German A-level 'too hard

German is considered too hard to study at A-level, research from the Anglo-German Foundation has revealed.

A survey of drop out rates from German between AS and A-level showed that most students gave up the subject because it was too difficult. Some 74% of participants felt German was the hardest of all the AS-level subjects taken, while 69% felt carrying on with it to A-level would have brought down their overall grades for university entrance.

This was partly a reflection of the fact that more than half of predicted grades at AS-level were too high by at least one grade compared to actual grades received.

But the content of the AS-level was also found to be off-putting, with more than three quarters of students experiencing a significant jump in standards from GCSE to AS-level. About 64% of participants found the grammar element of the course a turn-off.

While the number of students taking Spanish has increased since 1999, German has seen GCSE and A-level entries decline considerably. By 2003, GCSE entries were down 9,000, while for A-level they had fallen by just under a third.

Catherine Watts, one of the authors of the report, called for a review of the content of the German curriculum at both GCSE and post-16 level to make it more appealing. She said: "I think we should promote the German language in a much more positive way. At the moment, it suffers from a gloomy image."