Get a grade 9 in GCSE German listening!

Summary

In this video, Learn German with Herr Reid dives into essential strategies for conquering the GCSE German listening exam. Herr Reid emphasizes using the pre-listening time wisely by annotating questions, predicting possible answers, and understanding the language requirements for each section. The video also covers techniques to use during the exam, such as focusing on key words, recognizing synonyms and antonyms, and eliminating wrong answers. Herr Reid highlights the importance of staying calm, listening for conjunctions, and understanding singular vs. plural forms. Post-exam, the video encourages students to proofread their answers for logical consistency and correct language use.

Highlights

• Herr Reid advises using the 5-minute pre-listening time effectively to understand language requirements and annotate questions 🕒.
• Checking if you need to answer in English or German can be crucial for securing marks 🇬🇧🇩🇪.
• Identify and focus on key words, signals like conjunctions, and the usage of tenses when listening 🎯.
• The video stresses understanding synonyms and antonyms to uncover the correct answers 🔄.
• Utilize process of elimination when unsure of certain answers to improve the chances of hitting the right one 🚫.
• Encourages a calm, confident approach to listening, reminding students that understanding all words isn't necessary 🧘‍♂️.

Key Takeaways

• Use your pre-listening time to predict answers and annotate questions 📝.
• Pay attention to whether questions require answers in English or German 🇬🇧🇩🇪.
• Listen carefully for synonyms, antonyms, and key conjunctions 🔄.
• Don't panic! Stay focused and confident 🎧.
• Eliminate wrong answers by process of elimination 🚫.
• Proofread your answers after listening, ensuring the right language is used 🔍.

Overview

Jump into the world of GCSE German listening exams with Herr Reid, who is here to offer invaluable insights into acing your test. The key to success lies in the pre-listening period, where strategic annotation, deciphering the required language for answers, and predicting the types of responses needed will set the stage for better performance.

As the exam progresses, it's crucial to stay calm and collected. Herr Reid recommends listening for pivotal words, understanding the flow of sentences through conjunctions, and recognizing synonyms or antonyms that might indicate the right answer, even if it's not immediately obvious. By breaking down challenging words and eliminating incorrect options, you'll navigate the exam with greater confidence.

Post-exam reflection is equally important as preparation and execution. Herr Reid stresses the importance of reviewing answers, ensuring they make logical sense and adhere to the language guidelines specified in the exam. With these comprehensive strategies, students will feel prepared and empowered to tackle their German listening exam successfully.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Overview The Introduction and Overview chapter discusses the GCSE German listening exam. The speaker provides tips on how to excel in the exam, beginning with preparation strategies during the 5 minutes before the listening tracks commence.
• 01:00 - 02:30: Pre-listening Tips The chapter titled 'Pre-listening Tips' provides advice on how to prepare before starting to listen to ensure readiness. It emphasizes the importance of understanding what the question is asking, specifically whether it requires an answer in English (section A) or German (section B). Answering in the wrong language, even if you comprehend the listening material, could affect the response's validity.
• 02:30 - 05:30: During the Listening The chapter discusses the importance of using the correct language and format in answering questions to ensure full marks. It emphasizes that even small errors, such as using the wrong letter in true/false/not given questions, can result in losing marks.
• 05:30 - 16:00: Key Vocabulary and Synonyms This chapter focuses on test-taking strategies, specifically in the context of an exam paper. It emphasizes the importance of preparing for the questions by highlighting, underlining, and annotating key parts of the paper. The speaker suggests making notes around the test paper and advises to leave answer boxes blank. Additionally, the chapter encourages anticipating possible answers to gaps in questions before listening to any provided material, enhancing predictive skills.
• 16:00 - 26:00: Tips for Handling Long German Words This chapter provides tips on handling long German words by preparing yourself before listening or reading. By anticipating the context and thinking about what might be needed to answer questions, you can train yourself to focus on important information. This preparation helps in distinguishing the correct answer from the rest of the content.
• 26:00 - 33:00: Common German Festivals and Place Names The chapter provides strategies for answering questions effectively based on the number of marks each question holds. It emphasizes understanding the details required for varying marks, suggesting that for one-mark questions a single valid point or reason should be provided, especially when multiple possible reasons are offered. The content stresses the importance of listening attentively and choosing the most relevant answer based on the point system.
• 33:00 - 34:30: Proofreading and Conclusion The chapter provides advice on how to stay calm and focused during a listening exercise. It emphasizes the importance of confidence and avoiding panic to remain attentive and maximize comprehension.

