Getting an A1 in German?

JDOC1996

Hey,
I'm a leaving cert student and I'm wondering if anyone can assist me with my quest for an A1 in German?
At the moment my German is probably at about B standard, but I really need to improve it in order to get my points.
Can anybody shed some light to me on how to achieve this?

comeclosa

JDOC1996 wrote: »

Hey,
I'm a leaving cert student and I'm wondering if anyone can assist me with my quest for an A1 in German?
At the moment my German is probably at about B standard, but I really need to improve it in order to get my points.
Can anybody shed some light to me on how to achieve this?

Learn your oral pictures and roleplays off by heart for sure! Don't over-complicate, but know your stuff.
Make sure tapework is PERFECT!
To assist this, I'd suggest going to www.dw.de and watching their 3 minute news segment called Journal every day. Try listening out to numbers, places, people, actions etc. Don't try to understand EVERYTHING, but just the important bits.
Learn a few important phrases and idioms such as "Gott sei Dank!" "Man muss zugeben, dass..." etc.
Don't make silly spelling mistakes!
Try learning 10 words you'd see often enough off-by-heart a week.
Know your grammar rules

RebelLAD1

im in the same boat. any websites that will give decent notes or help ? especially with the grammar side of things e.g modal verbs and all them

Canard

I didn't do German in school but I decided to learn it after, here are some sites I've found useful, hopefully you guys can also use them.

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/grammatik/index.html (more grammar than anything tbh)

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/Vokabeln/frequent_words.html (from the same site but just so you don't miss it, it's quite useful and has modal verbs etc)

http://ielanguages.com/German.html This site explains everything and also does comparative stuff, so if you happen to study French or anything it can be handy.

http://www.german-grammar.de/grammar/content/english_german_table_of_content.htm (Grammar again, probably overlaps a bit with the others)

The language I did was French, and what really pushed my grades up was listening to French music. If you listen to music in a foreign language and look up the lyrics so you can follow it (and note new words), aurals become so easy because they're so slow in comparison. Silbermond, Nena, and especially Cro are really good German singers.

Viel Glück!

HPMS

Canard wrote: »

I didn't do German in school but I decided to learn it after, here are some sites I've found useful, hopefully you guys can also use them.

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/grammatik/index.html (more grammar than anything tbh)

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/Vokabeln/frequent_words.html (from the same site but just so you don't miss it, it's quite useful and has modal verbs etc)

http://ielanguages.com/German.html This site explains everything and also does comparative stuff, so if you happen to study French or anything it can be handy.

http://www.german-grammar.de/grammar/content/english_german_table_of_content.htm (Grammar again, probably overlaps a bit with the others)

The language I did was French, and what really pushed my grades up was listening to French music. If you listen to music in a foreign language and look up the lyrics so you can follow it (and note new words), aurals become so easy because they're so slow in comparison. Silbermond, Nena, and especially Cro are really good German singers.

Viel Glück!

I did French too for LC and got an A1 in it but considering taking up German alongside French this year just to have another language - did you find it more difficult/easier than French?? And did you find it hard to separate the two languages when speaking one?

EDIT: Also, I know this is a bit off topic to the thread so sorry OP! Just was curious

iamcornholio

Google translate is your friend, look up as many phrases that you can use in any situation, such as essay, oral and comprehension

JDOC1996

Thanks guys! Just a question, would you have to be fluent to get an A1? My German is quite fluid, although I'm by no means fluent. Hopefully I will be by the end of the year though!
Also what are the most common phrases I should know? If somebody could provide a list it would be great..

Canard

HPMS wrote: »

I did French too for LC and got an A1 in it but considering taking up German alongside French this year just to have another language - did you find it more difficult/easier than French?? And did you find it hard to separate the two languages when speaking one?

EDIT: Also, I know this is a bit off topic to the thread so sorry OP! Just was curious

I didn't really find it easier or harder, but that said I haven't done as much of it! I think French is harder than people give it credit for with its nitty gritty grammar rules, so German isn't too much of a step up, there are just a few more rules to remember about word order and stuff. Spanish or Italian would be much more similar to French though if you're interested in learning a new one in a year.

And nope, not really. I admit separating French/Spanish is harder than French/Irish or whatever, but French/German would never really be too bad because they're pretty different. Though sometimes switching right away can be a bit confusing.

JDOC1996 wrote: »

Thanks guys! Just a question, would you have to be fluent to get an A1? My German is quite fluid, although I'm by no means fluent. Hopefully I will be by the end of the year though!
Also what are the most common phrases I should know? If somebody could provide a list it would be great..

I wouldn't say so at all - there are these EU levels from A1-C2 (low-high) and the LC gets you to around B1 - not something you can learn overnight, but by no means the kind of thing you'd need to live there for years to achieve. I don't have any phrase lists off hand, but connectors (e.g. furthermore, therefore, similarly, also) are handy, and things that let you use fancy grammar without really needing to know it. One I remember seeing here was "Wegen des" showing the genitive case but that's it.

hfallada

JDOC1996 wrote: »

Thanks guys! Just a question, would you have to be fluent to get an A1? My German is quite fluid, although I'm by no means fluent. Hopefully I will be by the end of the year though!
Also what are the most common phrases I should know? If somebody could provide a list it would be great..

Apparently native speakers do well, but not the best in their orals, as they can use "too much slang" and examiners arent made about it. 501 German Verbs by Henry Schultz is brilliant. You can get it on Amazon or easons.ie . I watch ARD (state broadcaster videos) on Youtube and did really well in the listening section. Dont bother with the Bavarian videos as they are quite hard to understand. Use plenty of phrases.

IrishTeacher

iamcornholio wrote: »

Google translate is your friend, look up as many phrases that you can use in any situation, such as essay, oral and comprehension

Google Translate is never your friend when trying to figure out what a phrase would be in German (when going English -> German).