GCE EXAMINERS' REPORTS GERMAN AS/Advanced JANUARY 2012
Statistical Information This booklet contains summary details for each unit: number entered; maximum mark available; mean mark achieved; grade ranges. N.B. These refer to 'raw marks' used in the initial assessment, rather than to the uniform marks reported when results are issued. Annual Statistical Report The annual Statistical Report (issued in the second half of the Autumn Term) gives overall outcomes of all examinations administered by WJEC.
GERMAN General Certificate of Education JANUARY 2012 Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Principal Examiner: Renate Jahn, M.A., formerly Rydal Penrhos Independent School Unit Statistics The following statistics include all candidates entered for the unit, whether or not they 'cashed in' for an award. The attention of centres is drawn to the fact that the statistics listed should be viewed strictly within the context of this unit and that differences will undoubtedly occur between one year and the next and also between subjects in the same year. Unit Entry Max Mark Mean Mark GN2 395 98 72.9 Grade Ranges A 80 B 71 C 63 D 55 E 47 N.B. The marks given above are raw marks and not uniform marks. 1
GN2 Listening, Reading and Writing The paper posed no major problems and a number of candidates achieved high marks in the first part of the paper. Most marks were lost in the translation section Aufgabe 5, Teil 1 and in the essay. In Aufgabe 1, some students lifted directly from the text to answer the questions. Once again, candidates must be advised that their answers must satisfy the demands of the question and not simply state particulars that may relate to the question in some way. In this case, for example, a small number of candidates copied the second part of the first line of the interview, was du nach dem Abitur machen willst, but that fails to answer question 1: Was will Thomas von Sonja wissen? Other candidates were able to draw the right conclusions and wrote was sie nach dem Abitur machen will or even welche Zukunftspläne sie hat. Frequent answers to question 4 were erwaschen (sic!) werden/eine Erwachsene finden, which indicated that the concept of sich selbst finden or erwachsen werden had not been understood. Quite a few candidates had problems manipulating possessive pronouns in answer to question 6 Was wollen Sonja und Thomas in einem Jahr machen? The answer cannot possibly be über unsere Erfahrungen sprechen. Aufgabe 2 This question was generally done well, with quite a few candidates scoring middle marks. Surprisingly, the majority of candidates felt they had to manipulate the verb beginnen, they had overlooked that the modal verb wollen necessitates the infinitive of beginnen. Even though the past participle of haben is quite common, a number of candidates filled in the wrong form hatte. Aufgabe 3, Teil 1 There is still a tendency to insert the first word that springs to mind e.g. erst for question 1 instead of schon, and gekochtes instead of gekauftes in question 5. Both answers may be grammatically correct but they do contradict the text and were therefore wrong. The teacher does indeed prepare the Tiramisu himself and does not buy it ready made. Unfortunately, quite a few candidates failed to take enough care when tackling question 9. When inserting herumhängen into the slot they had overlooked the reflexive pronoun which calls for entspannen instead. Careful re-reading of the passage could also have avoided a loss of mark for question 10: Frequent answers were Hobby rather than Beruf. Writing articles is already a hobby of those students but they might make it their job in future. 2
Aufgabe 3, Teil 2 As in previous years, this exercise was generally done well, with a fair number of candidates scoring high marks probably because they analysed the text and checked their answers carefully. Questions f and g, however, carried a high error rate, possibly because the words Sorgen and Gastgeschenke were not known, though Gast and Geschenk are both GCSE vocabulary. Aufgabe 4 A good proportion of students scored high marks on this task, with many achieving at least one point for each sentence. Careful checking of answers, however, could have avoided losing marks by overlooking words such as ganz or zuerst. In many cases, deshalb was erroneously identified as a conjunction introducing a subordinate clause and for that reason a high proportion of candidates placed the verb at the end of the sentence, which resulted in the loss of both marks. A frequent version of this sentence was deshalb ist die Hausaufgaben wichtiger für die Schüler als die Zeitung. In this case, the verb is in the correct position but the choice of subject is wrong and, therefore, no points could be awarded. Aufgabe 5, Teil 1 A number of candidates struggled with this first translation task more than with the second part. Their difficulties partly stemmed from a lack of vocabulary. Words such as Gastgeber, ankreuzen, Fleisch, anbieten and even Flasche turned out to be stumbling blocks. The concept of ankreuzen posed difficulties to the majority of candidates. Some translation attempts such as Then you have to cross off what you like to eat misrepresented the meaning of the sentence or even turned it into the opposite of what was