German Continuers 2018 HSC exam pack

Students should:

• expand on their answers with relevant information
• listen carefully to the question and consider whether the examiner is offering an opportunity to speak in the past or future tense or show knowledge of comparative or conditional clauses
• sound interested and speak audibly and not too quickly.

In better responses, students were able to:

• engage effectively with the examiner and offer information which goes beyond a simple answer to the questions
• sustain the conversation over the ten minutes and use a high level of grammatical accuracy, especially correct word order
• use a sophisticated range of vocabulary
• speak with good pronunciation and intonation
• move between tenses and talk in the third person effectively
• state their opinions and provide explanations.

Areas for students to improve include:

• preparing for the exam so that they feel confident across the range of personal world topics
• have opinions and ideas, especially about future plans and research vocabulary that they might need
• revise the correct perfect tense auxiliaries and past participles and remember to send verbs to the end of clauses with subordinating conjunctions, for example, ‘weil, dass, wenn’
• make a distinction when speaking between ‘werde’ and ‘würde’
• review their use of ‘gefallen, gern/lieber’ + verb.

Students should:

• read the question carefully and address all parts of the question in their response
• ensure their response provides all the relevant information to fully answer the question
• transcribe notes from the Candidates Notes column to the space provided for the question.

In better responses, students were able to:

• refer to language techniques with appropriate examples from the text
• provide all the necessary textual evidence to support their response
• provide evidence from the text to support their ideas, for example, kind – he agrees to help with studying together
• make judgements and justify these using their own words
• interpret and analyse rather than simply retelling the story or translating the text.

Areas for students to improve include:

• using their dictionary appropriately find the correct meaning of word or words for the context
• proofreading responses so that they make sense and are not contradictory.

Students should:

• analyse the information in the text or draw a conclusion rather than give a literal translation
• use the only lines allocated for the question
• use the dictionary appropriately to find the correct meaning of the word or words in context.

In better responses, students were able to:

• provide specific detail required by the question, for example in Question 8(b) a distinction needed to be made between calling and texting
• interpret information and answer using their own words rather than just translating the text
• understand Angebot, Geschmack, Gast, geschlossen and Ämter Obergrenze
• express what the article revealed and used appropriate references from the text to support their response.

Areas for students to improve include:

• using own words or paraphrasing to show understanding of quotes from text
• avoiding repeating information used to answer other questions
• using the dictionary appropriately to find the correct meaning of the word or words for the context of the text.

Students should:

• demonstrate understanding of the whole text and not just respond to questions asked in the text
• respond to all relevant and key points raised in the text, for example, comments made, requests for advise
• respond to the question asked in relation to the text
• edit their work in relation to grammar and spelling.

In better responses, students were able to:

• engage with the whole text and included the following points:
  • no longer having holiday plans and Sascha only sitting at home
  • Sascha’s suitability (or not) for the youth forum website
  • having many ideas/interests to contribute/feel passionate about money earning potential.
• respond using original ideas and not simply translating original text
• use sophisticated language that demonstrates an appropriate use of a range of vocabulary and grammatical structures
• sequence their ideas logically, using appropriate conventions of language.

Areas for students to improve include:

• demonstrating understanding of the whole text by responding to information in the text using their own words
• responding in a coherent and logical way to show understanding of text
• ensuring meeting the correct length requirements of task
• proofreading their work and concentrating on the accuracy of verb conjugations, word order after subordinate clauses and cases after prepositions
• using appropriate punctuation
• using relevant vocabulary such as:
  • Ein Jugendforum”in this context was an online website, not a place
  • Recht (recht) haben, Spaß machen vs haben, keine festen Pläne mehr.

Question 11 (5 marks)

Students should:

• ensure they read the question carefully, for example, thanking grandparents for tickets to a sporting event after attending this event not before going to the event
• use the appropriate register for writing to grandparents
• commence and conclude the note appropriately.

In better responses, students were able to:

• compose a coherent text that uses the correct register ihr/euch/euer/eure consistently
• use the correct tense (preferably perfect tense)
• describe the event and thank grandparents warmly.

Areas for students to improve include:

• awareness of using correct register, for example, informal plural ihr
• applying tense and subject verb agreement rules
• using correct word order including inversion and position of verbs in subordinate clauses.

Question 12a (10 marks)

Students should:

• read the question carefully and address all parts of the question in their response
• plan their response to ensure a clear structure and sequence
• use the appropriate register
• commence and conclude email appropriately
• proofread and edit their text.

In better responses, students were able to:

• compose a coherent text that is clearly sequenced in paragraphs
• present a number of ideas to convince and persuade the friend
• demonstrate an excellent command of language structures, for example, a variety of tenses and the conditional form, subordinate clauses, and a wide range of vocabulary and expressions.

Areas for students to improve include:

• structuring text in paragraphs
• sequencing text in a coherent and logical way
• checking spelling and grammatical accuracy, including the capitalisation of nouns
• use dictionary appropriately to ensure correct word or words are used in the context of the question.

Question 12b (10 marks)

Students should:

• read the question carefully
• ensure they use language that shows reflection on how they feel after the cancellation rather than only describe an alternative plan
• plan their response to ensure a clear structure and sequence
• use the appropriate register consistently
• commence and sign off the email appropriately
• proofread and edit their text.

In better responses, students were able to:

• compose a coherent text that is clearly sequenced in paragraphs
• present a number of points of reflection, for example, ich hatte mich so darauf gefreut, deshalb bin ich so enttaeuscht
• consider an alternative activity and/or ask friend for advise how to overcome disappointment
• demonstrate an excellent command of language structures, for example, using a variety of tenses and the conditional form and subordinate clauses, and a wide range of vocabulary and expressions.

Areas for students to improve include:

• structuring the text in paragraphs
• organising the text is coherent and sequenced logically
• checking spelling and grammatical accuracy including capitalisation of nouns
• use dictionary appropriately to ensure correct word or words are used in the context of the question.