Cambridge IGCSE German 0525/42 is the May/June 2026 Paper 4 (Writing), variant 2. It lasts 1 hour, is worth 45 marks and is sat by every 0525 candidate. You answer three questions: a five-gap form, an 80 to 90 word piece and a 130 to 140 word piece chosen from two, and that last task carries 28 of the 45 marks. This guide goes through each task, what it asked for and how the mark scheme gave marks. The paper and its mark scheme are free on the Tutopiya Learning Portal.

For an overview of all the 0525 papers from this series, see IGCSE German 0525 May/June 2026 past papers: what came up and how it was marked.

0525/42 at a glance

Question	Task	Length	Marks
1	Online order form for school sports kit	Five gaps, single words or short phrases	5
2	Mein Lieblingstag in der Woche (my favourite day of the week)	80–90 words	12
3(a)	Email to a friend about a recent school careers day	130–140 words	28
3(b)	Blog for the school website on the environment	130–140 words	28
Total answered	Question 1, Question 2 and one of 3(a) or 3(b)		45

The rubric is to answer Question 1, Question 2 and either 3(a) or 3(b). Dictionaries are not allowed.

Task-by-task walkthrough

Question 1: the sports kit order form (5 marks)

You need new sports kit for school and fill in an online order form in German. Your age, size and the season are already filled in, along with a T-shirt and a rucksack. You complete five gaps: a sport you do, another item of sports clothing, a colour, another sports item and when the order should arrive.

One mark per gap, marked for communication. Any sensible word in the right category scores, and spelling slips are tolerated as long as the word looks or sounds right and doesn’t become a different word. Singular and plural are interchangeable. The traps were in the details:

• Clothing (gap 2): any sports clothing, such as shorts, which were accepted in several spellings. “T-Shirt” was refused, because it is already on the form.
• Sports item (gap 4): any item needed for sport, such as sports shoes, and it doesn’t have to match your sport. Repeating the sport from gap 1 and writing “Kleidung”, which the question already gives, were both refused.
• Delivery time (gap 5): any day, date, month or time, and “in three days” was allowed. Past times such as “letzte Woche” were refused. A date in figures had to be German style, with dots and two digits for day and month, such as 20.06.2026.

Question 2: my favourite day of the week (12 marks)

Write 80 to 90 words covering four bullets: which weekday you like best and why, what you usually do that day, whether you prefer school days or holidays and why, and what you will do next week.

Content ticks: the examiner places five numbered ticks. The first bullet has two, one for naming the day and one for the reason. The others have one each: a usual activity, a reason for preferring school days or holidays, and next week’s plans. For the plans, a future tense, “ich will” or “ich möchte”, or the present with a future time phrase all counted. “Ich mochte”, without the umlaut, did not, because it means “I liked”.

The mark out of 12 comes from one grid, read from the bottom up for the best fit:

• 10–12: every task covered in enough detail, relevant information and opinions, clear meaning with only some slips, and straightforward language linked with a range of simple connectors (such as “und”, “aber”, “weil”, “dann”). The scheme says an answer that covers most rather than all tasks can still reach the bottom of this band if it fits in every other way.
• 7–9: most tasks covered, meaning mostly clear, but more limited vocabulary with some repetition.
• 4–6: some tasks with some detail, meaning only sometimes clear, basic and repetitive language joined mainly with “und” and “oder”.
• 1–3: isolated words and phrases, with meaning rarely clear.

Advice from the scheme: the examiner highlights your connectives, so link most sentences, and give a reason with every opinion. Make sure the last bullet is clearly about the future.

Question 3: the choice of extended task (28 marks)

Write 130 to 140 words in answer to either 3(a) or 3(b). Both have five bullets and are marked in the same way.

3(a) Work and careers: an email to a friend after a careers day at school. The bullets ask how the day went, the job you’d like in future, whether earning a lot or interesting work matters more to you, the job you wanted as a child, and the holiday job you’d like in the next holidays.

3(b) The environment: a blog for the school website. The bullets ask about environmental problems in your region, what your family did recently to help, what your school will do in future to be greener, why improving the situation is or isn’t important to you, and the biggest problem for the planet.

Content ticks: each bullet earns one numbered tick. Most accept any relevant answer, but two bullets in each task also need a time frame:

• 3(a): the careers day needs an attempted past tense, and the holiday job an attempted future (with “ich möchte” plus an infinitive allowed, but not “ich mochte”). Naming a job, such as Polizistin, is enough for the future-career tick.
• 3(b): what your family did needs an attempted past tense, and what your school will do needs an attempted future, with the same rule about “ich möchte”.

The scheme says a response only counts as complete if every element of every bullet is communicated.

