Missed a year...

[Hokiksyo-min]

I am just about to start Unit 1/2 German (with distance ed).
Sadly, I didn't get to do Year 10 German. I had the whole year 10 content sent to me, which I did (in a rushed-sorta way) over the holidays. Even so, I feel like I have big gaps in my knowledge (especially with oral, which I got no practice of over the holidays).
I want to do really well in German. What do people think I should do to get myself to that level?

Danke schön!

[Rishi97]

wow... learning German would be awesome. Maybe you should consider getting a tutor?
Also, check out the study desgin for German on the VCAA website. You'll find everything you should know on there. 

[Hokiksyo-min]

Yeah, German is lots of fun! Definitely recommend, if you enjoy languages 
Never considered a tutor before... I'll have a look.
Thanks for responding

[ninwa]

Grammar - just rote memorisation of the rules and practice practice practice unfortunately. It's dry but it has to be done.

Vocabulary - surround yourself with German as much as you can. Read as much German as you can! For example, my teacher told us to go read the Grimm fairy tales in German - they're simple enough that you won't be totally frustrated, but difficult enough that you'll learn new vocab. Try Bild magazine and other simpler German mags. (Der Spiegel is probably a bit too difficult though.) Don't expect to understand every word and don't stop every 30 seconds to look words up, just read. Change your Facebook language to German. Join Facebook groups like this one. Immersion!

Oral - see if you can organise regular chats (German only!) with classmates, maybe even your teacher. And yeah, a tutor might help in that regard - just make sure they've native or at least have a very high level of German ability if you're paying them for it.

Und natuerlich konntest du Deutsch hier ueben, wenn du willst! Es gibt leider kaum jemand hier die Deutsch studiert hat, aber ich werde versuchen, dir zu helfen (sorry can't be bothered doing Umlauts hah)

[Limista]

I am just about to start Unit 1/2 German (with distance ed).
Sadly, I didn't get to do Year 10 German. I had the whole year 10 content sent to me, which I did (in a rushed-sorta way) over the holidays. Even so, I feel like I have big gaps in my knowledge (especially with oral, which I got no practice of over the holidays).
I want to do really well in German. What do people think I should do to get myself to that level?

Danke schön!

Guten Tag! Wie geht's? Ich hoffe, dass alles bei dir gut ist. 

A few things I would suggest brushing up on:
* grammar. A really good book to buy for this is the "Schaum's" one. So you should be familiar with your modal verbs, prepositions, sentence structures (i.e. verb is always second, or how the sentence structure changes if the sentence begins with a question word), conjunctions
* vocabulary. So vocab about anything really - family, clothes, food, school, transport, hobbies, housework.
* pronunciation. Know how to pronounce each letter in the alphabet with clarity. Your articulation forms an important part of your oral mark.
* listening. A good way to practice this is by listening to podcasts online. I listened to "Schlaflos in Muenchen" a lot when I was in year 12.
* essay writing. Practice, practice and practice this. A good way to start off is by writing diary entries, daily, about what you did each day. If you did nothing particularly interesting, use your imagination and make stuff up. Pretend you are getting it marked by an examiner. The examiner is not going to mark you based on how truthful you are being, but rather, on how well you convey your German. Then, once you are able to roll 250 words off the tip of your pen in about 30min, tackle some of the VCAA essay topics, or find some online that emulate the standards of units 1/2 German.

Viel Glueck! 

[Limista]

Und natuerlich konntest du Deutsch hier ueben, wenn du willst! Es gibt leider kaum jemand hier die Deutsch studiert hat, aber ich werde versuchen, dir zu helfen (sorry can't be bothered doing Umlauts hah)

Ja das stimmt, aber ich spreche gern Deutsch! 

OP: Nina hat mich auch fuer Deutsch geholfen, als ich in der zwoelfte Klasse war. 

[ninwa]

Oh another thing with vocabulary - one of the girls I studied with in Germany had the most amazingly extensive vocabulary ever, she was like a walking dictionary. Once for whatever bizarre reason I needed to know the word for asparagus and she knew it. (For the record it is der Spargel. You're welcome. Use it in an oral SAC, I dare you)

I asked her what her secret was and it was simple - every week she learned 100 new words and every month she tested herself on all the new words she had learned to make sure she never forgot them.

100/week is probably leaning on the side of excessive for VCE level, but find a number that suits your study score goals and time constraints, and stick to it!

[BigAl]

I'm not German and don't know German at all. But I can share my strategy when I came to Australia with no English background and learned the basics in a short amount of time.

Grammar: I used to find small paragraphs and translate them from English to Turkish or the other way around. This tactic improved not only my grammar knowledge, but also taught me how to write consistently.

Listening and speaking: You should watch German movies with subtitles first. Then remove subtitles and watch it again..Test your understanding!

Vocabulary: Try to expand your vocabulary as much as you can... Ask yourself what you have learned in the morning before going to bed.

[Hokiksyo-min]

Wow! Thanks all, Ich finde es wunderbar, dass es hier viele Deutsche Schülern gibt 

All great tips! I definitely should be writing more texts, and I could do with a bigger vocabulary. When I'm writing, I spend a lot of time finding good words to use.
Atm, I use Language Perfect for my vocab, the school makes us subscribe but you can use it for any language.

(For the record it is der Spargel. You're welcome. Use it in an oral SAC, I dare you)

Dare accepted, i'll use it in my next telephone call 

Noch einmal, vielen dank!

[cute]

I noticed that you're at Nossal
If you need any help with German or languages in particular, I can PM you with school-specific advice because I've had really good experiences with particular teachers and students as support with studying languages.