By Eimear Dinneen - 2 minute readThe Leaving Cert orals are held in April which means now's the time to make sure you're well prepared. Here are some tips to help you out.
General Conversation (40 Marks)
This part of the exam lasts about 4 minutes. The best preparation you can do is to practice speaking German as much as possible. Practice with your friends, speak German in the shower or even record yourself on your phone. A good challenge can be to pick a theme, time yourself and see can you speak aloud for 1 minute on that theme.
Rather than waiting for the examiner to ask question after question try and lead the conversation into areas you have a good knowledge of and are well prepared for.
For example:
Examiner: "How many brothers and sisters do you have?"
Student: "I have one brother, He is studying medicine. I want to study medicine too. I want to go to college in Dublin...
Mindmap out possible links between conversation topics. For example, if you are asked about homework, you can answer that but then link on to your hobbies and interests.
Be prepared to speak in the past, present, and future tenses. Also, do your best to use a German accent when you speak.
Picture stories (30 Marks)
The 5 picture stories will be turned upside down. You will be asked to randomly pick one of the 5 pictures. Be able to tell the story in 15-20 sentences. Make sure you know the first picture in all the sequences as this will get you off to a good start. The examiner will then ask you a series of questions about the pictures. Firstly you will get a short question where you can reply with a one-sentence answer. Next, you will be asked a question about a future projection in any picture, for example, "what do you think will happen next?". Be prepared to use the future tense here. The final 10 marks out of the 30 will be a question based on a theme found in the picture story.
Role Plays (30 Marks)
There are 5 roleplay cards to be learned. Again, you will pick one of the cards randomly. You should use the vocabulary printed on the card. Keep your sentences short and make sure you complete each of the 5 tasks on the card. Usually, there will be 4 points within each of the 5 tasks. Listen carefully to what the examiner says and try to respond appropriately.
You can check them all out by clicking the button below:
If you find yourself in a tight spot, try use phrases such as:
Ich verstehe die Frage nicht.
(I don't understand the question.)
Können Sie die Frage wiederholen, bitte?
(Can you repeat the question please.)
If you're looking for more tips on the oral and the German exam itself, check out our subject guide on how to get an H1 in German here.
