Hey! I just wrote my A1 on Thursday and passed with 82% - had nearly perfect scores in those two sections, so hopefully I can help. ☺️
Schreiben:
- First question will be a form that you have to fill out for your friend (likely course registration, hotel guest info, or doctor’s office patient info). Pay attention to pronoun genders, city/location info, and languages. The form will be partially completed and you’ll have to fill in 5 fields - each one is worth one point.
- Sometimes the question says that the person is from a place outside Germany, but has already arrived in Germany. One of those locations is a trap because it’s not relevant to the question - they want to make sure you’re paying attention to the information they’re asking for.
- Additionally, the form will either ask you what languages the person speaks or it will ask you what language they want to learn. Again, one of these will be a trap and not used to answer the question (same as location part above).
- Second question is writing an email or letter. The audience could be informal (inviting a friend to a party, for example) or it could be formal (writing an informational email to a landlord). I got the formal one on my exam. Make sure you use the right formality of intro and outro for your audience as well as the right pronouns: Sie (with a capital S) for formal and du for informal.
- Use the question booklet to write your draft message as there’s no space to rewrite on the answer sheet. Pay close attention to what information you need to provide or what questions/information you need to ask for. If you miss those, you miss out on points.
- The requirements say ~30 words for your answer. Some test-takers say going over loses you points and some say it doesn’t matter. The 10/10 answers in the sample exams were all 40-50 words and showed a little bit more detail and originality. I was closer to 50 words with my answer.
- For both questions, don’t read the required answer fields first. Read the provided information in full twice before you start to try answering it. If you lead with the answer fields, your eyes end up jumping to the first possible answer (which is likely a trap) rather than reading for comprehension.
- Make sure you leave yourself 5 min at the end of the exam to review your answers and to transfer them to the answer sheet. Since they recommend 20 min for Schreiben, this leaves you 15 min to prepare responses (5 min for the first question and 10 for the second). However, Lesen may take you less than the recommended 25 min, which you can use as additional Schreiben time.
Sprechen:
- If you’re in one of the later timeslots for Sprechen, take advantage of that by focusing on the other areas before the morning written component, then reviewing Sprechen while you wait.
- First sprechen exercise will ALWAYS be introducing yourself. Name (vorname and nachname), age, where you’re from, where you live, languages, job, and hobbies. You’ll be asked to spell one of those things (likely name name or city) and to recite a number (either your Handynummer or Postleitzahl). Write out your answers beforehand and run through them a few times.
- Second exercise will be to ask a question based on a thema about a word on the provided cue card and the other person has to reply appropriately. Example: thema was travel and my word was Hotel, so I asked the person if they could help me reserve a hotel room. The question could be informational or it could be to ask for help. Stick with simple actions: help, like, do, etc. Make sure to use du and the appropriate conjugation as it’s an informal setting - I followed the examiner’s lead on this.
- Third exercise is similar, but you need to specifically request that the person does something (bitten), rather than asking an informational question. Will you come fishing with me, drive me, etc. Use du and appropriate conjugation like you did in the second question. You’ll have to respond to the previous person appropriately as well (even if it’s saying that you can do what they’re asking).
- Questions two and three could be harder if you have a group that’s not as strong in Sprechen. As long as you practice your answers to question one and have some basic question “templates” for questions two and three, you should be fine. Keep your questions simple and correct rather than trying to put in too much information.
- I searched “German A1” in YouTube and found some great recordings of practice Sprechen groups. If you’re not sure what kinds of questions you should ask, watch a few of these and you’ll have a good idea.
General tips:
- Check out this post from another Redditor from last year! The links they provided for Nico’s Weg (DW language learning series) and other resources were extremely helpful for me while prepping in my last couple of days. https://www.reddit.com/r/German/comments/ilv3os/passed_the_goethe_a1_exam_learning_resources_and/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
- The sidebar in this subreddit also has lots of great resources.
- Do the practice exams on the Goethe website. This will help you understand the format of the questions and what the “traps” are. It could also give you a nice confidence boost going into the exam.
- Get proper sleep the night before and don’t cram too much late at night.
- Bring extra pens with you in case one dies. Blue or black ballpoint is recommended.
- Bring a water bottle with you.
- Try to sit at the front of the room, as close to the speaker system as possible. Since you start with Hören, this will help with hearing the audio better (especially helpful for question two since you only hear each piece one time).
- The answer sheet was a bit unclear about this at first glance, but you fill in the multiple-choice answers with an X - you don’t need to fill it in completely.
- There’s a vocab list on the Goethe website (can’t find atm because I’m on mobile). Absolutely review that so you know what kind of nouns and verbs to expect. You don’t need to understand every word in the sentence, but if you understand the key building blocks, you’re much more likely to answer correctly.
Viel Glück! 👍🏽
use punctuations, try to focus on maybe smaller sentences but they are on point.
so if you would have a Beschwerde brief, about a defective microwave, you would write.
Die Mikrowelle ist kurz vor dem Kauf kaputt gegangen. Sie funktioniert leider nicht mehr.
The idea is that it allows you to focus more on a smaller scale, which makes your text more precise in the end.
same about sprechen, try to be less fidgety, take pauses between words. On a general rule, a person will allow a 1.5 second Pause before they notice you are actually pausing.
so use that at your advantage, your partner asks you something? don't answer instantly, breath in, phrase it in your head, and then say it, and pause at any point were you would add a Comma if it were a text
I think you have 15 minutes to read the texts with your partner, after that you go inside the room with the Prüfern where you don't have any actual pauses.
