HSC Modern Greek Beginners study plan
HSC Modern Greek Beginners · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 6 hours per week
The personal world (family, friends, home, daily life, school, leisure) & Writing skills in Modern Greek
Build a personal vocabulary bank of 120 high-frequency words and phrases for family, friends, home and daily routine, recording each with gender/article and one original sentence
Conjugate the present tense of 20 core verbs (regular and common irregular) and use each in a spoken sentence about your own life
Write 8 short diary entries of 40-60 words describing your day, using at least 5 new items from the bank each time
Record yourself speaking for 2 minutes about your family and home without reading a script, then note 5 errors to fix
Your checkpoint
A dated vocabulary-and-sentence log of 120 entries plus 8 diary entries, with a self-correction list of recurring errors
The personal world (family, friends, home, daily life, school, leisure) & Writing skills in Modern Greek
Describe school and leisure activities using time expressions, frequency adverbs and days of the week in 10 written sentences
Practise asking and answering 15 personal-information questions aloud (name, age, origin, family, hobbies, school subjects)
Write a 100-word email to a friend describing your weekly routine, linking ideas with basic connectives
Re-read week 1 writing and correct article, gender and verb-ending errors without looking at the answer key
Your checkpoint
A 100-word routine email plus a recorded 3-minute question-and-answer exchange, both self-corrected against a checklist
The Modern Greek-speaking communities (traditions, celebrations, food, geography, community life) & Writing skills in Modern Greek
Compile a fact file of 15 key facts on Greek traditions and celebrations (name days, Easter, Christmas, national days) with dates and typical customs
Learn 60 topic words for celebrations, food and community life and classify them by gender
Write 120 words describing a celebration you have attended, using past-tense forms of 10 verbs
Prepare and deliver a 2-minute spoken description of a festival or family celebration
Your checkpoint
A 15-item fact file plus a 120-word past-tense description and its 2-minute spoken version
The Modern Greek-speaking communities (traditions, celebrations, food, geography, community life) & The personal world (family, friends, home, daily life, school, leisure)
Map the geography of Greece and Cyprus: regions, major cities, islands and seas, and state 10 facts from memory
Discuss typical foods and their role in celebrations, using 20 food-related words in written and spoken sentences
Compare one Greek custom with a custom from your own background in 100 words, using comparative structures
Hold a 5-minute conversation about food, celebrations and community life with a partner or tutor
Your checkpoint
A hand-drawn or written geography-and-food summary sheet plus a 100-word comparison paragraph
Listening and responding skills & The Modern Greek-speaking communities (traditions, celebrations, food, geography, community life)
Complete 6 short listening passages on community and celebration themes, noting key words before answering
Practise predicting content from question stems, then check answers against the transcript and log every misheard word
Transcribe 10 short spoken sentences by ear and compare them with the written form to isolate sound-spelling gaps
Re-listen to each week 1-4 recording and note which sounds and endings you still miss
Your checkpoint
A listening error log covering 6 passages with a corrected transcript and a list of 20 sound-spelling patterns to drill
Reading and responding skills & Listening and responding skills
Read 6 short authentic-style texts (notices, menus, invitations, short articles) and answer comprehension questions in Greek where possible
Apply a three-step reading routine: skim for gist, scan for detail, then justify each answer with a quoted phrase
Identify 30 unknown words from the texts and infer meaning from context before checking a dictionary
Summarise two of the texts in 50 words each, in your own words
Your checkpoint
A reading portfolio of 6 answered texts with quoted evidence and a 30-word context-inference glossary
Writing skills in Modern Greek & The personal world (family, friends, home, daily life, school, leisure)
Write a 150-word informal message and a 100-word formal message on personal-world topics, adjusting register and greeting formulas
Plan each piece with a 5-point outline before writing, then time yourself at 25 minutes per task
Edit both drafts for agreement, tense consistency and connectives, producing a corrected final version
Learn and reuse 12 set phrases for opening, sequencing and closing a written text
Your checkpoint
Two timed written tasks with outlines, first drafts and corrected final versions
Listening and responding skills & Reading and responding skills & Writing skills in Modern Greek
Sit two full timed mock papers covering listening, reading and writing under exam conditions
Mark each mock against the criteria, list the top 5 recurring error types and drill them with 20 targeted sentences
Re-run the weakest section once more and compare scores with the first attempt
Deliver a memorised 2-minute spoken summary of your personal world and community knowledge as a final fluency check
Your checkpoint
Two completed mock papers with scores, an error-priority list and a written comparison of first versus second attempt
Milestones
Week 2: Can speak for 3 uninterrupted minutes about your personal world and write 100 words with fewer than 5 basic errors
Week 4: Can state 10 geography facts and 15 celebration facts from memory and sustain a 5-minute conversation on community topics
Week 6: Scores at least 70% on listening and reading practice sets and can justify answers with quoted evidence
Week 8: Completes both mock papers within time and improves the weaker section score by at least 10 percentage points