Year 11 German Exam Tomorrow

[Special At Specialist]

Ich habe eine Deutsch-Prüfung morgen und meine Deutsch ist schrecklich!
But in all seriousness I think I might fail this. My SAC average is a D and last exam I got 44% (E). I want to get good at German I really do it's just I find it hard to learn a language. I was once given a wordlist of about 50 words so I literally spent hours each day for almost a week memorising those words and when I was finally done I was given a new wordlist so I just gave up. I have an okay memory, I can memorise the whole periodic table of elements, yet for some reason I find memorising German words so hard
How do you go about studying German?

[Special At Specialist]

Done the exam. It was so rushed and so hard!
There were four sections:
1. Listening - I found this very difficult because I'm used to listening about 30 seconds at a time but we had to listen for about 3-4 minutes at once! I could pick out a few isolated words but not enough to answer any of the questions
2. Grammar - Surprisingly I actually did quite well at this section. I think I got at least 70% of the questions in this section correct.
3. Reading - The text was massive and we had hardly any time to read it, translate it, read the questions, translate the questions and then make up an answer in full german sentences! I translated part of it, then ran out of time so I answered most questions in literally 4-6 words and then just moved on. I did terrible at that.
4. Writing - This was even worse than the reading! I had about 10 minutes to go at the very end and I was expected to write between 150 and 200 words. I made about 4 sentences, each about 3-5 words because I am not very good at making my own sentences and I had to look up most of the words in the dictionary

So all in all, I'm probably expecting between 30% and 50%.

[ninwa]

I've always found the listening part to be the hardest bit of learning a language. Have you tried downloading podcasts from BBC languages, or even just running a German radio station in the background? It's useful for getting your ear attuned to the sound of the language if nothing else. The only way my German improved was after I studied in Germany for 6 weeks and was bombarded from all sides by German and only German the whole time.

Tip for reading: read (and translate if necessary) the questions FIRST. Then you'll know what to look out for in the reading comprehension. Often a lot of it is just useless padding.

When you say "I am not very good at making my own sentences" what exactly is it that you struggle with?

[Special At Specialist]

When you say "I am not very good at making my own sentences" what exactly is it that you struggle with?

It's a mixture of things. I don't really understand the sentence structure, especially in sentences which consist of multiple verbs. I remember SvTOMP, I just don't know how to apply it very well. I don't know how to convert between present, past and future tense. Even just a simple sentence like "I used my spade to dig in the garden" I would try to interpret like this:
I = Ich
Used = (look up in dictionary for "use" and leave it in present tense)
My = Mein/Meine/Meiner/Meines (I never know which one to use so I just take a guess)
Spade = (look up in dictionary)
To = zu/nach (I never know which one to use)
Dig = (This is a verb but "used" is also a verb so I don't know how to deal with two verbs)
In the = In den, in dem, im (I never know which one to use)
Garden = (look up in dictionary)
As for the sentence structure, I don't know which words to put in which order so I would probably just leave it in that order.

[ninwa]

I think the problem is that you are translating literally, which almost never works because most languages will have different structures to English (and vice versa).

Try dividing it into smaller, more manageable chunks. For example:

[I used my spade] /to dig in the garden/ consists of two parts.

[I used my spade]
"Used" is past tense. Pick a past tense form and look up the words if necessary.
to use: benützen; used (past tense): habe ... benützt (remember the participle is always at the end of the sentence)
my spade: mein Spaten (m); the spade is the object of the sentence, therefore it takes the accusative form - meinen Spaten

[Ich habe meinen Spaten benützt]

/to dig in the garden/
Your mistake here is that you've translated it literally (to -> zu). If you look closer at the sentence, it actually means "in order to dig in the garden".
So you would use an um...zu clause here (which roughly translates to "in order to"). Remember that with such clauses, the verb goes to the end.
to dig: ausgraben; separable verb
in the garden: in dem/im Garten (im is just a shortened form of in dem)

/um in dem/im Garten auszugraben/
auszugraben rather than zu ausgraben, because ausgraben is a separable verb.

---> Ich habe meinen Spaten benützt, um in dem/im Garten auszugraben.


re: in den vs. in dem/im (and any other preposition which takes both accusative and dative forms) -
in den (accusative form) is movement
in dem/im (dative form) is location

e.g.
I am going to the park = movement = Ich gehe in den Park.
I am sitting in the park = location = Ich sitze in dem/im Park.

[Special At Specialist]

I think the problem is that you are translating literally, which almost never works because most languages will have different structures to English (and vice versa).

Try dividing it into smaller, more manageable chunks. For example:

[I used my spade] /to dig in the garden/ consists of two parts.

[I used my spade]
"Used" is past tense. Pick a past tense form and look up the words if necessary.
to use: benützen; used (past tense): habe ... benützt (remember the participle is always at the end of the sentence)
my spade: mein Spaten (m); the spade is the object of the sentence, therefore it takes the accusative form - meinen Spaten

[Ich habe meinen Spaten benützt]

/to dig in the garden/
Your mistake here is that you've translated it literally (to -> zu). If you look closer at the sentence, it actually means "in order to dig in the garden".
So you would use an um...zu clause here (which roughly translates to "in order to"). Remember that with such clauses, the verb goes to the end.
to dig: ausgraben; separable verb
in the garden: in dem/im Garten (im is just a shortened form of in dem)

/um in dem/im Garten auszugraben/
auszugraben rather than zu ausgraben, because ausgraben is a separable verb.

---> Ich habe meinen Spaten benützt, um in dem/im Garten auszugraben.


re: in den vs. in dem/im (and any other preposition which takes both accusative and dative forms) -
in den (accusative form) is movement
in dem/im (dative form) is location

e.g.
I am going to the park = movement = Ich gehe in den Park.
I am sitting in the park = location = Ich sitze in dem/im Park.

Wow! No-one has ever analysed a sentence to me that much before. Thank you
I'm still in the process of learning the difference between akkusativ and dativ, but your "going" vs "sitting" idea makes a lot of sense to me

[ninwa]

Yeah, the forms are a real pain in the arse

[Special At Specialist]

I got my mark back for German and I did better than I thought (though still bad):
Listening - 8 / 20
Grammar - 19.5 / 26
Reading - 5 / 20
Writing - 7 / 20
Total - 39.5 / 86 = 46% (E+)

I have a lot of German catching up to do over the summer holidays