they were older - I called her Frau Schmidt - so I used Sie...

Yes I also addressed my imaginary neighbour as Sie, but if you use 'du' it just sounds like you know them really well (which is also appropriate). For the reading-responding german I used 'ihr' because they were talking all chumsy with the 'tell us about yourself!' and said something about an 'einfluss auf DICH!" instead of auf SIE, so if they used du I used ihr to them (since it's a group)

Ok I should be fine then hopefully. I made it seem like they knew each other somewhat. The exam was really fair, I thought. The reading was easy to understand so I'm quite happy overall.

I had to keep my pace up because it took me ages to finish the 'listening' after it actually finished, there were a lot of notes I put in the side column I had to transfer but I finished in time to check over some of the writing.

Also: I didn't catch the name of the lake in the first listening question. It sounded like "nude See"??? lol!

 

[HaplessPossum]

Hahaha I think it was Nordsee! But don't worry I wrote that one of the guys always left his clothes in the bathtub so........

 

[yours]

Hahaha I think it was Nordsee! But don't worry I wrote that one of the guys always left his clothes in the bathtub so........

I remember that. I wrote clothes on the floor and hand-towels in the basin Handtücher im Waschbecken?
That was the guy who 'finds it hard to compromise'

 

[ngoetz]

Native speaker here. Yeah Nordsee for the first one, translates as North Sea.

They made a point to state that the neighbour was new, which insinuated that you had to use the sie form I thought.

Any other native speakers here? Who's sitting German extension on Tuesday?

 

[Kimbles2011]

I used the ihr form for the reading and responding because it was for a student run radio station and exactly as was said above - they used du/dich throughout the advertisement.

What did everyone write for the reading and responding. I wrote about a girl who went on exchange for a year and whose mother had suffered from cancer - It was pretty lame but I enjoyed writing it

 

[Kimbles2011]

Native speaker here. Yeah Nordsee for the first one, translates as North Sea.

They made a point to state that the neighbour was new, which insinuated that you had to use the sie form I thought.

Any other native speakers here? Who's sitting German extension on Tuesday?

Completely agree about saying the neighbour was new. I used 'Sie' because of the way the question was worded....

Not native - but so wish I was! hahaahah I <3 Germany.

Good luck with extension

 

[yours]

I used the ihr form for the reading and responding because it was for a student run radio station and exactly as was said above - they used du/dich throughout the advertisement.

What did everyone write for the reading and responding. I wrote about a girl who went on exchange for a year and whose mother had suffered from cancer - It was pretty lame but I enjoyed writing it

mine was the stupidest thing... it was about a crazy cat lady (for the radio station) because I thought it made her an 'interesting' person. haha she was 19 and cats shaped her life

 

[Kimbles2011]

mine was the stupidest thing... it was about a crazy cat lady (for the radio station) because I thought it made her an 'interesting' person

hahahahahah - classic...!

 

[ngoetz]

Completely agree about saying the neighbour was new. I used 'Sie' because of the way the question was worded....

Not native - but so wish I was! hahaahah I <3 Germany.

Good luck with extension

Haha thanks! And kudos, to cope with the time limit that well is amazing if youre not native!!!

I always feel so queasy after the exam because they have such strict marking guidelines for the listening as to what you must mention :/ what score are you guys aiming for?

 

[yours]

Native speaker here. Yeah Nordsee for the first one, translates as North Sea.

They made a point to state that the neighbour was new, which insinuated that you had to use the sie form I thought.

Any other native speakers here? Who's sitting German extension on Tuesday?

I'm doing extension! I did lame on the monologue because I forgot to bring a stopwatch into the exam. How much do you usually write for the responding in english? Just what fills the lines?

 

[Kimbles2011]

Hoping for a strong band 6. Does anyone know the raw score for a band 6?

Not many schools do German these days so it's nice to see some other people who do!!

I nearly did extension, but I would've had 13 units so I didn't

 

[yours]

Haha thanks! And kudos, to cope with the time limit that well is amazing if youre not native!!!

I always feel so queasy after the exam because they have such strict marking guidelines for the listening as to what you must mention :/ what score are you guys aiming for?

I hate the way they mark listening for the tests. You have to write down everything even if it's irrelevant because you don't know if they'll just 'decide' it was necessary to mention some single word. They should make simpler questions with more difficulty in the conversations... like harder vocab. At least that's how I felt in all the school assessments

 

[ngoetz]

I'm doing extension! I did lame on the monologue because I forgot to bring a stopwatch into the exam. How much do you usually write for the responding in english? Just what fills the lines?

No I usually go over a fair bit. If you look at the sample answers, many would not fit in the given lines.
Haha yeah monologues suck. I was the guy that put his hand up in the waiting room and asked whether stopwatches were fine, remember me ?

 

[Kimbles2011]

I'm impressed by the fact that you both do extension! You must blitz continuers - State rankers??? hahahah???