General Thoughts: German Continuers (1 Viewer)

[Teh Duke]

Hey guys, what did you think of the German Exam yesterday?

I thought it was pretty easy, but the listening was longer than expected.

Oh, and just to make sure, everybody put "D" for the multiple choice question right?

 

[rapunzel]

Yeah I thought the exam was quite fair. But I agree the listening was waaay long, like I had to use an extra 10minutes just to finish off all my answers.
And yes I put D for the multiple choice

 

[Cerry]

I got a hail storm, complete with thunder, part way through my listening. Fortunately, it was less than 5 minutes, and it was during a 2 or 3 mark question. I agree about the length of the listening. I was still writing an answer to the last question after the voice on the CD said I could proceed to the next section, which I don't think I've ever done before.
I'm pretty sure I said D for the multiple choice, but the only thing I definitely remember is that my answer for the 9 mark writing task involved elephants.

 

[impervious182]

YES!!! The listening went for so long! I thought that I was the only person who thought so.

Which one was D the answer for? I personally can't remember, wasn't there more than one multiple choice question? I thought so...

Also, the writing part was quite weird... but not that difficult, I don't think.

 

[impervious182]

Same here. I felt the same way.

The writing was alright, but it felt as if the modules had been completely ignored. I couldn't draw on anything I had learned, had to look up vocab to use and just rely on my grammatical knowledge. It was an ok exam, the reading I thought was fairly easy, the listening too, even though it was really long, but the writing was just weird.

Also, what was the multiple choice question you're all talking about? Can someone remind me of the question? I thought there was more than one multiple choice... or am I thinking of past papers... argh they've all melded into one.

 

[Teh Duke]

The multiple choice question was what the title should be.

"D" was "______ muss weg" (I can't remember the guys name)

For 12 and 13 I did the 50 Euros one and the community service one.

 

[rumpnv]

The multiple choice question was what the title should be.

"D" was "______ muss weg" (I can't remember the guys name)

For 12 and 13 I did the 50 Euros one and the community service one.

Er heisst Stefan. don't know why i remember that but hey.
How many of you guys are actually german? Cos i thought at the speaking there were a lot of native speakers, cos i am ( came hare when i was 4 though so it doens't reeli count)
Anyway yeah my mum read over the reading and repsonding bit and was like this was written by someone english cos she said there were things in there that a german wouldn't say "konstituiert" for example. She thought it was a bit odd, but i think i covered most of what they wanted me to

When you replied to the "campingtrip" one what kind of voice did u use for the representative student ( cos i was like yeah thanks or letting us go, but there are some improvements to be made if this is to be done another year etc)

Anyway sorry about the epic novel

Nani

 

[impervious182]

Er heisst Stefan. don't know why i remember that but hey.
How many of you guys are actually german? Cos i thought at the speaking there were a lot of native speakers, cos i am ( came hare when i was 4 though so it doens't reeli count)
Anyway yeah my mum read over the reading and repsonding bit and was like this was written by someone english cos she said there were things in there that a german wouldn't say "konstituiert" for example. She thought it was a bit odd, but i think i covered most of what they wanted me to

When you replied to the "campingtrip" one what kind of voice did u use for the representative student ( cos i was like yeah thanks or letting us go, but there are some improvements to be made if this is to be done another year etc)

Anyway sorry about the epic novel

Nani

You shouldn't be allowed to do German Continuers. Pisses me off. Native speakers make the whole process unfair and undermine the whole point of the HSC.

 

[Cerry]

^ There's not enough native speakers in the state to warrant their own course, and it's not really fair to tell them that they can't study a langauge because their family speaks it. Besides, it's like us sitting an English exam - we screw stuff up (how many times have you gotten back an English essay with spelling corrections, or a comment about a split infinitive or something?), because we just spout stuff without thinking. It's the same for the German speakers, where as we're much more likely to go through and look for things like incorrect sentence structure in our extended responses.
Also, they don't even necessarily have an advantage. My teacher grew up in Germany, as did her husband, and she has two kids, who have both lived in Germany at various points. The kids both speak Schwaebisch, which is a dialect from South-Western Germany, and is therefore not acceptable German according to the BOS. They do speak Hoch-Deutsch, but you don't always realise that you're speaking a dialect until someone else doesn't understand you. And her son couldn't do an adjectival endings worksheet if his life depended on it, because he just does the endings as they sound right, rather than actually knowing that something is in this case, and therefore has this ending.

