Hey all ! I just passed my German A1 and I thought I'd share what worked for me and how I studied for it etc.

I'll share my scores first

Hören (Listening) - 14.94 / 25
Lesen (Reading) - 16.60 / 25
Schreiben (Writing) - 23.24 / 25
Sprechen (Speaking) - 23.24 / 25

Gesamtpunkte (Total Result) - 78 / 100

Grade - befriedigend (Satisfactory)

Disclaimer: This is merely my experience and what worked for me, what works for me might not work for you and what worked for you might not work for me. Use common sense when trying to apply my experience to your own prep.

How long did i prep for?

I think I would have prepped for roughly 3 and a half weeks give or take. But do note that these 3 and half weeks were me just pure rushing. Whenever I got time to learn german i did. If I traveled to work (Takes around 1.5 hours) I looked up a video and practiced vocab etc I know the average time usually is roughly 2 months or so and some people take much longer but I was comfortable from a planning perspective that I'll be able to manage it (I didn't do any calculation it was mostly a gut feeling)

My background

I know two languages so far (English and Tamil) and I've known both of them from when I was very little and I'm fluent in both and I did not know any other language. I decided to self study german mostly for logistical reasons, I have a full time job at a fast paced software company so I couldn't afford to spend time to travel to classes.

How did I prep?

I bought the Netzwerk books and I went through them (not as extensively as I would have liked but I tried to learn as much as I can) and I memorized as much of the vocabulary for A1. I wanted to do this first because it was so much more easier knowing what the words meant when working on grammar instead of me learning grammar while also translating what the words meant for each sentence.

I created a flashcard system to remember the words and i did them whole in around 4 to 5 days of practice. I didn't have a lot of time to do them properly but it was enough i guess. I learnt basic grammar but did not get too beat up about it if i made mistakes, I just told myself if i made a mistake its okay ill get it eventually with practice.

Once I got the words down and some basic grammar and the books were done, I noted down all the concepts that I was bad at (like dativ, akkusativ etc) and i just looked it up on youtube. My strategy was NOT to look for one good channel that taught me everything, I knew if i did that i'll end up looking for channels forever. I just looked for videos that helped me understand it better and learnt it and kept practicing, if a video I watched did not help me learn i just go to a different video and it is different for different people.

I also came up with as many scenarios as i could to practice writing (like writing letter to friend, landlord, manager, my aunt what not) and after writing id give it to different AI and tell it that I was practicing for A1 and to mark it for typos and grammar mistakes (Be careful here you have to the prompt the AI carefully, because AI gets overeager and starts suggesting more complex words which might be overkill for A1. It is okay to use fancy words for A1 but you don't wanna overshoot and miss terribly)

Speaking was similar to writing in the sense i imagined different scenarios and talked it out in myhead first and then out loud. I did not have a speaking partner sadly since i did not go to a class. I know Chatgpt or something could help with this but i personally don't like talking to machines (this is not an AI thing just a weird quirk of mine, i don't even like leaving voice messages because it makes me feel like im talking to the machine lol).

Things I did not do well

- I did not get a lot of time listening to german audios and it showed in the exam, it was hard to make out sentences, i just concentrated really hard to capture as many words as I could get and pieced them together to get some level of context and marked the answers. But if i had to do it again i would definitely practice a lot more listening

- Lesen Section - My vocab learning of 4 to 5 days was probably not enough and I definitely needed to focus on it a lot more because while i knew some of the words there were other words that i did not know / forgot and i needed to know it to be able to understand the question.

Some Exam Tips

- Know the exam pattern and what kind of questions you'll be asked. My speaking partner in the exam did not understand that he had to make a request and get a reply in the sprechen part and was asking me regular questions and he got blindsided by it and froze during the speaking part to the point where the invigilator finally had to politely take the card from him and ask me a question to keep the exam going. Poor guy probably got low marks there

- Being fluent in the language is a different skill and test taking is a different skill. I know people who get good grades but suck at the actual subject and I also know people who are amazing at the subject but get terrible marks. Part of it is because you need to be mentally prepped and ready for each of the section and what comes next, pointing back to the above part where my speaking partner froze during the entire speaking section because he did not realise how the speaking section was split, its not that he did not know its just that he got suddenly confused and it took him out mentally and he was unable to quickly pull himself together for rest of the section.

- For each of the sections I would first quickly note down the answers in the question paper and 15 minutes before exam closing time i transferred all the answers to the answer sheet. Make sure you do this else you're gonna rush in the last few minutes and will panic and might make mistakes. Its one thing to fail because you don't know the answers and another because you tripped up over a silly mistake of filling the answers incorrectly because you were in a hurry

Things I am planning to do a little bit differently for my upcoming exams (A2)

- I am planning to pay a german speaker / tutor online to practice my speaking skills because I want to sound a lot more confident

- I am also plannign to pay a little bit more time to the vocabs this time around and make sure i don't lose marks just because i don't know a word

- I am goign to be listening to a LOT of german vlogs and videos so that it doesn't trip me up.

Let me know if you guys have any more questions but that is my experience of the german exam :)

I've been learning German for the last two months. Learning the language has been frustrating, and reading Handelsblatt and Der Spiegel has been especially demotivating because I didn't understand many of the words and kept having to switch to the English translations.

