2013 Notes from the Marking Centre – German Extension
Introduction
This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 German Extension course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2013 Higher School Certificate examination, indicating the quality of the responses and highlighting their relative strengths and weaknesses.
This document should be read along with:
- the German Extension Stage 6 Syllabus
- the 2013 Higher School Certificate German Extension examination
- the marking guidelines
- Advice for students attempting HSC languages examinations, and HSC Languages oral examinations – advice to students
- Advice for HSC students about examinations
- other support documents developed by the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW to assist in the teaching and learning of German in Stage 6.
Oral examination
Characteristics of better responses:
- well structured with an introduction, main body and conclusion
- lack of repetition and answered within the time limit
- may have involved presenting both sides of an argument
- compared and contrasted city life and country life
- gave a range of examples to illustrate how and why it is easy to become dissatisfied.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- did not address both parts of the question
- discussed personal world and not issues
- focused too much on technology and deviated from the topic of materialism
- repeated ideas.
Written examination
Section I – Response to Prescribed Text
Part A
Characteristics of better responses:
- demonstrated a sound understanding of the genre and language used
- demonstrated in-depth understanding of the characters and their motivation
- analysed the plot and drew valid conclusions
- connected to the prescribed issue(s)
- remained relevant to the question and adapted knowledge accordingly.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- displayed sketchy knowledge of the details of the storyline
- had a superficial understanding of characterisation
- relied overly on quotes from the text
- padded the response with irrelevant information
- gave some inaccurate information.
Part B
Characteristics of better responses:
- perceptively linked the extract and knowledge of the text to construct an effective interview
- remained true to the original text and characters without creating own ‘back stories’
- addressed both parts of the question (motivation and relevant interpretation of success)
- consistently used the correct register.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- retold the plot
- included sections unrelated to the question
- gave irrelevant quotes from the story
- were excessively long, poorly structured and unfocused or too general.
Section II – Writing in German
Characteristics of better responses:
- adhered to the word limit
- were well structured
- specifically addressed the issue raised and developed a coherent argument
- used the correct register.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- wrote about the pros and cons of multiculturalism and issues of tolerance rather than addressing the challenges faced and how we can support and understand the immigrant’s position (Q.3)
- discussed the pros and cons of the internet and social networking with insufficient links to concepts of deeper friendships (Q.4)
- lacked argument
- gave little evidence of audience
- exceeded the word limit leading to irrelevant material and poor structure
- included rote learnt material on similar topics.
NSW Government