Andrei's blog

How I took TestDaF

I just took TestDaF (Test German as Foreign Language). It went terrible.

Quick overview:

My German Knowledge

I went till 8th grade to a Gymnasium in Austria (C11 at that time), meaning I had a great intuition for German (I rarely get articles wrong2,) but since then I never spoke German for years, all vocabulary disappeared out the window.

I read a few german books since then, and I had little problems with comprehension. Apparently recalling the meaning of words was not a problem (or I am overconfident with context clues), so I was expecting the issue to be on output (Spoiler: I was wrong.)

How not to prepare for TestDaF

Shall this be a cautionary tale for you.

In January I took the NGE (National German Exam)3 Level 4 (highest) (Around B1-B2 on the CEFR). Respectfully, it is completely useless (I don't think any institution officially accepts it). NGE is listening and reading MCQ4 so I was overconfident for TestDaF.

I did some practice speaking and writing: called an old friend for 2 hours and translated my fairy tale into German (relying heavily on a dictionary).

The week before the test I read Schatten des Windes which is translated from Spanish (questionable choice for learning German.)

I went over the paper version of TestDaF (but I was taking the digital) so all my preparations were at an angle to the desirable direction. Crammed some logic and conjunction vocab the night before just in case (and that did save me a bit.)

Taking the Test

I showed up to the Goethe-Institut in DC5 - a floor in a modern looking building with a few staff members present. Only about 7 people showed up (I thought there were around 30 reservation seats so that was odd.)

The guys asked me for my ID and testing Ticket (I had it printed as there are 2 number&alphanumeric on it used as login and password for the testing computer.)

I took the digital version of the test so the timings were hard set.

There were breaks in between the sections (10min, 20min, and 10min), and small 20s skipable waittimes between questions.

All question examples I am giving here are madeup by me, they were not the actual questions on the exam (cause leagal reasons). You can see official examples in the TestDaF examples..

Reading

The Multiple Choice questions felt compareable to SAT questions (maybe a bit easier.) but because I wasn't prepared I was really uncertain on most of them.

Knowing 8th grade German was great, but the texts were Highschool level, so I had trouble with comprehension. Yes, my ability to work with English texts helped, but it wasn't enough.

Fun Fact: In German, nouns are capitalized so texts in German should be easier and faster to read than English text. (I think I will start Capitalizing English words because it helps with expression.)

A step above the NGE level 4 reading overall.

Edit: I got 11/20 - TDN6 4

Listening

All audio only plays once, and it took me by surprise. (Here my lack of preparations made me leave half the questions blank. NGE had plenty of time to review every recording twice.)

The multiple choice was bearable, but the free response questions were the rocks upon which my shipwreck occurred. Other 2 types of questions was filling blanks (typing on they keyboard) or finding mistakes in a summery.

I have no clue what they even wanted or intended for me to put on the filling blanks and free response questions so I will complain about the keyboard on the computer I was given. (It did have a German keyboard, but the long left shift key was split into a symbol key and since nouns are capitalized in German, trying to press the >>>>shift key did this all the time...)

All content was scientific/serious and there were sometimes graphs or small texts in addition to the audio. (SAT has some excerpts from novels.)

There was a funny question where a short text was shown and read aloud and I had to spot 4 words that were different; I swear I monitored everything word for word, and they were perfectly equivalent.

For the audio questions you have 30s for choice responses and 2mins of time for blank to fix/review answers. Not enough for the questions where I did manage to catch the right answer. (Better prep would have solved that though...)

Edit: I got 14/20 - TDN 4

Writing

Writing was 3 essays 30 minutes each at 150-200 words.

One was argumentative, but I couldn't come up with any arguments at all. The question was like: State the positive and negative aspects of owning a Car as a Student. I had zero expertise on the topic and barely managed to stretch an essay out of the 2 arguments I came up with.

The other two questions gave me a big text and a graph, and I had to summarize or "discuss an argument." I was not quite sure what they wanted (didn't go over that type of question) so I put something that sounded intelligent.

English vocabulary and spelling were getting in the way all the time.

Edit: I got 16/20 - TDN 5

Speaking

Starts with a sound and mike check, section outline etc. (~7 questions)

Speaking questions start with around 2 minutes where you are presented with the question scenario (text or audio), then your mike turns on and you have to speak for 1:30 minutes. (You do get some paper for notes and planning.)

There were basically 3 types of questions:

Since we were all in the same room we were also talking into the microphone at the same time and it was distracting. Since we were a bit out of sync due to some people skipping 20s breaks or waiting for loading times, I got to listen to what other people were saying.

I was speaking rather incohesively at the beginning, but picked up for the last 4 questions. There was a guy next to me who prepared really well (unlike me) and was speaking with complete confidence entire presentations with all the Welcome and Thanks at the end, and with some ~6 well connected arguments (I had like 2, and bad connections.)

Edit: I got 11/20 - TDN 4

Conclusion

Prepare for the test and do a full new practice test with all the software pain. I took TestDaF less seriously than the SAT (which was irrational as TestDaF is necessary for an application to german universities (they require C1), and SAT is not even required for US colleges anymore.)

Edit: With 52/80 I somehow managed to pass all the sections with decent scores. The bar was low, much lower than I expected.

I will be taking AP German Exam (B2) and I will prepare more for this exam and (hopefully) get a 5 on it. Edit: already took it, How I took AP German Exam

- very qualified TestDaF taker

PS: The TestDaF seemed a bit unpopular at least in the US (7 people in the only testing center?) turns out the Goethe-Institutes, that exist in multiple bigger cities, offers own A2-C2 exams. (Do your own research, I know nothing.)

Footnotes

  1. CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) is a scale used for European languages to measure language skills. It has 6 stages: A1,A2,B1,B2,C1,C2 where A=Duolingo/took some courses, B=Lived in the country for a few years, C=As good as your first language.↩

  2. Unlike English where the only articles are the and a. All German nouns have a gender die der das which change if the noun is the Object or the Subject of the sentece, and they have very few rules behind them. Having an intuition saves a lot of effort.↩

  3. NGE (National German Exam) is given by the AATG (American Association of Teachers of German) and it has no practical purpose except people feeling pride in knowing German. It has 4 levels, highest is roughly ~B2.↩

  4. MCQ (multiple choice questions) and FRQ (free response questions).↩

  5. DC refers to Washington District of Columbia not DC as in Batman↩

  6. TestDaF-Niveaus You need minimum TDN 3 (B2) to pass. TDN 4 is B2-C1 and TDN 5 is C1.↩