Any advice Nat 5 German

[libertywoo]

Hoping for a bit of advice, my DS has just sat his prelims, he’s got all A’s apart from his German which he only managed to get 30% in. His teacher has recommended he sit Nat 4 German instead. My concern is that the whole class bar 2 pupils have been given this advice, one of which has a German parent . It’s making me feel a bit
uneasy that the problem possibly lies in the teaching rather than my sons ability.
My ds is very upset, saying he feels really stupid and doesn’t understand how he doesn’t “get” German.
I’m looking into getting him a tutor but was wondering if there’s anything else we can do, such as online help/tutorials etc.
Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

Goodness yours are early, ours don't start until the 28th. Sounds like the teacher hasn't covered what the children need to know for the exam or has taught things wrongly.

I know they are early! In a way I’m glad we got them out the way but now I’m not so sure! My gut is telling me something isn’t right, I don’t want to be one of “those” parents not accepting my sons abilities but I really do think he can do better☹️

Not a German teacher but a (Scottish) English teacher here. Some questions; was the Prelim based on all elements? When did he specialise ie drop some other subjects in favour of ones to carry forward to Nat 5? Would he rather risk NA at Nat5 or take teacher's advice re Nat4? If he pursued Nat 5 would the effort required potentially compromise other subjects.

DDs friend was in similar position last year (40% in French in Jan prelim, As in 5 other subjects and Bs in other 2). She decided she wanted the pass French and went to supported study. Teacher helped identify areas she could really improve. She worked reasonably hard over 3 months and got an A. She was delighted more so than any of her other As

Thanks for your reply Lidlfix. Yes it was based on all elements but my son and his classmates all felt they didn’t understand any of the questions, this is making me question what’s going on during class. His other subjects are solid so I don’t feel extra effort into the German would put them at any disadvantage. I suppose I’m just finding it hard to understand how a whole class bar 2 pupils are being recommended Nat 4.

Thanks Clerk, my son asked for his prelim paper to see where he went wrong and the teacher wouldn’t let him look at it

Sorry posted too early. I'd say depends on your DSs attitude. My DS2 ditched his French early in S4 for PE. He would never done the work necessary to get anything more than a C.

For Nat 5 languages you really need to understand the marking schemes and how you can maximise your marks, as its pegged marking its easy to drop down to a lower mark or even no marks at all. There is a lot that you can prepare in advance for both the speaking and written paper. The teacher should be guiding them them re this. I’d definitely approach the school and ask to see the written paper. My DC did nat 5 French last year and managed an A, he had a better prelim result but his prelim was later.

If you’ve not looked at it here is the SQA marking scheme:

www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/papers/instructions/2018/mi_N5_German_German-all_2018.pdf

Thanks Celtie, I’ll have a read

how a whole class bar 2 pupils are being recommended Nat 4.

That would really worry me too. Especially with kids who are on course for solid Nat 5 passes in everything else.

I'd be speaking to the Head of Modern Languages, see what's going on.

And our Prelims aren't until the New Year - DS needs a veritable rocket up his arse before then.

If they haven't had much experience of German prior to S4 combined with (stupidly) early prelims it's perfectly understandable why the results are poor. The removal of recognising positive achievement with Fallback Nat 4 is pushing the situation you are describing OP. I pretty sure questions will already have been asked re poor results. It may well be that due to lack of prior knowledge of the language and hardly having time to cover much of course that had prelim been in Jan for example results might have been better.

We moved our Nat 5 prelims to January from late November/early December 3 years ago as new HT favoured this due to wanting to limit disruption to whole school. Have to say it has prevented a sprint to exam.

Remember language courses are skills based and skills develop over time. Social subjects or sciences for example will have set prelims based on content covered so far so much more of a test of knowledge. I know we find prelim results that show little resemblance to actual performance as in English we are asking them to demonstrate skills in prelim that they have only started to develop come May they are much more established.

is there no option to dual present and do both nat4 and nat5?

if prelim was on all elements though and done early in the year then i wouldn't be surprised at that mark. is there another german class in the year group or is your son's the only one?

I thought dual presentation was under exceptional circs only? That's the line my (massive shortfall in budget) local authority are giving.

Ds' old school moved its Prelims to the last few weeks of the winter term 5 or 6 years ago. It certainly keeps the attendance up before Christmas

It seems to have been universally popular - certainly amongst the pupils, who've got their exams out of the way before Christmas, although maybe less so amongst the teachers who have marking to do over the Christmas break

Although iirc, ds often had most of his results back before the'd broken up anyway.

Is the German exam known to be particularly hard? It's not the easiest of subjects.
In an ideal world (bearing in mind Brexit) I'd organise a language exchange to Germany for him.
In any event, if you can afford it I'd get him some tutoring online, maybe with a native German speaker. You'll need to work out whether that's the best idea, or whether he's best off having lessons with someone who is experienced with the Scottish exams. If it's exam technique rather than knowledge of German, that should be fairly easy to sort out? It's likely to be a combination of both though. And lots of practice papers.

My son has also got his prelim results back and has A's in everything except French which was a major fail. He has to decide what he wants to do but there is a big part of me thinking he should ditch French altogether (although it is compulsory but I just mean not work for it) so that he can focus on the other subjects. I think he could have to do too much to get a good mark and so it would be better just to look like he has sat 7 National 5's.

But don't you have to declare a fail?

It wouldn’t be a fail if he didn’t sit the exam at all is my thinking!

What's he thinking of doing further study wise? Some courses you wouldn't think of (history at St A) have a preference for a language and some very competitive courses look at your achievements compared to your school. However definitely wouldn't have made any difference for the science courses my DSes do at Strathclyde/Glasgow. Don't think they even considered National 5 passes other than meeting the general entry criteria.

I’m wondering if languages need that extra time between prelims and the actual exam? Here’s two posters with straight A’s except their language. DS had his prelims in Jan last year, so a couple of extra months compared to the posters and he got 7 A’s and a C in Spanish. For the final exams, he got 8 A’s, so he did raise the Spanish mark quite considerably.

Most of the OP’s son’s class appear to have not done well in their prelim, Starryskies do you know if it’s similar? Am just wondering if it’s more a problem with the prelim timing for languages.

If he doesn't want to do it for Highers, not sitting the exam may be the best option. Either that or get a tutor and put some work in.

I would be tempted to get him to drop it rather than using a tutor and putting in lots of extra effort to the detriment of his other subjects - assuming he has no ambitions to become a linguist and has sufficient other subjects.

Thanks folks. Today he got a C for Modern Studies, something he was surprised and disappointed about so I am defiinitely thinking he might be better dropping French and focusing on the other subjects. He doesnt like French and is unlikely to do anything directly needing a language. Will check if it matters for things like Law but otherwise he is more into Science subjects and not srue what he wants to do.