Aural - Interview

Exam Structure and the Three-Playing Strategy

The German aural exam carries 80 marks, which accounts for 20% of your overall Higher Level grade. Part 1 is the interview, making it the longest single recording on the paper. An announcement in English sets the scene, establishing who is speaking and what topic they are discussing. An interview normally has two main voices, the reporter and the interviewee, though an announcer gives context and occasionally a second interviewee contributes.

Maximising your marks requires a disciplined routine across the three playings:

Before the recording begins

Use the allocated reading time to scan all questions in Part 1. Underline English question prompts such as how many, when, why, or give three details. Predict the German structures you will hear. For example, an inquiry about opening hours tells you to listen for phrases like von … bis, Uhr, and specific days of the week.

First playing – straight through

Listen without trying to write out complete answers. Your goal during this run is to identify the interviewee's role, get used to their accent and speaking pace, and pencil in small pencil markers beside the questions where the answers appear.

Second playing – divided into sections with pauses

This is where you do the heavy lifting. Jot down figures, times, days, and key German nouns. Use the silent pause after each section to translate these notes into clear English points.

Third playing – straight through

Treat the final playing as an auditing run. Fill remaining blanks, verify numerical digits, check the spelling of proper names, and confirm that your answers match the exact details demanded by the questions.

Core Vocabulary Banks for the Aural Interview

Marking schemes reward the comprehension of precise vocabulary in context. Most interview prompts revolve around youth themes, education, work, and community services.

Personal details and the workplace

• der Beruf (job / profession) and berufstätig (employed / working)
• die Ausbildung (apprenticeship / training) and das Praktikum (work placement / internship)
• die Erfahrung (experience) and die Stelle (job / position / post)
• der Wohnort (place of residence) and das Alter (age)
• ledig (single) and verheiratet (married)
• der Kollege / die Kollegin (colleague / co-worker)

When asking about employment, the reporter will usually say "Was sind Sie von Beruf?" (What do you do for a living?) or "Was ist sie von Beruf?" (What does she do?). Notice that Ihr with a capital letter means your in formal address, whereas ihr in lower case means her or their.

Character traits

Interviewees often describe their coworkers, pupils, or personal growth using targeted adjectives: hilfsbereit (helpful), zuverlässig (reliable), geduldig (patient), ehrgeizig (ambitious), selbstbewusst (self-confident), schüchtern (shy), aufgeschlossen (open-minded), anstrengend (demanding / exhausting), and stressig (stressful).

School and language learning

• das Fach / die Fächer (subject / subjects)
• die Prüfung (exam) and die Note (grade / mark)
• der Austausch (exchange) and die Sprachreise (language trip)
• fließend (fluent) and die Aussprache (pronunciation)
• die Grammatik fällt mir schwer (I find grammar difficult)
• es macht mir Spaß (I enjoy it)

Social issues and helpline services

Helpline and youth support topics appear regularly in Part 1. Listening passages frequently feature der Kummer (sorrow / worry), die Sorgen (worries), der Dienst (service), kostenlos or gebührenfrei (free of charge), bundesweit (nationwide), anonym (anonymous), vertraulich (confidential), weitergeben (to pass on), zuhören (to listen), and die Beratung (counselling). Common youth issues include der Streit (argument / conflict), die Angst vor der Zukunft (fear of the future), der Leistungsdruck (pressure to perform / get good grades), das Mobbing (bullying), die sozialen Netzwerke (social networks), and der Liebeskummer (lovesickness).

Numbers, Times, Dates, and Spelled Names

Factual questions involving digits, schedules, and names provide some of the most accessible marks on the paper, but English speakers routinely stumble over German numerical conventions.

The reversal rule for two-digit numbers

German pronounces the unit before the ten: einundzwanzig is 21 (literally one-and-twenty), vierundsechzig is 64, and siebenundneunzig is 97. When listening, write down the second syllable you hear first. Pay close attention to word endings: -zehn signals a teen number while -zig signals a multiple of ten. Candidates regularly confuse sechzehn (16) with sechzig (60), or siebzehn (17) with siebzig (70). On phone numbers or radio broadcasts, the speaker might say zwo instead of zwei to avoid acoustic confusion with drei.