Three separate marks, added together:

• Task completion (10): the top band needs every task completed with detailed information, opinions and explanations, and writing that stays relevant throughout. Lower bands cover most tasks with straightforward information, then some tasks with simple explanations.
• Range (10): the scheme reads each descriptor as “uses successfully”. The top band needs frequent extended, well-linked sentences and a wide range of simple and complex structures and vocabulary. The middle bands need some extended sentences and at least an attempt at complex structures; simple sentences with no attempt at complex ones sit at 3 to 4. As a guide, examiners look for conjunctions, subordinate and relative clauses, negatives, adjectives and adverbs.
• Accuracy (8): the top band is accurate spelling and grammar, not necessarily faultless. Lower bands are reached as errors start to get in the way of meaning. Examiners check verb forms and tenses, capital letters on nouns, gender, case, adjective endings and word order. A very short answer with no errors can’t score more than 4 for Accuracy.

Irrelevance: sections that don’t relate to any bullet are disregarded. A wholly irrelevant answer scores 0 on all three scales, and an answer that misunderstands the question is capped at 4 for Range.

Practical advice: with five bullets in 130 to 140 words, plan for roughly 26 to 28 words on each. Label your past and future bullets before you start, since two ticks depend on them, and use subordinate and relative clauses (with “weil”, “dass” or “der/die/das”) in each paragraph, because those are the structures the Range grid looks for. The scheme says that if you attempt both options the better mark counts, but the time is better spent checking one.

Where the marks are on 0525/42

• Question 3 carries 28 of the 45 marks, nearly two-thirds of the paper.
• Task completion is worth 10 marks, in Question 3 alone. Five ticks, two of which depend on the right time frame.
• Range is worth 10 marks and rewards complex structures, so simple, accurate sentences alone won’t reach the top bands.
• Accuracy is worth 8 marks, and very short answers are capped at 4.
• Question 2 is worth 12 marks on a single grid, where coverage, clarity and connectives are judged together.
• Question 1 is worth 5 marks, one per gap, for single words.

How to self-mark 0525/42 with the mark scheme

1. Mark Question 1 gap by gap. Check the right category, then the traps: a T-shirt, a repeated sport, “Kleidung”, a past date or a date with slashes.
2. Place the numbered ticks in Question 2. Five ticks, two of them for the first bullet. Check that next week’s plans use a future time frame.
3. Count your words. Aim for 80 to 90 in Question 2 and 130 to 140 in Question 3.
4. Place the five ticks in Question 3, checking the two time-frame bullets for your option.
5. Give three separate marks for Question 3. Pick the best-fit band for Task completion, then Range, then Accuracy, starting from the bottom band and working up. Within a band, take the top mark if the work convincingly fits, the middle if it adequately fits and the bottom if it just fits.
6. Highlight your connectives and complex structures. If you can find only a few, your Range mark sits in the middle bands at best.
7. Underline every error in verbs, genders, cases, adjective endings and word order, and list the ones that repeat.

Sit 0525/42 as a timed mock

The paper allows 60 minutes for 45 marks. Spend time in proportion to the marks, and keep a few minutes to check:

Block	Marks	Time
Question 1	5	4 minutes
Question 2: plan, write, check	12	16 minutes
Question 3: choose and plan	28	5 minutes
Question 3: write	–	25 minutes
Question 3: check endings, tenses and capitals	–	5 minutes
Final check of all three answers	–	5 minutes

Choose 3(a) or 3(b) by asking which one you can write in three time frames, not which topic you like more.

Other May/June 2026 0525 papers

• 0525 Paper 12 (Listening)
• 0525 Paper 22 (Reading)

Practise and download

• Download 0525/42 and its mark scheme on the Learning Portal →
• All 0525 May/June 2026 papers: overview and marking patterns
• Try a free IGCSE German quiz

Need help with a 0525 topic? Book a free trial lesson with an IGCSE German tutor →

Frequently asked questions

What were the 0525 Paper 42 Writing tasks in May/June 2026? +

Question 1 was an online order form for school sports kit (5 marks). Question 2 was 80 to 90 words on your favourite day of the week (12 marks). Question 3 was a choice of an email to a friend about a school careers day or a school-website blog about the environment, both 130 to 140 words (28 marks).

How many marks is 0525/42 and how long is it? +

It is out of 45 marks and lasts 1 hour. You answer three questions: Question 1, Question 2 and either 3(a) or 3(b).

How is 0525/42 Question 3 marked? +

On three separate scales added together: Task completion out of 10, Range out of 10 and Accuracy out of 8. Each of the five bullet points earns a numbered tick when you cover it, and two of them must be in a past or future time frame.

Can I write ich möchte for the future on 0525/42? +

Yes. For next week's plans in Question 2 and the future bullet in Question 3, the scheme accepts a future tense, ich will or ich möchte with an infinitive, or the present with a future time phrase. Ich mochte, without the umlaut, means I liked and was not accepted.

What happens if I answer both 3(a) and 3(b) on 0525/42? +

Both are marked and the better mark counts, but writing two long answers in one hour leaves little time for checking, so choose one before you start.

Where can I download 0525/42 May/June 2026 and its mark scheme? +

Both are free to download and print on the Tutopiya Learning Portal, on the Cambridge IGCSE German 0525 past papers page.

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