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German GCSE as outside student

11 replies

tannenzapfle · 23/03/2017 13:26

DC14 and DC11 are bilingual German/English and attend school in Germany.

Is there any way that they could sit GCSE German in the next year or two as an outside candidate? Have anyone else's DC done something similar? How do we organise such a thing? We would be able to bring them over for exams.

Any advice welcome.

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tannenzapfle · 23/03/2017 13:30

Just to add, the DC are British and would like to attempt a British qualification.

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Lapinlapin · 23/03/2017 13:32

Lots of external candidates sit exams, so it's definitely possible.

You could contact a school in the UK that you'd want your dc to sit the exam at and they could help you.

I would also contact the exam boards to see if there's an international school near you in Germany. You might find it's possible for your dc to do the exams there. However if you're coming over to the UK anyway, then it might be easier to do it here.

Don't forget though, that the GCSE might not be necessary. Might it not make more sense to wait a few years and then just let them sit German A Level?

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LIZS · 23/03/2017 13:35

There are assessments - reading and listening, writing, oral etc - which are taken during the course as well as the final exam. Probably best to find somewhere local which does igcses.

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ShanghaiDiva · 23/03/2017 13:44

If you contact the exam board - it would be to take an igcse in Germany , so either edexcel or cambridge they will tell you which exam centres take external candidates.
My son took the igcse as an external candidate in China. You could wait and take the A level but ime the essay paper with Cambridge A level does require a certain level of sophistication with regard to thought processes and may not be suitable for really young candidates. My son took the A level when he was 15, and found the essay paper quite tricky. However, he hasn't attended a German speaking school since he was 8 so really needed to improve his formal writing.

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tannenzapfle · 23/03/2017 15:27

Thank you everyone! Lots of really useful information. I'll look into all of your suggestions.

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remoaniac · 24/03/2017 12:53

One other option would be to do a Goethe Institute exam that would be accepted as an equivalent (or better than) the GCSE. I am looking into this for ds as his school does not teach German to his year group so he can't do GCSE.

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clary · 25/03/2017 14:57

No controlled assessments any more LIZS, it's all on exams now (in all four disciplines) unless they were thinking of doing it this June?! - last year of coursework.

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LIZS · 25/03/2017 14:58

Even igcse Clary?

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ShanghaiDiva · 25/03/2017 15:50

Igcse - edexcel and Cambridge - did not have controlled assessments or coursework - all exam based.
We live in China so all my son's exams we're igcses and the only one with coursework was English language.