A Level German IRP: An AQA examiner's tips for successful revision

This is a final checklist that you can go through to ensure you are exam-ready to present your individual research project for the AQA A Level in German. Therefore, I won't be talking about research or how you should have chosen your topic. It is about final tweaks you can make to an already well-researched project.

Preparing your IRP presentation

Firstly, your presentation should be no longer than two minutes. Record yourself and make sure you're not speaking for longer than two minutes, because otherwise you will be cut off. Not only does this mean that you might miss the opportunity to explain important information, but it is also quite jarring to be cut off by the examiner, and I don't think it will set you up well for the discussion part.

For the content of your IRP presentation: please avoid long lists. It doesn't sound particularly analytical to have memorised a long list of dates or a long quote. It can sound like you are filling time, and you absolutely do not want to sound like that in the two-minute presentation.

Rehearse it. "Don't robotically memorise it." Of course, you can memorise it, but it must sound natural. To do this, you must ensure that in your presentation there are logical pauses between ideas and logical pauses between sentences. This will help the examiners to follow along, and it will make him or her more sure of the order that he or she should be asking questions in.

What to include in your IRP presentation

The following are questions you can ask yourself to see if you are exam-ready for the German A Level individual research project, but don't expect to be able to answer them all. They are just guidelines.

Firstly, why is this topic or question important to address?

This is a much nicer way to open the presentation than starting with a personal anecdote. Tell the examiner how your topic is relevant to a German-speaking country or region, and also feel free to relate it to other areas of study. If you're planning to study medicine later on, there's nothing wrong with saying that "Medical research is an important ethical topic, and I've decided to investigate this topic in the German context or the Swiss context," or something like that.

How are you going to address the topic? What sub-themes need to be investigated? Explain these briefly. You can give examples of each. Let's take the example of medical research. You might want to say, "There was a huge leap forward in medical research in Switzerland when assisted dying was legalised in..." Give the date, maybe the percentage of people that voted for it, if there was a vote, and then move on. Contextualise your topic, show the examiner you know what you're talking about, but don't dwell on it in your IRP presentation. That's for the discussion.

You can also explain the order that you're going to present in importance, pros versus cons. Do not present chronologically, though. It's very hard to analyse a chronological list, because that essentially ends up being narration, and narration is something you want to avoid. For example, if you're going to talk about why the Berlin Wall fell, you want to avoid listing all the events that led up to that in the order that they happened. Much more analytical would be dividing those events into political reasons, economic reasons, and social reasons.

You can tell the examiner if you found any of these subtopics controversial or complicated, or perhaps you disagreed with the reasoning of something you read, but do explain why.

Finally, you will want to bring your presentation to a close by explaining how you would like to conclude. Do you think your topic can have a yes/no answer? Do you think the answer will be more nuanced? Do you need more research? If you've picked a book or a film, you might want to suggest how the book or film will continue to have an influence on the society that it is based in or the society that has read or watched the film.

How to prepare for your IRP discussion

After you have finished your presentation, it is time to discuss your topic with the examiner. For the discussion, the length should be nine to ten minutes. If whilst you're rehearsing you find yourself repeating yourself, or that you do not have enough information, or your arguments need to be more in-depth, make sure you get to nine minutes at least. Here, the examiner will monitor the time and will bring the exam to a close when necessary, so it's fine to be interrupted. Ensure you've got at least nine minutes of material.

Your content needs lots of facts, quotations, statistics, et cetera, that lead into plenty of analysis. For example, if we were talking about the date that assisted dying was legalised, you might want to say, "This is an important date because it was the first European country to do so," or, "There was a very small majority, which shows it's still controversial," et cetera. You must analyse every example you give.

You should also be rehearsing this, but do not memorise answers. It's fine to practise answers, but you cannot predict the examiner's questioning, and so you need to be ready to adapt.

Some ways to prepare before the A Level speaking exam: explain your topic to your friends and family. If you are fortunate enough to have German-speaking friends and family, do this in German. But there is no disadvantage really to doing this in English, as your language at this point should be strong enough to then go away and speak German. Ask your friends and family to disagree with you so that you can justify your argument with pertinent examples.

You can also ask ChatGPT to quiz you on your topic. For example, if you've chosen a book, ask ChatGPT, "Set me a ten-question quiz on..." whatever book. If we're using the example of medical research, ask ChatGPT, "What were the ten greatest milestones in medical research in modern Swiss history?" You can also write a short essay and ask ChatGPT to analyse this. Great prompts are, for example, "Analyse my essay for bias," "Analyse my essay for factual accuracy," and "Provide the counterargument to my essay."

Learn key concepts and vocabulary off by heart. Memorise phrases to introduce, link, contrast, explain, and conclude. Review vocabulary you already recognise first, because these will be the easiest to memorise. Do not memorise everything.

How to avoid common IRP mistakes for A Level German

The biggest mistake pupils make is failing to provide valid analysis.

Finally, ask yourself: if you're including subtopics or points that you want to mention, are any of them just pure narration? If they are, that's not necessarily problematic, but these must be brief (I'd say a maximum of thirty seconds) before you introduce an element of analysis.

In terms of content, the biggest mistake A Level German pupils make in the IRP part of the speaking test is failing to provide valid analysis, and these are some steps you can go through both before and during the exam to avoid narration and ensure there is more analysis.

Firstly, listen to example IRPs. Some of these are available on the AQA website. Identify where there is just narration and where you would have stopped and provided an evaluation or analysis of what was said.

If you catch yourself doing this in the speaking exam, stop and explain why what you've just said is relevant. For example, if you are explaining the plot of a book and this has gone on for longer than thirty seconds, stop and say, "This part of the plot is relevant because it had a profound effect in contemporary society," or, "This part of the plot was a consequence of the author's upbringing," or, "I mention this because it sets the scene for the rest of the book." This will force you to continue in a more analytical way.

If you do need to narrate or describe an event, try to include logical and analytical connectives. This means breaking up a long narration into smaller parts where you link them logically. For example, when discussing the fall of the Berlin Wall, you might say, "There was evidence that there were unfair elections. This therefore led to protests." Do not simply list events; link them together.

If you're struggling to elaborate on your point and you're worried that you might just start narrating again, present the opposite point and then explain why the opposing view is incorrect. For example: "Some people find this part of the book to be irrelevant to the ultimate message of the author. I disagree because..." In this way, you break up narration and move into analysis.

Tips for success in the IRP discussion for A Level German

If you can disagree with the examiner's question, absolutely do it. It makes for a much better discussion. A useful formula for answering questions is: state your point of view, back it up with evidence and examples, and then explain the repercussions or why it is important. For example, if the question were, "Has medical research gone too far?" you might say, "I do not agree because...", list the areas that still need to be developed, and then explain why this matters for society. In this way, you will steer the conversation the way you want it to go.

You do want to make the discussion a discussion, so the examiner will have to ask questions at some point, but provided you are presenting arguments and analysing them with good evidence, there is nothing wrong with speaking for two to three minutes at a time. Do let the examiner speak eventually.

If you catch yourself repeating something, ensure that the examiner knows you are doing this by saying, "As I mentioned before," which makes it sound like you are reinforcing a previous point rather than having run out of things to say.

Finally, if you cannot answer a question, as a last resort, briefly redirect the conversation to a related analytical point. For example: "Whilst this could be important, I'd like to mention the benefits to society of this research." This should only be a last resort; answer the questions whenever possible.

Review useful vocabulary and analytical phrases, focusing first on those you already recognise, and use this guidance as a final checklist. If you do so, you will be well prepared for your A Level German speaking exam.

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