German

Foundation vs Higher: what changes and what stays the same

How thematic contexts are used across all papers

Building answers using only vocab/grammar from the specification

What “communication” vs “accuracy” means in marking

Time management across the four exam papers

Common command words and rubric language

How to revise: retrieval practice, spaced repetition, interleaving

Dictionary rules and what to do instead

Using the same vocab flexibly across multiple contexts

Turning a “subject” into opinions, reasons, and examples

Adding past, present and future across any context

Building high-quality answers from a small core of structures

Cultural awareness and inclusive language in assessments

Describing family members and relationships

Friendships: getting on, arguments, making plans

Talking about equality and inclusion in everyday life

Home and daily routine: what you do and when

Describing your room/house and what you do at home

Saying what you like/dislike and why (simple reasons)

Giving stronger reasons and justifying opinions

Comparing people and relationships (comparatives/superlatives)

Handling surprises: asking for repetition and buying thinking time

Talking about what you did recently (perfect tense)

Sport and fitness: routines, frequency, and preferences

Food and drink: ordering, quantities, and opinions

Healthy vs unhealthy lifestyle: giving advice

Illness and symptoms: saying what’s wrong

At the doctor/pharmacy: describing problems and asking for help

Mental wellbeing: feelings, stress, and coping strategies

Plans to improve your lifestyle (future/conditional)

Environmental choices linked to lifestyle (recycling, transport)

Giving directions with key place vocabulary

Describing shops and services (what you can buy/do)

Talking about transport options and preferences

Problems in the area: crime, litter, traffic, noise

Improving the area: suggestions using modal verbs

The natural world locally: weather, seasons, countryside

Environmental issues: causes and solutions

Comparing your area with another place

Planning a visit day out in your area (sequence + timings)

Advantages and disadvantages of social media

Online safety: passwords, privacy, cyberbullying

Gaming: devices, genres, time spent, opinions

Music tastes: genres, artists, concerts and festivals

TV and film: genres, reviews, and recommendations

Reading habits: books, news, and information sources

Technology in daily life: phones, apps, streaming

Debating: agreeing and disagreeing politely

Predicting future technology trends (future/conditional)

Describing your school rules and routines

Saying what you like/dislike about subjects and why

Talking about exams: stress, revision, and strategies

After-school activities and clubs

Work experience: what you did and what you learned

Future plans: study routes, training, apprenticeships

Jobs: preferences, skills, and qualities

Ambitions and aspirations (complex opinions + justification)

Writing a formal application-style response

Booking accommodation: types, facilities, preferences

Travel transport: tickets, timings, problems and solutions

At the station/airport: announcements and key questions

Tourist attractions: describing experiences and opinions

Eating out while travelling: ordering, complaints, preferences

Shopping while travelling: prices, sizes, problems, returns

Dealing with issues: lost items, delays, misunderstandings

Talking about past holidays (perfect + narrative detail)

Sustainable tourism: choices and environmental impact

Preparing effectively in 15 minutes without writing a script

Sounding natural: fillers, follow-ups, and self-correction

Building answers: point + reason + example + extra detail

Moving between tenses smoothly in speech

Pronunciation priorities that earn marks

Stress patterns and making speech clear and comprehensible

Chunking a text for natural phrasing

Pronouncing umlauts and key consonant combinations

Intonation for meaning (questions, emphasis)

Recovering from mistakes while reading aloud

Short interaction skills: answering questions about the text

Extending beyond one sentence in the interaction

Giving the required number of utterances clearly

Asking one question (Foundation) / two questions (Higher)

Using polite requests and “I would like…” structures

Handling the future-timeframe question (Higher)

Clarifying and checking: “Could you repeat/explain?”