Get a grade 9 in GCSE German listening! Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Hello. Today I want to talk about the GCSE German listening exam and I want to give you some tips to help you do your absolute best in the listening exam. Let's get into it. So, first of all, pre-listening. Obviously, you get your 5 minutes before the listening tracks actually start. What are you going to do in that time to help you prepare so that
• 00:30 - 01:00 when you actually start to listen that you're as ready as you possibly can be? First of all, check what is the question asking. Especially important is is it asking you to answer in English in the first section, section A, or is it asking you to answer in German in section B? Because if you answer in the wrong language, even if you clearly show you've understood what the listening is
• 01:00 - 01:30 saying, if you haven't answered it in the right language, you're not going to get the marks. And that can be something as basic as if it's a true false not given and you've answered say R for when it's asking you to say T for true. So even just where it's a letter, writing the incorrect letter because you've used the wrong language that can cost you that can cost you a mark. So whatever you need to do when you're
• 01:30 - 02:00 flicking through the exam paper at the start, highlight, underline, annotate. Just really make sure you're doing exactly what the question is asking you to. So yeah, notes, annotate it. You can write wherever you like. around the test paper. Um, just leave the boxes blank for your for your answers, of course. Can you predict what you think the answers are going to be before you listen? Do you think the gap is asking
• 02:00 - 02:30 you to um write a a noun for example or from any context you get from the question starting to think about what you might need to answer that can just help you that can just help prepare yourself for when you do actually hear the answer and it will just help you pick out the answer from everything that you're that you're listening to. So, kind of honing in on the important
• 02:30 - 03:00 information. How many marks are available for each question? Is it one mark? Is it two marks? That gives you an idea of how much detail you're going to need to put into your answer. You're just going to need to make one point because sometimes you might hear two or three possible reasons, but if it's only one mark available, you just need to put one of those reasons that you hear. Then during the listening, what can we
• 03:00 - 03:30 actually do while the listening is in progress to maximize your chances? I mean, I'd say first of all, don't panic. Easy for me to say, but if you start panicking and getting anxious, you're going to lose focus. Just back yourself. Be confident in your ability. Listening is really daunting because it's a a lot of words that you need to
• 03:30 - 04:00 listen to. You might not understand all the words. You might find it's going too quickly. But the good thing with listening is you only need to pick out certain pieces of information. Even if you don't understand 90%, it doesn't matter as long as you've understood the where the answer is in the text. That's the main thing. to break the words down. You might hear some long German words. There are a lot of German words, and we're going to look
• 04:00 - 04:30 into this in a bit more detail a bit later on, but often they are just several words put together, and they're not as long as you actually think they are. Listen to the whole text because you might hear the answer at the beginning of the text. You might hear the answer at the at the end. If you write down the first thing you hear, there might be a reason to make you change your answer a bit later on in the listening text, especially because there
• 04:30 - 05:00 are often distractors in the listening. It might say, "I used to do this, but now or it might start talking about, oh, my friend does this, but I do that." So, it's not necessarily the first thing you hear that you want to put down. Maybe it is, but there are often distractors in there to try and catch you out, which is why you have to really listen carefully. Listen out for conjunctions,
• 05:00 - 05:30 things like but or although, things that might signal a change of direction because the they might be trying to lead you in one way when actually the answer is something else. Attention to tenses especially important if you're having to fill in a table with what did they do in the past, what did they do in the future. So listening out for things like I will or I did. Tenses are going to be crucial. If you put it
• 05:30 - 06:00 in the wrong box, you're not going to get the mark. Synonyms and antonyms. You might have one word in the question and the answer might have a synonym for that word or you might find the answer um so it might say uh g and so you're not hearing the exact same word in the text but a synonym or you might be hearing the opposite like and
