In your second year in Cambridge, you progress to more advanced language work and begin to lay the foundations for Part II. It is a time when you need to be thinking ahead, to your Year Abroad, and beyond that to the options you will offer in Part II. You therefore need to make sure you understand not only the structure of your course this year, but also how the choices you make now will affect what you can do later on.

Ex ab initio students

If you have taken German ab initio in Part IA you will be concentrating on German this year. You will have to offer in IB the language papers taken in the first year by post A-Level candidates:

• Paper GEB1: Use of German
• Paper GEB2: Translation from German and Oral B.

For these papers, you will be assigned to classes along with first-year students offering these papers in IA.

You will also have to take at least one scheduled paper from the IB list for German. Supervisions for these papers will be arranged by your College and you will be expected to attend the relevant lectures provided by the Section.

Post A-level students

If you have taken German post A-level in IA and your second language was also post A-level, you will be offering the following German language paper:

• Paper GEB3: Translation into German and a test in German through audio-visual media.

You will also be offering three papers from the Part IB schedule in literature, history, thought, linguistics. One, two, three, or none of these may be in German, depending on the emphasis you wish to give to German studies in your course overall, on your choice of country for your Year Abroad, on the language(s) in which you want to offer your language papers in Part II, and on the options you envisage taking up in your final year. It is essential to talk about these matters with your Director of Studies.

If you have taken German post A-level in IA and your second language was ab initio you will be concentrating this year on your ab initio language. But you can still keep up your German, either by offering one, or even two papers from the German IB schedule, or by offering Paper GEB3: Translation into German and a test in German through audio-visual media. It is usually advisable to offer at least one paper in German, and very strongly recommended if you are thinking of spending your Year Abroad in Germany. As always, make sure you discuss these decisions with your Director of Studies.

Look out too for lectures in German on the Lecture List even if they do not relate to areas you are studying in detail. You may well have to attend lectures and take notes in German while you are abroad and this is an opportunity to practise a useful skill.