Role play settings language: café/restaurant

Role play settings language: shop/market/shopping centre

Role play settings language: hotel and accommodation issues

Role play settings language: station and travel problems

Role play settings language: tourist information office

Role play settings language: cinema/theatre/concert hall

Role play settings language: campsite and leisure centre

Role play settings language: doctor/hospital

Role play settings language: in town (services and directions)

Describing location (where it is and what you can see)

Describing activity (what is happening, emotions, reasons)

Adding detail: foreground/background and speculation

Using present tense confidently in descriptions

Adding past/future links naturally from the picture

Answering the two unprepared questions confidently

Conversation skills: developing answers with follow-ups

Keeping the conversation flowing with questions back

Using opinions and justifications across any context

Listening for gist vs detail (and when each matters)

Recognising distractors in multiple-choice

Turning what you hear into precise English answers

Handling unfamiliar vocabulary using context

Checking grammar clues in listening (tense, negatives, numbers)

Dictation basics: writing exactly what you hear in German

Dictation accuracy: spelling choices from sound-symbol rules

Dictation pitfalls: umlauts, ch sounds, final consonants, vowel length

Self-check routine for dictation (capital letters, endings, word breaks)

ei / ie and common confusions

z and w sounds (German vs English)

ch: hard ch vs soft ch

ü and ö: forming and hearing the difference

sch, sp, st and typical pronunciations

Final devoicing (b/d/g at the end of words)

r sounds and making them consistent

Syllable stress in longer words and compounds

Practising phonics through minimal pairs and short dictations

Scanning for names, times, and key details

Using grammar clues to decode meaning (cases, tense, word order)

Handling synonyms and paraphrase in questions

Understanding negatives and contrast (aber/sondern/obwohl)

Working out meaning from word parts (prefixes/suffixes/compounds)

Translation into English: capturing meaning not word-for-word

Translation accuracy: tense, pronouns, and connectors

Avoiding “false friends” in translation

Editing a translation for natural English

Writing informally: tone, openings, and endings

Writing formally: tone, register, and structure

Hitting all bullet points without repetition

Building range: time frames, opinions, reasons, examples

Accuracy priorities: verbs, word order, cases, agreements

Higher writing: developing ideas and structuring paragraphs

Translation into German: planning before you write

Translation accuracy: verbs first, then word order, then endings

Final checking routine for writing (verbs, word order, capitals)

Word order 2: time–manner–place and sentence building

Word order 3: subordinate clauses with weil/dass/wenn

Nouns and gender: der/die/das and strategies to learn

Plurals: main patterns and common irregulars

Cases in use: nominative vs accusative vs dative (meaning and triggers)

Articles: definite/indefinite and case changes

Pronouns: subject pronouns and polite Sie

Accusative object pronouns (mich/dich/ihn/sie/es…)

Dative object pronouns (mir/dir/ihm/ihr/ihnen…)

Reflexive pronouns and common reflexive verbs

Interrogatives: question words + inversion

Negatives: nicht vs kein and where they go

Adjectives after sein/werden and using them well

Adjective endings before nouns (key patterns for accuracy)

Comparatives with als and “so … wie”

Superlatives: am besten / der beste and when to use them

Modal verbs: können/müssen/dürfen/sollen/wollen/mögen

Separable verbs in main and subordinate clauses

Perfect tense: haben vs sein and past participles

Simple past/imperfect for narrative (especially Higher)

Future meaning: present + time phrase vs werden

Conditional language: würde + infinitive and “I would like…”

Relative clauses: der/die/das and basic extension

Prepositions: accusative, dative, and two-way prepositions

da- and wo- compounds (dafür/darauf/womit etc.)

Infinitive structures: um…zu / ohne…zu / verbs with zu

Building longer sentences with conjunctions (denn/weil/obwohl)

Turning verbs into nouns with -ung

Diminutives with -chen and what they imply

Turning adjectives into nouns with -heit/-keit

Agent nouns with -er (Maler etc.)

Time adverbs with -s (montags, nachmittags)

-los adjectives and meaning (“-less/without”)

Using word formation to infer meaning in unseen texts

High-frequency verbs that unlock speaking and writing

Building topic clusters (school, food, travel, media) for retrieval

Learning nouns with articles and plural together

Learning verbs with key forms (ich/er, perfect, imperfect where needed)

Useful short phrases for fluency and filler

Synonyms and upgrading vocabulary for Higher

Avoiding anglicisms and false friends

Using spaced repetition flashcards properly

Weekly vocab testing routines that stick