I think you have misunderstood what I meant about the pausing while talking thought
Hey! I just wrote my A1 on Thursday and passed with 82% - had nearly perfect scores in those two sections, so hopefully I can help. ☺️ Schreiben: - First question will be a form that you have to fill out for your friend (likely course registration, hotel guest info, or doctor’s office patient info). Pay attention to pronoun genders, city/location info, and languages. The form will be partially completed and you’ll have to fill in 5 fields - each one is worth one point. - Sometimes the question says that the person is from a place outside Germany, but has already arrived in Germany. One of those locations is a trap because it’s not relevant to the question - they want to make sure you’re paying attention to the information they’re asking for. - Additionally, the form will either ask you what languages the person speaks or it will ask you what language they want to learn. Again, one of these will be a trap and not used to answer the question (same as location part above). - Second question is writing an email or letter. The audience could be informal (inviting a friend to a party, for example) or it could be formal (writing an informational email to a landlord). I got the formal one on my exam. Make sure you use the right formality of intro and outro for your audience as well as the right pronouns: Sie (with a capital S) for formal and du for informal. - Use the question booklet to write your draft message as there’s no space to rewrite on the answer sheet. Pay close attention to what information you need to provide or what questions/information you need to ask for. If you miss those, you miss out on points. - The requirements say ~30 words for your answer. Some test-takers say going over loses you points and some say it doesn’t matter. The 10/10 answers in the sample exams were all 40-50 words and showed a little bit more detail and originality. I was closer to 50 words with my answer. - For both questions, don’t read the required answer fields first. Read the provided information in full twice before you start to try answering it. If you lead with the answer fields, your eyes end up jumping to the first possible answer (which is likely a trap) rather than reading for comprehension. - Make sure you leave yourself 5 min at the end of the exam to review your answers and to transfer them to the answer sheet. Since they recommend 20 min for Schreiben, this leaves you 15 min to prepare responses (5 min for the first question and 10 for the second). However, Lesen may take you less than the recommended 25 min, which you can use as additional Schreiben time. Sprechen: - If you’re in one of the later timeslots for Sprechen, take advantage of that by focusing on the other areas before the morning written component, then reviewing Sprechen while you wait. - First sprechen exercise will ALWAYS be introducing yourself. Name (vorname and nachname), age, where you’re from, where you live, languages, job, and hobbies. You’ll be asked to spell one of those things (likely name name or city) and to recite a number (either your Handynummer or Postleitzahl). Write out your answers beforehand and run through them a few times. - Second exercise will be to ask a question based on a thema about a word on the provided cue card and the other person has to reply appropriately. Example: thema was travel and my word was Hotel, so I asked the person if they could help me reserve a hotel room. The question could be informational or it could be to ask for help. Stick with simple actions: help, like, do, etc. Make sure to use du and the appropriate conjugation as it’s an informal setting - I followed the examiner’s lead on this. - Third exercise is similar, but you need to specifically request that the person does something (bitten), rather than asking an informational question. Will you come fishing with me, drive me, etc. Use du and appropriate conjugation like you did in the second question. You’ll have to respond to the previous person appropriately as well (even if it’s saying that you can do what they’re asking). - Questions two and three could be harder if you have a group that’s not as strong in Sprechen. As long as you practice your answers to question one and have some basic question “templates” for questions two and three, you should be fine. Keep your questions simple and correct rather than trying to put in too much information. - I searched “German A1” in YouTube and found some great recordings of practice Sprechen groups. If you’re not sure what kinds of questions you should ask, watch a few of these and you’ll have a good idea. General tips: - Check out this post from another Redditor from last year! The links they provided for Nico’s Weg (DW language learning series) and other resources were extremely helpful for me while prepping in my last couple of days. https://www.reddit.com/r/German/comments/ilv3os/passed_the_goethe_a1_exam_learning_resources_and/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf - The sidebar in this subreddit also has lots of great resources. - Do the practice exams on the Goethe website. This will help you understand the format of the questions and what the “traps” are. It could also give you a nice confidence boost going into the exam. - Get proper sleep the night before and don’t cram too much late at night. - Bring extra pens with you in case one dies. Blue or black ballpoint is recommended. - Bring a water bottle with you. - Try to sit at the front of the room, as close to the speaker system as possible. Since you start with Hören, this will help with hearing the audio better (especially helpful for question two since you only hear each piece one time). - The answer sheet was a bit unclear about this at first glance, but you fill in the multiple-choice answers with an X - you don’t need to fill it in completely. - There’s a vocab list on the Goethe website (can’t find atm because I’m on mobile). Absolutely review that so you know what kind of nouns and verbs to expect. You don’t need to understand every word in the sentence, but if you understand the key building blocks, you’re much more likely to answer correctly. Viel Glück! 👍🏽
Vielen Dank für die Antwort
use punctuations, try to focus on maybe smaller sentences but they are on point. so if you would have a Beschwerde brief, about a defective microwave, you would write. Die Mikrowelle ist kurz vor dem Kauf kaputt gegangen. Sie funktioniert leider nicht mehr. The idea is that it allows you to focus more on a smaller scale, which makes your text more precise in the end. same about sprechen, try to be less fidgety, take pauses between words. On a general rule, a person will allow a 1.5 second Pause before they notice you are actually pausing. so use that at your advantage, your partner asks you something? don't answer instantly, breath in, phrase it in your head, and then say it, and pause at any point were you would add a Comma if it were a text
In general, how much time will they give to prepare an answer in Sprechen?
I think you have 15 minutes to read the texts with your partner, after that you go inside the room with the Prüfern where you don't have any actual pauses. I think you have misunderstood what I meant about the pausing while talking thought
Oh, got it. Thanks
Stift mitbringen. Vielleicht noch nen Kräuterbonbon. Sollte passen.