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What level German certification exam?

 Language Learning Forum : Immersion, Schools & Certificates Post Reply
21 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
Laurae
Diglot
Groupie
Germany
Joined 4986 days ago

51 posts - 67 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: French, Dutch

 
 Message 17 of 21
04 January 2013 at 10:55am | IP Logged 


Liksewise, I study at level C1.1 at the Goethe-Institut, and we are advised not to sit the Goethe B2 exam until at least half-way through the C classes.
I know two very competent speakers who claim that the C1 exam is very difficult, and after achieving the 'Very good' grade slid to 'Satisfactory' on the C1 exam.
The gap of expectation betwen B2 and C1 seems to be significantly high.
I would advise you to have your speaking skills independently assessed before the C1; the oral section and the listening comprehension are the areas which seem to provoke difficulty in the C1 exam.

Edited by Laurae on 04 January 2013 at 10:57am

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geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4636 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 18 of 21
04 January 2013 at 1:01pm | IP Logged 
DaraghM wrote:
I know the Cervantes Institute provide free level assessments, and specfic exam preparation
classes for each of the DELE diplomas. Does the Goethe Institute provide something similar ? I would strongly
recommend doing some classes with a tutor, or attending a GI course, to test and boost your speaking ability. The
main advantage is they'll know what the examiners are listening out for.


My understanding, not necessarily correct, was that at GI you have a 30-second oral interview in German with
someone and they place you in a class based on that. Thereafter, if you find yourself in a class that's too hard or
too easy you can switch up or down. Please set me straight if anyone thinks I'm mistaken.

While it's not necessarily what I'm interested in (see discussion with emk above), I suspect you're absolutely right--
the way to figure out what TEST I can pass and prepare to pass that test is to spend time working with people who
prepare students for the test.
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geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4636 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 19 of 21
04 January 2013 at 1:07pm | IP Logged 
Laurae wrote:

I would advise you to have your speaking skills independently assessed before the C1; the oral section and the
listening comprehension are the areas which seem to provoke difficulty in the C1 exam.


Thanks. I've done some research before on these tests, and I've seen that the listening comprehension can be a bit
trickier than it would appear at first because of the specific tasks you need to perform (though as I noted in the
original post, I'm pretty confident I can pass any level listening comprehension at this point and I'm really only
concerned about the oral sections, and possibly the writing sections).
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Quique
Diglot
Senior Member
Spain
cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4630 days ago

183 posts - 313 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, English
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 20 of 21
04 January 2013 at 1:13pm | IP Logged 
geoffw wrote:
But now there's a further question: Zertifikat B2, or TestDaF?


For your goals and level, I'd take the TestDaF. From the FAQ:

Der TestDaF besteht aus vier Prüfungsteilen, die getrennt voneinander ausgewertet
werden (Leseverstehen, Hörverstehen, Schriftlicher Ausdruck und Mündlicher Ausdruck).
Ihre Ergebnisse werden in den drei TestDaF-Niveaustufen TDN 3, TDN 4 und TDN 5
ausgedrückt. Die Niveaustufen beschreiben, was Sie in den Fertigkeiten Lesen, Hören,
Schreiben und Sprechen können.

See also
Beschreibung der TestDaF-
Niveaustufen (TDN)

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geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4636 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 21 of 21
04 January 2013 at 1:47pm | IP Logged 
Quique wrote:

For your goals and level, I'd take the TestDaF. From the FAQ:


Thanks. I actually planned to take this last year (it was the only test I had the option of taking due to when the tests
were) and did some work to prepare for it, but never signed up, partly due to the hefty fee and my lack of a
pressing need for the certification. I told myself then that the test would still be around later, and presumably my
German would be better later as well (and I think it IS better than last year).

One "positive" for this test was the absence of explicit grammar questions. While ideally, I would like to have
perfect knowledge of textbook grammar, I care more about things like getting a broader active and passive
vocabulary and improving conversational fluency. On the other hand, the sample grammar section I found for the
Zertifikat B2 looked very easy to me when I looked at it yesterday, but I have no idea if that's just because I've
improved over the last year or not.

Another "positive" for this test was the 3 degrees of passing scores--but I likely would get the weird idea into my
head that anything below a TDN 5 is a fail and stress out over that unless and until I passed with a TDN 5.


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