UNIVERSITY OF MALTA
THE MATRICULATION CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
GERMAN
MAY 2009
EXAMINERS’ REPORT
MATRICULATION AND SECONDARY EDUCATION CERTIFICATE
EXAMINATIONS BOARD
IM Examiners’ Report – May 2009
IM GERMAN
MAY 2009 SESSION
EXAMINERS’ REPORT
32 candidates registered for Intermediate Level Examination in German and all were present.
The following results were achieved:
Grade
No. of candidates
Percentage
A
3
9.4%
B
11
34.4%
C
8
25.0%
D
2
6.3%
E
5
15.6%
F
3
9.4%
Total
32
100
All scripts were seen by three markers. A marking scheme was used. Both the new and the
old orthography were accepted.
The candidates who achieved a Grade A and a Grade B showed language skills which were
sufficient for Intermediate Level. While candidates with lower Grades, showing partly quite an
interesting knowledge about the questions, they appeared to be very little concerned about
certain criterias like spelling and grammar. At the lower levels of grading a general lack, even
of simple facts out of the book “Dreimal Deutsch” became sometimes painfully obvious.
Out of the choice of six titles for essays, all titles were chosen. 14 candidates opted for “Die
Freizeit” (Time for Hobbies) and 9 candidates wrote about “Ein phantastischer Urlaub” (A
phantastic holiday). The remaining titles were equally spread amongst the remaining
candidates. The students certainly had ideas as far as the content of their essays is
concerned, but unfortunately not the linguistic skills.
The grammar questions were answered slightly better than last year. The average mark for
all 32 students was 19 out of 30. It was positive to notice that students adhered more
accurately to the instructions and examples given for each exercise.
As far as Landeskunde is concerned, 20 replies out of the altogether 160 replies (32
students by 5 answers each) were given a zero – partly due to the question having been
overlooked and partly due to the answer being totally wrong.
Some examples illustrating an alarming lack of knowledge about the country whose language
they are about to learn:
The question: “Was sind die ‘Halligen’ und wo liegen sie” (What are the Halligen = and where
are they situated? They are very small populated islands in the North Sea, nice photo in the
book.) was answered by one candidate as follows:
Artgallerie auf der Berliner Mauer (art gallery on the Berlin Wall)
This could nearly be a joke, though examination papers are not the place for such like.
Another example of a frustrating total lack of knowledge, question: Nennen Sie drei wichtige
deutsche Agrarprodukte (Name three important German agrarian products). Answer:
Käse, Aspirin und Elektronische-maschine.
(cheese, Aspirin (pain killers) and electronic machine)
Two or four questions are usually dedicated to Switzerland and Austria. This time it was sad
to notice that one candidate could not tell the capital of Austria.
The Oral Examinations showed 23 candidates having achieved between 10 and 15 marks,
(obtainable marks 15). This is a similar positive trend as it was also found in Advanced Level
examinations May 2009.
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IM Examiners’ Report – May 2009
The following points are of general nature and apply to Advanced Level as well as
Intermediate Level of May 2009. Candidates should be made aware of the following items:
a)
Candidates should be encouraged to make sure that they have replied to all the
questions to avoid getting a zero mark while in fact they would have known the
answer.
b) As pointed out in reports of previous years, the provided booklets for the candidates’
scripts contain an ample number of pages. Therefore, it is not necessary at all that
students squeeze their answers of a Section onto one page, making finding end and start
between sections or questions sometimes very difficult for the marker. They may leave
some lines of spacing at least between sections and the individual paragraphs.
Chairperson
Board of Examiners,
July, 2009
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