For me, the choice to study German at A level was not a difficult one. I greatly enjoyed the GCSE course, and found myself wanting to take the knowledge I had previously built up and improve upon it. The A level course is very interesting, covering a range of topics from music and festivals, to current affairs. Through this, you begin to really discover what culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland is like.  

Beyond learning about life in the German-speaking world, I have found it is thoroughly interesting to be able to take grammar points which were taken for granted at GCSE, and ask myself why they are this way. Outside of the lessons, there are also many opportunities. A personal highlight for me was taking part in the national debating competition, run by the Goethe Institut in London. In this competition, teams of four from schools all over the country debated against each other about controversial topics, entirely in German. The preparation for this was fascinating, as we took our knowledge of culture from the course, and developed it through independent research, in order to provide evidence for our arguments. 

I plan to study both German and French at university, and one thing I have found particularly beneficial is the Foreign Language Assistant speaking sessions, which take place during a single period each week. In these, the class is divided into small groups, in which the topics of the course are discussed in more detail, and some photo card preparation takes place. These sessions are very interesting and certainly help to take steps towards the fluency that German students strive for.