• 06:00 - 06:30 or so there are different ways that they will give you the answer which might not necessarily be what you're expecting process of elimination is a really good technique. Maybe you don't know the answer because you don't recognize what that word is. Maybe you've been looking through the answers, the through the questions and it says the word dangerous and you can't remember the word dangerous, but maybe the other two options. Maybe you know those two words. And if you don't hear
• 06:30 - 07:00 those words, you could just put a little cross as you go to say, "Okay, I haven't heard option A. cross that one off. I haven't heard option B. Cross that one off. So therefore, process of elimination, even though I don't know the word for C, I've actually been able to narrow it down so that I've got a pretty good idea that the answer is actually going to be C. Look out for literal words or translations that might lead you to the wrong answer.
• 07:00 - 07:30 Again, this is another section that we're going to look at a bit more later on in this video. Try and be specific as you can. It's easy to use vague language. I know when we're speaking to our friends, we often tend to be vague, but with the mark scheme, they always ask for really specific specific answers. So try and really it doesn't mean it has to be a long answer or it doesn't mean
• 07:30 - 08:00 it has to be a particularly short answer but just try to be as accurate as you can with your translations of vocabulary. So let's have a look at some other things that we can a bit more detail about what we can look out for during the listening. some key words that we should pay attention to to make sure we know the meaning. So, there's some different groups of words which are really important to listen out for
• 08:00 - 08:30 because they might just change the meaning slightly or send us in a different direction to what we were expecting or try and catch us out a little bit or just be asking for some really specific detail that we need to make sure we get in our answer. So qualifiers like and as we go along during the video you can just try and say to yourself okay what are the translation for these words that I give to you and then I'll give you the translations at the end. So
• 08:30 - 09:00 and a bit nish not to as in touble oa but and however all or almost
• 09:00 - 09:30 done. Then after that munchma sometimes sha already no like still no more or not
• 09:30 - 10:00 anymore. How did you get on with those? These are the translations written there for you. If you need to pause the video to make a note of those, go for it. Time phrases, especially some of the less common ones. So, as we're going through, you can see if you can translate it before I tell you the answer, and then I'll put the list up again at the end. So, like usually
• 10:00 - 10:30 zelton looks like the English word seldom. We might say rarely more commonly [Music] now. Now sha we mentioned that in the past slide already. Z could mean for or since referring to a time like for 3 years or since I was two for ago and in German they put the four before the number of years
• 10:30 - 11:00 like so literally a go to years like just or also meaning just in a minute nowadays in the
• 11:00 - 11:30 meantime the past the future. So, these are all really useful words um that will that will often come up in the in the listening. Lots of synonyms here. Um I haven't really got room on the slide to um to put the answers up to here, but I'll talk through them. Make a note as we go. There are lots and lots of potential
• 11:30 - 12:00 synonyms that you could that you could hear. So shenan or meaning to see to watch. We might know to speak and then as a more informal way to say to speak we might say to chat and then in German we've got [Music]
• 12:00 - 12:30 chhatten both meaning to do. I haven't put a third one up there which is which also means to do as in to do sport like difficult dirty. So when you're listening to German, they might say they might pronounce the G at the end as a as a Gig, but some variations of German, some
• 12:30 - 13:00 regional variations might pronounce it more as a they're both correct. It's both a G sound, but you might hear either either one of those. So or Both meaning to get along with both meaning funny. Gen meaning to walk. Vand more
• 13:00 - 13:30 maybe more to hike. Bum like to walk or to wander around town. To go for a walk. Different ways to say it's tasty or it's delicious. Lea is then we've got for exciting
• 13:30 - 14:00 [Music] impressive cake is not a pension synonym of guest house. Guest house both meaning traffic salary cost both meaning for free. Means for free but can also mean
• 14:00 - 14:30 like you did it for for nothing as in there was no point in doing it. like diet is more like your nutrition or how you eat that's in the food like sad to avoid doing something similar like needy or
• 14:30 - 15:00 disadvantaged lo mention. So in the nice so people so one's a verb one's a noun but to recycle via den da or meaning because like in English we can say because since as or synonyms of each other and in German same with via den and da den is the only one of those three that doesn't
• 15:00 - 15:30 kick the verb to the end of the sentence Unafair Edva both meaning like roughly or about. Lust am both funny, amusing of yen.
• 15:30 - 16:00 Definitely dwarf blurt stupidbar terrible awful easy. We've got a few words or meanings at job or position or workella. And we've discussed a lot a lot of