For large quantities, note hundert (100), tausend (1,000), and eine Million (1 million). Approximations frequently modify these numbers: ungefähr, etwa, or rund (about / around / approximately), über (over), fast (almost), die Hälfte (half), and ein Drittel (a third).

Clock times and calendar dates

German uses the 24-hour clock for train schedules, business hours, and helpline services. A broadcast stating "von vierzehn bis zwanzig Uhr" means from 2 pm to 8 pm. For traditional clock times, halb acht means 7.30, never 8.30; the German phrase looks forward to the upcoming hour, meaning halfway to eight. Similarly, note Viertel nach (quarter past) and Viertel vor (quarter to).

Days of the week must be recognized instantly: Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, Freitag, Samstag (or Sonnabend in northern regions), and Sonntag. Look out for frequency words such as wochentags (on weekdays), am Wochenende (at the weekend), täglich (daily), and zweimal pro Woche (twice a week). Dates use ordinals: am ersten Mai (on the first of May) and am dritten Oktober (on the third of October).

Spelled names and letters

When the recording spells out a surname, town, or street, phonetic differences between German and English can cause simple errors. German E sounds like the English vowel sound in day, I sounds like the English ee, and A sounds like ah. Watch for consonants: G is pronounced gay, J is yot, V sounds like fau, W sounds like vay, Y is üpsilon, and Z is tset. Double letters are flagged with Doppel- (such as Doppel-l), while umlauts are voiced as ä (a-Umlaut), ö (o-Umlaut), ü (u-Umlaut), and the sharp S is given as ß (Eszett).

Question Words and Verb Signals

Identifying the reporter's opening question word (W-Frage) allows you to anticipate what detail is needed before the interviewee answers.

Interrogative question words

• wer? (who? – nominative subject)
• wen? (whom? – accusative direct object)
• wem? (to whom? – dative indirect object)
• wessen? (whose? – genitive)
• was? (what?) and was für ein...? (what kind of...?)
• wo? (where? – location: Wo wohnt er?)
• wohin? (where to? – direction: Wohin fährt sie?)
• woher? (where from? – origin: Woher kommt er?)
• wann? (when?), wie lange? (how long?), and wie oft? (how often?)
• wie viel? (how much?) and wie viele? (how many?)
• warum? / wieso? / weshalb? (why?) and wozu? (what for?)
• welcher / welche / welches? (which?)
• womit? (with what?) and worüber? (about what?)

Tracking tenses in spoken conversation

In conversational German, past actions are almost exclusively communicated through the perfect tense (hat gemacht, ist gefahren, hat angerufen). The simple past (Präteritum) in speech is restricted to high-frequency verbs: war (was), hatte (had), es gab (there was / were), and modals like konnte (could) or musste (had to).

Future plans are usually expressed by the present tense combined with a future time phrase: "Nächstes Jahr fahre ich nach Berlin" (Next year I am going to Berlin), or "Im Sommer mache ich ein Praktikum" (In the summer I will do an internship). Watch for vorhaben or vor plus an infinitive (Ich habe vor, Medizin zu studieren – I intend to study medicine). While werden + Infinitiv (Er wird studieren) marks the future, treat werden carefully on its own: Er wird Lehrer means he is becoming a teacher, while Es wird renoviert is the passive voice (it is being renovated).

Irregular present-tense stem changes

Do not let irregular verb forms obscure words you already know. Remember the stem-vowel shift in the du and er/sie/es forms:

• a → ä: fahren → er fährt (he travels / drives); schlafen → er schläft (he sleeps); tragen → sie trägt (she carries / wears)
• e → i: sprechen → er spricht (he speaks); helfen → sie hilft (she helps); geben → es gibt (there is / are); nehmen → er nimmt (he takes)
• e → ie: sehen → sie sieht (she sees); lesen → er liest (he reads); empfehlen → er empfiehlt (he recommends)

Sentence Mechanics, Linkers, and Traps

German sentence architecture places meaning-altering elements at the very end of clauses. Writing down an answer before the verb finishes will lead to false assumptions.