intended. Quite a few translations of the third sentence defied logic. When Christoph tries meat for the first time he starts to panic. This is nonsensical since Christoph is the cook after all, and he would not prepare meat if he had never eaten it before. A large proportion of students did not know how to translate nach dem Essen and renderings such as after the food were not uncommon. The fact that Christoph opens a second bottle of wine seemed to have confused a number of candidates who wrote that Christoph poured a second glass of wine. Other candidates must have overestimated Christoph s alcohol consumption and concluded that Christoph had two bottles of wine after the meal in which case he would no longer have worried about the washing, as indicated in the text. Aufgabe 5, Teil 2 Overall, candidates scored well on this exercise but some vocabulary items caused problems e.g. bedanken, Spaß machen and möchte lieber. Some sentences were translated into anything but good English. Translations such as the evening was very fun or he would prefer to be a guest than a cook make you wonder whether some candidates either have no feel for the appropriate register in their native language, or whether they have not checked their answers carefully enough. Few candidates made an attempt at natural English, and many left gaps in their answers. 3
Aufgabe 6 A fair number of candidates were able to achieve high marks with well-reasoned essays written in clear fluent language, showing sound command of the grammar. There was a clear preference for the first essay title, i.e. Ein Auslandsjahr ist teuer, gefährlich und sinnlos. The majority of students presented relevant ideas and well thought out arguments even when, at times, they turned out to be amusing; e.g. Einige möchte der Welt besser machen zum Beispiel Haus bauen oder der Dachlose essen gekochen (an idea gleaned from the listening text) or zum Beispiel nach Afrika könnte man gefressen werden. Ich will es nicht und es ist auch ein Grund, um nicht Ausland zu fahren. The second essay title relating to student jobs was the second most popular choice. By contrast to the first title, the quality of response varied enormously. It ranged from simplistic ideas such as man braucht einen Nebenjob, um einkaufen zu gehen to in einem Nebenjob lernt man Verantwortung; man lernt in einem Team zu arbeiten; man kann sich auf die Arbeitswelt vorbereiten. A minority of candidates opted for the remaining two titles. Unfortunately, a small number of students misunderstood topic c) and wrote about the importance of hobbies for young people rather than their culture, music or fashion. Word order remains a major stumbling block for a great number of students, even for those who tackled the word order exercise successfully. Careful checking with an eye on grammar and sentence structure could have avoided many such mistakes. Semantically related structures were often used inappropriately e.g. Spaß machen and Spaß haben. The same applies to anders, verschieden and unterschiedlich. Quite a number of students fell for false friends and sentences, such as ein Auslandsjahr ist teuer, denn im Ausland spendet man viel Geld für Essen und Wohnung. However, more disconcerting is the number of English structures in essays, e.g man kann lernen über Verantwortung, sie können man einen Job geben, es ist nicht gut für Schüler einen Nebenjob haben. Probably in an attempt to impress the examiner by sophisticated structures, an increasing number of students overload their essays with enrichment structures that are devoid of any content, e.g. Einleitend möchte ich sagen, dass das Auslandsjahr ein vieldiskutiertes Thema ist. In meinem Aufsatz möchte ich die Vor- und Nachteile diskutieren. Introductions such as this one may even result in the candidate losing focus on the topic, since it was not the advantages and disadvantages per se that should have been discussed, but whether a gap year was expensive, dangerous and meaningless. Another such meaningless introduction that counted nothing towards quality of answer was: Zuerst wollen wir unsere Frage unter die Lupe nehmen. Diese Frage interessiert mich sehr, denn sie wird oft diskutiert und ist ein heißes Eisen. Man liest immer wieder in der Zeitung, dass ein Auslandsjahr ist teuer, gefährlich und sinnlos. Aber ist das der Fall? Ich werde That is over 20 per cent of the stipulated word count totally wasted because it does not convey anything of substance. It was also obvious that a high proportion of students attempted structures which were beyond their grasp and therefore often failed to get their point across; e.g. Geschweige denn kann man klar eine Stelle im Ausland finden or meiner Meinung kommt darauf an Schüler arbeiten zu lange Stunden. Many candidates did not have a firm grasp of even the most common usages, e.g. Leute braucht Geld für einkaufen /für Freizeit spenden (Man braucht ); Leute sind/ist anders (die Menschen sind verschieden); im Gegenteil finde ich (im Gegensatz dazu... / andererseits...); and very few were able to use the most obvious statement auf die Uni gehen correctly and, instead, wrote an / in/ nach/ zu Uni with or without the correct(!) article. GCE German Examiner's Report - January 2012/LG 02 14 12 4
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