• 16:00 - 16:30 synonyms, but it could also be antonyms that are going to give you the answer and toya. So cheap and expensive. Great or terrible. Hell don light and dark. Lang schnell slow
• 16:30 - 17:00 fast. Dick sch slunk fat and slim click. Nice or beautiful and ugly. mish modern old-fashioned nuts nuts
• 17:00 - 17:30 laws. So might be the suffix at the end that kind of gives you a clue. So um useful or useless net gain nice mean might be the prefix that shows you it's an antonym to buy to sell vine might be opposing emotions to
• 17:30 - 18:00 laugh to cry again here are the translations pause make a note do what you need to do. Careful. Other things to pay attention to when you're listening. It might just be an accent. So the that's the difference between two words and it can have a completely different change in meaning. Meaning
• 18:00 - 18:30 already nice or beautiful. to print to express yourself. To listen, is not the past because in the past is but means to belong to and they both mean helpful. But something literally rich in help is
• 18:30 - 19:00 a thing which is helpful. But ready to help that's that's a person who is helpful. Look very similar. Sometimes people get confused between those two to laugh and to run. An actor a chess player. And then en they look very similar but exciting and the
• 19:00 - 19:30 prefix ant that means enant means relaxing and oh bit of a issue with my transition there. So it can mean easy but it can also mean just or simply. Again, here are the translations. Make a note as you need to. These are all taken from the um from
• 19:30 - 20:00 the AQA vocab list. So, you can also find it find it there on their website. Some other things to be careful with. DZ D. So it looks like a a cognate but dier is the sea whereas dier is the
• 20:00 - 20:30 lake is an apprenticeship whereas dera slightly different pronunciation is teacher and you might even look at these two words and in fenion and not realize they're actually different words if you're skimming over it too too quickly but friian holidays is like in the open in the open air. Thus, Faka's amp fa looks a bit like well fa we saw that on a previous slide traffic but fa's a is actually tourist
• 20:30 - 21:00 information office and frish often confused French foreign language and frish French abroad Austria Australian Australia Ler leader. When you see them written, you can see the E and the I I and the E of the other way around. Ler
• 21:00 - 21:30 unfortunately leader. The second one songs own like a my own room. Again, translations there for you. And of course, false friends is something that you'll need to watch out for when listening because you might think that the meaning is the same as the English when you hear a similar
• 21:30 - 22:00 word, but actually it has a different meaning. So, see if you can get the uh get the translation before I put the answer up. Thirst, almost gift, poison, gimnazium. So often they have a slightly different pronunciation even though they're written the same in English and German. grammar
• 22:00 - 22:30 school to donate or so chef boss kish see you might think it's got something to do with cost but actually delicious arm and in fact it does it does mean arm
• 22:30 - 23:00 but it has another meaning which is also poor. So context will help you decide what the correct meaning is. So poverty is a guest house. Mentioned that one a bit earlier on. Again, copy down if you need
• 23:00 - 23:30 to. Some other words to look out for. Zite donite forum. See if you know any of these before I put the translations up and we'll just talk about them briefly.
• 23:30 - 24:00 for as well. So for meaning ago, it can also mean in front of like form in front of the screen. Zite means since but since as in time to for or since da means since but in the sense of because Morgan. So you might have first come across that in When you heard Gorton Morgan, good morning. But Morgan means
• 24:00 - 24:30 tomorrow. Becom means to receive and often people think of that in terms of to become. But ven whilst it does mean will, it can also mean to become like to become a doctor for example. And then we've got three different time phrases which also mean recently. You might even see them in in um writing and speaking as
• 24:30 - 25:00 well. Long German words. Don't be daunted if you hear a long German word come up in your listening. Think about it first. Natur. So it means science but nature and then visa is knowledge or knowledges. So like natural knowledge
• 25:00 - 25:30 again to live another way to say car. So a living car a caravan because it's a car you can live in. So a lot of these German words just not only are they two or more words put together, they often have very literal translations. So just try and think about it logically what it could be. You have to kind of decipher these words a little bit. Three words put together. A two bed
• 25:30 - 26:00 room. So like a double room or a twin room. So schlafen to sleep. Zuck. Yes. Does look like a sack. A sleeps sack. Better known as a sleeping bag or again sleep. And unsukul is a suit. A sleeping suit. What we would call pajama. So yes, they might sound like long words, but if you just take a moment to think about it logically,
