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German A Level

German flag flying in the wind
Getting Ahead

German A Level at Alton Campus

We are very pleased that you have opted to study German at HSDC Alton in September.

The following activities will help you keep your language skills going over the summer break. Make sure to bring these completed tasks with you in September so we can talk about them in your first lesson.

Did you know? German is the most widely spoken first language in the European Union and studying it at an advanced level opens opportunities in many careers such as Business and Finance, Marketing, Media, Teaching, Translation or Travel and Tourism.

German greeting cards

Revise German grammar, especially verbs in the present tense. Good websites include:

Revise vocabulary for family relationships. Good websites include:

Write a text in German describing your family and how you get on with different family members.

Research something that interests you relating to a German-speaking country from one of the following topic areas and use any format you like to present it in German – as a fact file, PowerPoint presentation, poster etc.

  • Food
  • Festivals or Traditions
  • Geography
  • Music or Media

Buy the A Level course books now, look through them and bring them to the first lesson.

  • AQA A-level German, by Amy Bates, Louise Fenner, Helen Kent, Paul Stocker, Hodder Education. ISBN 9781471858024 (covers 2 years)
  • AQA German Grammar & Translation Workbook (AS/A Level), by Dagmar Sauer, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-841554-1 (covers 2 years)

Read as much in German as possible. Don’t expect to understand everything but practise guessing from the context, even just titles and headlines. You can buy magazines or look online, e.g. https://www.jetzt.de.

Wolfgang Herrndorf Tschick (ISBN 978-3-499-25635-6) is an award-winning “Jugendbuch”, a novel written for young people – an ideal read for the summer holidays!

Listen to German radio stations, which can be accessed via the internet. Download podcasts so you can listen several times through. The radio station Deutsche Welle offers excellent German language learning resources.

Watch German TV, especially programmes designed for young people. LOGO is an excellent TV/online news programme aimed at younger viewers.

You could also try a recent light-hearted TV series about Germany: Deutschland-Saga

Practise speaking German with other German speakers you know, especially native speakers, via social media.

*This is a representation of your learning space and may not be the exact room you will be using

The teaching has been really good, I’ve loved all of my teachers, they’ve all been really nice and supportive.

Jodie Hook

My time at the college was definitely life changing, I have learnt a lot of new skills, and obviously it’s a completely new experience. The support was great, there was always people there to help and try make it as easy as they can for you. The college is really fantastic, it has helped me on the way to get to what I want to achieve within my career goals.

Erin Morgan, BTEC student

This is a really good college, and it is definitely somewhere you can achieve your dreams.

Yolanda Stemp, BTEC student