German B subject report · May 2010

May 2010 extended essay reports Page 1 © International Baccalaureate Organization 2010 GERMAN B This is a supplementary report following the May 2010 session and should be read in conjunction with the May 2009 extended essay report. Overall grade boundaries Grade: E D C B A Mark range: 0 - 7 8 - 15 16 - 22 23 - 28 29 - 36 The range and suitability of the work submitted This session the subject matter of the Extended Essays covered a wide range of topics and was spread over all three categories, with perhaps a predominance of Category 3 literary topics. Marks represented the full range from excellent to elementary, but on the whole the quality of essays has improved, compared to previous years. There were few pu re Category 1 essays submitted. Popular choices were ‘Jugendsprache’ and “Der Einfluss des Englischen auf die deutsche Sprache’, as was the case in previous years. These essays varied in quality – the topic is a complex one, and weaker students tend to remain purely descriptive. Category 2 essays also varied, often depending on how the focus and topic were chosen. Surveys to determine the nature of language use were not always successful, due to broad, even irrelevant question design and the lack of analysi s. Category 2b essays, however, tended to be varied and often interesting. One caveat: the analysis of lyrics is not as easy as it may seem and although German ‘Rap’ is an attractive development, the material needs to be chosen very carefully. I really enj oyed one essay on German Cultural Artifacts in Latin America – the detailed description of beer mugs and antlers in second -generation immigrant homes was followed by a focused and clear analysis of that culture and a comparison to Germany. A worrying numbe r of candidates chose to write on the musical version of ‘Spring Awakening’, which is NOT German, and has extremely limited lyrics. Only one candidate managed to link this to the ‘Verfremdungseffekt’ of setting the play to music, and submitted a successful