 

[xxstef]

^ ... and it's not really fair to tell them that they can't study a langauge because their family speaks it.

then why is there a chinese and korean and other background speaker courses? isnt that a tad unfair for them then?

 

[Cerry]

then why is there a chinese and korean and other background speaker courses? isnt that a tad unfair for them then?

Because there's enough background speakers in the state to make up a course. What would be unfair is the BOS saying "Oh, you're a German background speaker. We don't have enough of you for a course, but you speak German as one of your main languages, so you can't use your ability to your advantage in your HSC like everyone else." Also, as a general rule, the HSC German background speakers are more likely to have parents who speak English with them at home than the Asian background speakers.
It's kind of like saying people who have English teachers as parents shouldn't be allowed to do the same course as the rest of us, because they might have an unfair advantage.

 

[impervious182]

^ There's not enough native speakers in the state to warrant their own course, and it's not really fair to tell them that they can't study a langauge because their family speaks it. Besides, it's like us sitting an English exam - we screw stuff up (how many times have you gotten back an English essay with spelling corrections, or a comment about a split infinitive or something?), because we just spout stuff without thinking. It's the same for the German speakers, where as we're much more likely to go through and look for things like incorrect sentence structure in our extended responses.
Also, they don't even necessarily have an advantage. My teacher grew up in Germany, as did her husband, and she has two kids, who have both lived in Germany at various points. The kids both speak Schwaebisch, which is a dialect from South-Western Germany, and is therefore not acceptable German according to the BOS. They do speak Hoch-Deutsch, but you don't always realise that you're speaking a dialect until someone else doesn't understand you. And her son couldn't do an adjectival endings worksheet if his life depended on it, because he just does the endings as they sound right, rather than actually knowing that something is in this case, and therefore has this ending.

Yeah. Except there are rules against allowing native speakers into German Continuers. Unless you lied on the form, you shouldn't be doing the course if your parents speak the language.

I have to compete with you, and it really makes me angry. How should us non-native speakers be expected to compete with people that speak the language at home?

 

[Cerry]

Yeah. Except there are rules against allowing native speakers into German Continuers. Unless you lied on the form, you shouldn't be doing the course if your parents speak the language.

I have to compete with you, and it really makes me angry. How should us non-native speakers be expected to compete with people that speak the language at home?

Where does the BOS document this rule? I've never seen anything suggesting that that's the rule before. They do a really shit job of policing it too, because off the top of my head, I can think of at least 5 people who I know that have broken it for various languages, and one of them had just immigrated to Australia from Germany. The BOS may be stupid at times, but you think that they'd notice such an obvious breach of their rules.

Non-native speakers can compete with the native speakers by studying, and practising their German. That's all I do, and I survived for 10 weeks in Germany using minimal English. The amount of German required for the course should be enough to enable you to go well, and the fact that there are people who speak it as one of their main languages doesn't change that fact. Yeah, some of them might do better than you, but some of the people who speak it as a second language might do better than you, too. The only thing it really has any effect on is the scaling, and German, as a general rule, scales pretty damn well, which means it can't be having an adverse effect.

 

[Peartie]

Yeah. Except there are rules against allowing native speakers into German Continuers. Unless you lied on the form, you shouldn't be doing the course if your parents speak the language.

For EUROPEAN languages it isnt a rule - you can do German Continuers even if you're a native speaker...it's only when there are alternatives available for native speakers that they have to do that. The only subjects native speakers can't do is a beginners language course (unless there is a proviso for native speakers course)

 

[Borbor]

and German, as a general rule, scales pretty damn well, which means it can't be having an adverse effect.

Unfortunately, that's false . German scales badly (don't get me wrong I'm doing Continuers + Extension for year 12). I absolutely love doing German and I want to do it in uni but the scaling really pisses me off. Doesn't realistically reflect the effort needed. Last year, a 91 went down to 79 after scaling

 

[black_kat_meow]

Unfortunately, that's false . German scales badly (don't get me wrong I'm doing Continuers + Extension for year 12). I absolutely love doing German and I want to do it in uni but the scaling really pisses me off. Doesn't realistically reflect the effort needed. Last year, a 91 went down to 79 after scaling

Shit happens.

Source of this? I heard last year it didn't scale so well, but usually it scales quite highly, so maybe it was just an off year...
I wish I was still in Victoria, doing any language boosts your ENTER. I hate NSW...

 

[Borbor]

Table A8 from the UAC
www.uac.edu.au/pubs/pdf/2007_table_A8.pdf