• 26:00 - 26:30 you'll find that you're actually able to work out a lot of these words that you might be a bit panicked by when you first hear them. So you can even just if you hear a word as you're listening, you're not maybe you're not quite sure what it is, but just try and write it down as accurately as you can in the margin and then you can refer back to it when you're proofreading your answers at the end. key sounds you might recognize or you've
• 26:30 - 27:00 probably seen German words more commonly written down whether writing it in your vocab books, looking at in your textbook or reading about it, seeing it on the board. But if you can't recognize what it sounds like, you might not realize that you actually know a word because you only recognize its written form. So things like mention me. So the s makes a sh but a ch makes a or a depending on the
• 27:00 - 27:30 word zite. Since s followed by a vowel is a z but a zed is a s z sight. teeth. Sena seen again that difference in pronunciation. Zelton rarely selen to camp town or
• 27:30 - 28:00 city instead of so context because with that one you can't really hear the difference in pronunciation but context of the sentence will will help you there. So the D at the end is often a very soft sound like uh council fet like to fall the field sounds really similar but
• 28:00 - 28:30 context. So shh and or so it's the bit of a harsh sound that one but think about what sounds different combinations of letters make and then just be sure you've got the right word when you've written it down. festivals. A lot of festivals are on the are on the
• 28:30 - 29:00 specification and some of them we know them. We celebrate them but they might be referred to as a slightly different word in Germanston. So some of them we celebrate, some of them you may celebrate. Um, some of them are specific to Germany, some are specific to um,
• 29:00 - 29:30 Catholicism just but we need to know them because they're in the spec. So Christmas Eve ha literally the holy evening hun that's the the three holy kings the three wise men. So, Epiphany, when they followed the star um dear, Mayday, 1st of May, dancing around the May pole and all that. Sylvester, New Year's Eve.
• 29:30 - 30:00 Finston, celebrated quite a bit in Germany, 50 days after Easter. Zank Nicolas, maybe you know this one. Children put their shoes out on the 6th of December. If they've been good, they get sweets in them, which they discover the next morning. is Christmas and then so literally the second day of Christmas is Boxing Day. Place names. A lot of place names in German sound the same or are spelled the
• 30:00 - 30:30 same. um London, London, Berlin, Berlin, England, England, or just spelled the same with slightly different pronunciation, but some are just irrecognizable unless you know That's middle demoral bayan
• 30:30 - 31:00 munchin de ost vin pin z. Maybe some of them you know others you might not have come across. Can you translate any of them before I put the answers up for you? So the canal the channel the so the English channel um the bordon so that's lake constants between um Germany and Switzerland on the
• 31:00 - 31:30 border gen is Geneva the Danube going through Europe kern city of Cologne that's middle you might be able to work that out middle and mar so the middle So the Mediterranean Dimmo meets the the river Rin. So a very big river called the Mosel Bayan if you're a football fan Munchin. So Bayan is the county of
• 31:30 - 32:00 Bavaria. Munchin the city of Munich. So it is the East Sea literally but the Baltic Sea. Vin Vienna. Poland. So lots of countries end in EN Belgian, Australian and so on, but some of them not quite. And then Zil, a island in North Germany, very popular holiday destination. You might not know what that word is. It's just
• 32:00 - 32:30 the name of the island and you can't translate it, but just to know that it's a popular holiday destination in Germany. Singular versus plural could be really important as well, especially as some singular and plural forms are exactly the same, but it's just the article that's going to change. Dustim, one room, plural for rooms, the
• 32:30 - 33:00 teacher, the teachers. So if we're referring to a person or a job, the plural form, the mixed plural form is the same as the masculine singular. Just like this example as well, the actor the actors computer one computer plural computers. What can we do after you finished
• 33:00 - 33:30 listening? So, proofread. Have a quick flick through your answers. Just make sure, does everything make sense? Is it logical? Have you filled in all the gaps? Had a guess because there's lots of true false. Um, write the correct letter. Just have a guess if you're really, really not sure. Answered in the correct language. There's always people that lose marks because they've written in English when they should have been in German. You're just not going to get the mark if you do that.
• 33:30 - 34:00 Any questions, comment below. Any comments, any other ideas that I've that I've missed, any other suggestions, comment below. We can all help each other out. Good luck in the listening. You're going to do great. I'll feed us in.