Where meaning arrives late

• Separable verbs: The prefix detaches and flies to the absolute end. In "Sie rufen uns jeden Tag an", the verb is anrufen (to phone / call), not rufen (to shout). Other frequent separable verbs include aufhören (to stop / cease), anfangen (to begin), mitmachen (to participate), and zurückkommen (to return).
• Modal verbs: The conjugated modal sits in second position, but the primary action infinitive waits at the clause finish: "Man kann uns auch per WhatsApp erreichen" (You can also reach us via WhatsApp).
• Negation words: Words like nicht (not), kein (no / not any), nie / niemals (never), niemand (nobody), nichts (nothing), and nicht mehr (no longer) completely invert statements. A common construction is kein … sondern … (not … but rather …). When a speaker hesitates and corrects themselves ("Nicht zwanzig, sondern dreißig"), the marking scheme expects the corrected second number.

The seit trap

The preposition seit takes the dative case and pairs with the present tense for actions that began in the past and continue today. English requires the perfect continuous. When you hear "Ich arbeite seit fünf Jahren hier", write "I have been working here for five years", not "I work here since five years". Distinguish vor drei Jahren (three years ago – past) from in drei Jahren (in three years' time – future).

Conjunctions as audio signposts

Conjunctions signal how ideas connect. When an interviewee gives reasons, expect weil or da (because – sends verb to the end), denn (because – normal word order), or deshalb / deswegen (that is why – verb follows immediately). Contrasts are marked by aber (but), obwohl (although – verb to the end), and trotzdem (nevertheless – verb follows). When you hear nicht nur … sondern auch (not only … but also) or sowohl … als auch (both … and), get ready to write down two distinct points.

Marking Scheme Rules for Written Answers

Exam guidelines enforce strict conventions regarding how answers must be presented in your script:

• Write your answers in English unless the question explicitly specifies German. Leaving key words in German earns zero credit, with exceptions made only for phone numbers, proper names, and official website URLs.
• Provide discrete, distinct details. If a question requests three details, stating that a helpline "is free" and "costs nothing" represents a single idea and scores only one mark. Each point must cover separate factual territory.
• Precision matters. Writing "they have problems at school" loses marks if the marking scheme specifically demands "pressure to perform in school / to get good grades".
• Avoid speculative hedging. Do not write "either Monday or Tuesday". Commit firmly to the factual detail heard.
• Use numerals for figures and dates rather than writing long words in English, helping you record data accurately without losing pacing.

Key terms

kostenlos / gebührenfrei

Free of charge; a recurring detail in listening passages describing services, apps, and events.

bundesweit

Nationwide / across Germany; frequently used to describe the scope of youth initiatives or helplines.

anonym

Anonymous; callers or users do not have to provide their names or disclose phone numbers.

der Leistungsdruck

Pressure to perform / pressure to achieve high grades in school or university.

weitergeben

To pass on or share information; often negated (nicht weitergeben) to mean confidential.

der Streit

Argument, conflict, or row with friends, classmates, or family members.

die Angst vor der Zukunft

Fear of or anxiety about the future, commonly cited by young people in interviews.

das Mobbing

Bullying, including harassment in school or online (Cybermobbing / in sozialen Netzwerken).

erreichbar

Reachable, contactable, or accessible by phone, online chat, or email.

seit + Dativ

Grammatical structure used with the present tense indicating an action that started in the past and continues in the present.

einundzwanzig

Twenty-one; illustrates the German reversal rule where the single unit precedes the ten.

halb acht

Half past seven (7.30); signifies the halfway point leading up to eight o'clock.

buchstabieren

To spell out letter by letter, signalling that a name, street, or web address must be transcribed accurately.

der Plan (pl. die Pläne)

Plan/plans; a masculine noun featuring an umlaut plural that signals upcoming discussion of future aspirations.