1. Exam success: How to improve your READING and LISTENING performance – 10 top tips

2. 1. Use past papers as much as possible
Ask your teacher for a past paper and take it home to have a go……….note down any tricky vocabulary and learn it. Done? Ask for another!

3. 1. Use past papers as much as possible
Google AQA, EDEXCEL, OCR or WJEC and find the past papers on their websites –The basic questioning and vocabulary for all the exam boards are similar.
Use the Mark Schemes on the websites to check how you are doing. They are easy to find and easy to use.

4. 1. Use past papers as much as possible
Get together with a friend or group of friends to do past papers – do a section and compare how you did – discuss vocabulary and challenges. You can learn as much from each other as from the exercise itself.

5. 2. Get a vocabulary book
You have a vocabulary booklet which your teacher gave you – how many words have you learnt from it……….10 a day between now and the exam would mean 560 words!!

6. The Top Vocabulary Areas
Days/months
Numbers, especially time
Rooms at home
Room contents
Materials
Housework tasks
School subjects
School equipment
Foods
Cutlery & crockery
Snacks, drinks
Animals and pets
Weather
Jobs
Transport
Countries / Nationalities
Restaurant, café
Sports
Body parts
Family members
Clothes
Free time
Types of films / TV
Environment
Places in town
Shops
In the country
Colours
Directions
A range of verbs
A range of adjectives
A range of adverbs
Learn 20 words per area then add more

7. 2. Get a vocabulary book
Buy a blank book and challenge yourself to see how many words you can put in it AND LEARN between now and your exam – you could have a competition with a friend.

8. 2. Get a vocabulary book
Malvernlangs.co.uk – vocab books currently at £ They also do books on : grammar / controlled assessment / essential verbs
Or go on eBay and buy a second hand one

9. 3. Make use of the transcript
The exam boards provide transcripts for their listening papers on their websites.
How to use them:
print the transcript off
have a go at the questions on a section of the past paper
listen again and read the transcript
highlight parts that you had misheard or misunderstood and try to work out why.
List and learn any new vocabulary and structures
BBC Bitesize also provide transcripts

10. 4. Vocabulary is the key to success…… LEARN IT!!
Don’t think it is too late to start learning vocabulary…….
However many words you learn between now and the exam, it has to be better than learning none!!

11. 4. ……..LEARN it how? Read, Cover, Write & Check!
Post-it notes around the house. Change them regularly.
Ask others in the house to get involved.
You must learn and forget and learn and forget a word 7 times before it goes in!
Put a daily list by the loo, on the back of the cereal pack, on your pillow….anywhere it might prompt you to look at it – get your mum to put your list in your sandwich box every day!

12. 4. Got 15 minutes? Try vocab mapping…..
Take a word and see how many words you know associated with that word and then look up some new ones…….use different colours for nouns, adjectives and verbs maybe, make it colourful and artistic and……. memorable!

13. Zug teuer / billig abfahren ankommen reisen die Abfahrt die Fahrt
die Ankunft
losfahren
der Hauptbahnhof
die Reise
Bus
Auto
Flugzeug
Hubschrauber
Rad
Straßenbahn
D-Zug
Boot
Schiff
der Bahnhof
kaufen
die Fahrkarte
Zug
fahren
schnell
praktisch
langsam

14. Text2Mindmap.com

15. 5. Use the devices you love!
Renkara.com

16. 6. Use the internet
Memrise.com

17. 6. Use the internet

18. 6. Use the internet
lyrictraining.com

19. 6. Use Twitter and Facebook
Put the words out there that you are learning and just see if everyone knows what they mean……

20. Improving your performance in the exam itself…….

21. 7. Improve your Exam technique
Read the questions carefully first – annotate the question paper if you can, noting down what you might reasonably expect to hear

22. 7. Improve your Exam technique
Take careful note of how many marks there are for the question as that will indicate to you how much information you need to be listening for.

23. 7. Improve your Exam technique
Use clues the texts give away – Listen carefully to the tenses - are there any clues in the tenses?
Listen out for negatives, connectives and verb endings
Listen out for synonyms for key words in the questions

24. 7. Improve your Exam technique
Listen to the tone of the delivery when asked for questions about emotions but don’t be fooled – exam boards have caught on to this one lately and are quite carefully toning down the emotive delivery of the texts

25. 7. Improve your Exam technique
If you are stuck, cross out the definite wrong answers and * the answer you think it might be then listen carefully the second time.
NEVER leave an answer blank!!!!!!!!

26. 8. Annotate your papers as you do them
Underline key words like who, when, where, numbers and adjectives so you are listening out for the key items from the start
As you hear the text, note down key words you hear on to your question paper.
When given a choice of words to put into gaps, cross out the ones you use as you go

27. 9. Keep calm and apply yourself
Stay calm in the run up to the exam and work steadily
Start early and do a little, regularly rather than cramming 2 nights before the exam
Stay calm in the exam – listen carefully, read carefully and think things through rather than doing the writing the first thing that comes to mind

28. 10. Ask if you need help
Do not struggle alone………..