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Lesestrategien — How to Read Smart
🔍 Lesestrategien — How to Read Smart
You don't need to understand every word to answer a German reading question. With the right strategy — skim, scan, trap-check — you can find the answer fast and avoid the traps AQA sets. Working systematically from questions to text is faster and more accurate than reading the whole passage first.
The Strategy Steps
(1) Negation — nicht (not), kein/keine (no / not a), nie (never) can flip the entire meaning. Always read the sentence around the answer carefully. (2) False friends — das Gift ≠ gift; bekommen ≠ become; also ≠ also. See U11-T1 for the full list. (3) Distractors — a wrong answer that reuses a word from the text
Earn the mark scheme marks
💡 Exam Tips & Common Errors
- Always skim first, then scan — never try to translate the whole text word by word.
- Read the questions before re-reading the passage — they tell you exactly what detail to look for.
- For "True / False / Not mentioned": "Not mentioned" means the information is completely absent — do not infer it from general knowledge.
- For short answers in English: a precise phrase is enough — do not pad with a full sentence.
- If a multiple-choice option reuses a word from the text, it may be a distractor. Verify the meaning, not just the word.
❌ Common error: Choosing an answer just because it repeats a word from the text.
✓ Correct: Check whether that word appears in a distractor — a deliberate wrong answer planted to tempt you.
Why it costs marks: AQA builds distractors by reusing words from the passage in the wrong answer. The correct answer usually paraphrases. Students who scan for matching words instead of reading for meaning fall into this trap every time.