AQA A-Level German Past Papers & Mark Schemes

AQA A-Level German (specification code 7662) is distinctive among modern language A-Levels for two reasons. Grammatically, German's four-case system — nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive, each with different endings for definite articles, indefinite articles, and adjectives across three grammatical genders — represents a structural complexity not found in French or Spanish at this level. Culturally, the German-speaking world's 20th-century history (National Socialism, the Holocaust, the GDR, reunification) provides a richer and more morally serious range of literary and historical content than almost any other A-Level subject. Both dimensions reward genuine intellectual engagement. Paper 1: Listening, Reading and Writing (2 hours 30 minutes, 100 marks, 50%) assesses all four language skills within the cultural and thematic framework of German-speaking societies. Listening comprehension draws on authentic German broadcast material — Deutsche Welle, ARD, ZDF, and Swiss and Austrian media — at natural speed. Reading comprehension spans journalistic, literary, and documentary text types. Translation occurs in both directions. The thematic content is structured around: family and relationships (Familie und Beziehungen), the digital world (Die digitale Welt), youth culture (Jugendkultur), German-speaking artistic culture, immigration and integration (Einwanderung und Integration), and above all, 20th-century German history — the Third Reich, the Holocaust, and the GDR are recurrent topics across listening and reading materials because they are central to contemporary German cultural identity. Paper 2: Writing (2 hours 40 minutes, 80 marks, 20%) requires a critical essay of approximately 300 words in German on one of the studied set texts or films. German literature options span some of the most important works of European modernism and post-war literature — students may encounter Brecht, Kafka, Schiller, Dürrenmatt, Böll, or Süskind among the options. Film options include significant German-language cinema. The essay must demonstrate both textual analysis and advanced grammatical competency in German written prose. Paper 3: Speaking (21–23 minutes, 60 marks, 30%) has two components: a stimulus card discussion on a course theme (7–9 minutes), and a presentation and discussion of the student's individual research project (11–13 minutes). The research project on a German-speaking cultural, historical, or social topic of the student's choice might examine life in the GDR, the Weimar Republic's artistic culture, contemporary debates about German national identity, or the Austrian and Swiss literary traditions.