German units & topics
All 52 topics in the AQA GCSE German specification (8662). Tap a unit to see its topics — every linked topic has free notes, quizzes and flashcards.
German GCSE sits under AQA specification 8662 — a genuinely reformed course that came into first teaching in 2024 and sees its first exams in 2026. If your child is sitting in 2027, they are in the second cohort, which means past papers from 2026 will start appearing as real practice material. The course is built around four themes — Identity and Relationships, Local and Global Citizenship, School and Wider World, and Careers and Future Plans — and assesses five equally weighted papers: Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking, and a separate dictation element embedded in Listening. Every paper counts for 25% of the final grade, so no single skill can be neglected.
German is widely regarded as the most grammatically demanding of the three main GCSE modern languages. That is not a reason to be put off — it is a reason to start structured revision earlier than you might for French or Spanish. The case system (Nominative, Accusative, Dative and Genitive) changes the form of articles and adjective endings depending on the noun's role in the sentence. Word order rules — verb-second in main clauses, verb-final in subordinate clauses — are directly examined and can cost marks even when vocabulary is correct. Separable verbs split across the sentence in a way that surprises English speakers. None of this is beyond a motivated GCSE student, but it rewards students who build habits early and practise systematically rather than cramming.
How to revise German — a complete, step-by-step plan
AQA German exam coming up? A plan for the final few days, paper by paper.
All 52 topics in the AQA GCSE German specification (8662). Tap a unit to see its topics — every linked topic has free notes, quizzes and flashcards.
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