German Beginners 2025 HSC exam pack

Students should:

• be prepared to communicate about a variety of topics relating to their personal world
• elaborate and provide relevant details to address the questions in a way that engages with the examiner
• use a range of vocabulary, expressions and language structures to respond appropriately to the questions
• provide information, express ideas and comment on their personal world
• be prepared to respond to questions from a different perspective
• be prepared to respond to questions that relate to past, present and future aspects of their personal world
• avoid repetition of vocabulary, phrases and expressions
• manipulate language to fulfil the requirements of the question
• be prepared to be interrupted by the examiner
• use German to ask for repetition and/or clarification of the question.

In better responses, students were able to:

• use a wide range of language accurately and authentically
• provide clear responses to questions with minimal hesitation
• provide relevant answers to unexpected questions rather than giving a rehearsed answer
• respond appropriately with correct intonation, including for English cognates, such as, Biologie, Religion, Instrument, Familie
• use correct tenses in line with the grammar of the question
• conjugate and use a variety of verbs across past, present, future tense and conditional forms, for example, using the perfect tense with both sein and haben, and expressing future plans using werden (will)
• elaborate and justify ideas and opinions using authentic and personalised examples relating to past, present and future aspects of their personal world
• provide a variety of adjectives, for example, to describe character traits, appearance, and to provide opinions, including on school subjects
• demonstrate a good understanding of various grammatical points including case endings, adjectival endings, and use of modal verbs, for example, wir haben einen schönen Garten (we have a nice garden)
• develop ideas by using connectives, adverbs of frequency, and contrasting connectors, for example, manchmal, meistens, immer, oft, lieber (sometimes, mostly, always, often, prefer).

Areas for students to improve include:

• using correct word order with subordinate clauses, for example, weil, als, wenn (because, when, whenever)
• learning the words for all school subjects
• using correct time phrases such as jede Woche, letztes Wochenende (each/every week, last weekend)
• responding to the question of Warst du schon einmal in Deutschland? (Have you ever been to Germany?)
• elaborating their responses, rather than just responding with ja/nein (yes/no). 

Students should:

• read each question carefully
• make notes in the Candidate’s Notes column on the right side of the page
• transcribe their responses onto the lines, using the space provided for each question
• use the lines provided as a guide to the length of the responses required
• ensure that their responses are clear and address all parts of the question
• use their own words and respond in English
• avoid translating text as part of their response.

In better responses, students were able to:

• provide all the necessary textual evidence to support their response
• capture a range of details in their answers to gain full marks. For example, Markus knows a key person at the pool well and gets on with him (Q7). Carl would like a career in radio and it would be good to be known (Q10).
• understand more difficult vocabulary or verb forms. For example, beibringen (to teach) and beigebracht (taught), vergessen (to forget), vergiss/vergesst (imperative form singular and plural)
• use contextual clues to understand where the conversation is taking place (Q8).

Areas for students to improve include:

• learning key vocabulary, for example, heute Morgen (this morning) rather than morgen (tomorrow) (Q1), der Ausflug (the excursion) which was confused with der Flug (flight) (Q2), am Wochenende (weekend) rather than Woche (week) (Q7) and die Möbel (furniture) and die Ausbildung (training) (Q9)
• learning key phrases, for example, ich habe keine Lust (I don’t feel like) (Q5)
• reading the question carefully. For example, ‘What are the students reminded to do?’ (Q2).

Students should:

• read the whole text(s)
• address all parts of each question
• use the lines, table, chart provided for their response
• respond fully to the question by including details as required
• support their responses with evidence from the text where required
• use their own words rather than giving a literal translation
• use the dictionary appropriately to find the correct meaning of the word(s) in context.

In better responses, students were able to:

• understand more difficult vocabulary or verb forms. For example, werfen (to throw) and geworfen (threw) (Q12b)
• understand the many consequences of the parents’ late arrival (12b)
• summarise Nina’s message effectively (Q14)
• understand nuance, such as the microwave being part of the vending machine, which made the product very convenient (Q13b)
• interpret that Nina was offering for her daughter to look after the neighbour’s bird (Q14).

Areas for students to improve include:

• reading the instructions in the question carefully. For example, ‘refer to the second paragraph’ (Q11b)
• learning key vocabulary. For example, aufpassen  (to look after) (Q14), faul (lazy) (Q15)
• learning phrases. For example, schlecht reden über (to talk badly about, not talk over, people) (Q15)
• comparing effectively when required (Q16).

Students should:

• write to the word length required
• address the audience, purpose and context required by the question
• apply the conventions of the type of text indicated in the question
• use the appropriate register throughout the response
• use a range of tenses and sentence structures and a variety of vocabulary
• avoid repeating expressions throughout the response
• use the dictionary correctly to access vocabulary and expressions that are meaningful in the context of their response
• avoid listing
• plan their response prior to writing and edit their work afterwards.

In better responses, students were able to:

• incorporate a range of language structures in the shorter writing texts (Q16, Q17)
• demonstrate their knowledge of German spelling by capitalising nouns and using umlauts appropriately
• use supportive and encouraging language such as ich bin stolz auf dich (I’m proud of you), du schaffst das doch! (you can do this!), and viel Glück (good luck) (Q17)
• express ‘it was fun’ correctly, es hat Spaβ gemacht
• apply more difficult language structures from the syllabus, such as subordinating conjunctions, modal verbs and perfect tense (both auxiliary verbs) with a degree of accuracy, and use language and structures within their ability
• structure their response cohesively, using paragraphs where appropriate
• complete all 3 writing texts andreach the approximate target word count.

Areas for students to improve include:

• learning key vocabulary. For example, nervös (nervous) rather than nervig (annoying) (Q14)
• being careful with vocabulary that sounds like the English word, but that has a very different meaning. For example, bekommen (to receive) does not mean werden (to become), a gift is ein Geschenk, not Gift (poison), will is a form of wollen – (want to), and not the English future marker
• spelling correctly, applying umlauts correctly and writing ei/ie and vowel blends appropriately. For example, viel (much) and weil (because), heute (today)
• learning the difficult plural verb forms and pronouns, for example, appropriate when addressing grandparents (Q18)
• applying German syntax, for example, verb tenses and word order accurately without using English syntax.