German A subject report · May 2009

May 2009 extended essay reports Page 1 © International Baccalaureate Organization 2009 GERMAN A1 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 year a wide range of periods/authors and to some extent genre was presented. Twentieth-century fiction and drama proved, as usual, the most popular field. Among the best were a few essays based on poetry – a very interesting one compared “Loreley” by Heine with the Kästner poem in regard to political criticism. Another excellent choice was a com parison between Goethe‟s and Plenzdorf‟s protagonists under the aspect of social criticism. Unfortunately, though, the suitability of literary works was rather questionable in some cases. There were a couple of schools that served their candidates badly b y guiding them all towards tackling similar questions from a narrow range of texts, often ones that had clearly been studied in clas s. Some schools and supervisors still seem unaware of the requirement that “The essay must be based on the literature of co untries where the language (German ) is spoken (that is, all works discussed will originally have been written in the language of the essay”). This leads to the question of supervision. Most supervisors seem to have taken time and trouble to assist their ca ndidate(s) as well as possible which is evident in the comments they wrote and the hours they spent with the candidate – although 10 hours is twice as much as recommended by the IB. Some supervisors do not seem to be aware of th e time requirements and leave out writing a comment which is unfortunate and not helpful neither for the candidate nor for the examiner , others comment on the candidate‟s approach and some even eva luate the EE enthusiastically. The IB has published precise and clear instructions on t he role and responsibility of the supervisor. I can highly recommend refreshing one‟s memory