But today, I had a full-fledged conversation with a German insurance rep and actually got my issue resolved! I am absolutely chuffed and feel so motivated. I'm moving to Germany in a couple of months and I'm looking forward to speaking German regularly. I also have to give credit to the insurance rep who spoke to me slowly and used simpler vocabulary once she realized that I was new to the language. Annika, if you're reading this, thank you so much!

Scores in each section of A2:

Hören-18.75/25

Lesen-23.75/25

Schreiben-23.75/25

Sprechen-25/25

A1:

Hören-19.92/25

Lesen, schreiben, sprechen - 23.24/25

Thanks to this community for all the resources which helped in my preparation. And of course, youtube and Gemini were really helpful too. As many ppl say here, I know marks don't reflect our actual language level, but i just wanted to share my scores and happiness here with this community. 

Some tips which helped me:

* For lesen and hören- doing many mock papers from youtube, and the books like mit erfolg, prüfungstraining, and the official papers really helped. But before that, learn all the vocabs of that level, and then practice reading and listening to simple texts and podcasts on spotify and youtube.

* for schreiben, it was just a lot of practice with Gemini, i uploaded the Goethe schreiben criteria, and asked it to evaluate my letters.
* for sprechen, practice the basic topics available on the mock papers from books mentioned above, but don't memorize anything. Try to understand and practice it, and try to apply it on different topics and speak. AI can help with generating topics. I used live mode to practice. Though it wouldn't be accurate, it rectified my grammar mistakes which helped me.

All the best to anyone preparing. Cheers!!!

I'm curious how German is perceived around the world. Is it considered prestigious, classy, or associated with high social status where you're from?

Hi everyone,

I’m learning German and I came across this sentence:

“Während der Fahrt bitte nicht mit dem Fahrer sprechen!”

I have never seen this kind of sentence structure before, so I’m a little confused about it.

In a normal sentence, I would expect:

“Bitte sprechen Sie während der Fahrt nicht mit dem Fahrer.”

However, this sentence uses:

“Während der Fahrt bitte nicht mit dem Fahrer sprechen!”

This sentence does not have “Sie”, and the verb “sprechen” is placed at the end.

I would like to know what the difference is between these two sentences:

1. Während der Fahrt bitte nicht mit dem Fahrer sprechen!
   
2. Bitte sprechen Sie während der Fahrt nicht mit dem Fahrer.

I would also like to know whether the structure “Während der Fahrt bitte nicht mit dem Fahrer sprechen!” is grammatically correct in German, whether it is common or frequently used, and in which situations it is usually used.

What is the difference between this type of sentence and an imperative sentence?

Thank you!

I gotta get out of here😞 my country is hell😭

Hi guys, I have been learning german for the past 6-7 months with the help of a teacher at an Institute. Last month I have passed the Goethe B1 exam with good grades and now I would like to continue learning to get B2, but by myself. So basically I am asking about sources to use to help me go from B1 to B2. I have seen a lot of stuff on this subreddit like using Anki for vocab flashcards and such. But to be honest I am genuinely unsure about where to start. If you guys know of any source that has structure such as a free course or some sort of road map I could use, I would be grateful. If there is a certain book you guys would recommend that would also work too. Really anything that has structure

I never really listened to German music other than 99 Luftballoons and the German version of Heroes by David Bowie. Both of which I liked. Any recommendations?

Edit: I’m into electric, metal, electric/ pop, lo-fi with remixes. Also oldies

Hi! I've recently started learning German, and I'm looking for some German YouTubers to help me improve my listening and speaking skills. I already know a few channels that teach German, but I'm actually looking for native German YouTubers who make content about everyday life, such as vlogs, lifestyle, travel, food, or other daily topics.

Thanks in advance for your help🎀

This isn’t precisely a question about the language, but I am currently planning a semester abroad in Germany or Austria. I managed to reduce my options to only 4 cities. I’m currently studying C1 level German, so my main objective for this semester abroad is immersing myself in the language in order to vastly increase my vocabulary and fluency. That being said, in which of the following cities would you guys expect me to be able to socialize or interact most in German? Vienna, Innsbruck, Düsseldorf, or Mannheim.

When I last visited Germany, I've been told by a few people that my pronunciation is very strong and clear, especially for someone at my level, but that my accent is also very apparent. The other side to this, though, is that they really like that! I get that too, as I know in English I think hearing a nationality in an accent is quite charming.

How do you find accents are received when you're speaking German, particularly with people you don't know? Is this just a case of friends being nice to me and speaking with a foreign accent is seen more as a negative?

Hi everyone,

I am preparing for my exam on 3th of August and I am having nightmares about the Schreiben part of the exam.

I have written about ten texts on different topics, but of course there are also topics that I haven't read or written about.

I am just scared of being given a topic that I have no ideas about. For example, autobahns. Has it happened to you that you did your best and received a ridiculous topic and had nothing to write?

I have really developed my writing skills in the meantime and I can write logically, but if I can't write keywords about something I don't know, then I can't really back up my arguments or have any arguments to write in the first place. Any tips about this or anything to do with writing would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I’ve been struggling to pronounce the L sounds in the middle or at the end of the words such as alt, halten, Milch and Apfel.

I know it’s not dark L and always should be light L. But still can’t figure out how to move and shape my mouth.

It seems like nobody is struggling with this pronunciation😭😭 There is almost no videos about the L sounds particularly in the middle or at the end of the words.😭😭

I have the TELC Deutsch A2.B1 exam this Saturday, and I was wondering if anyone who's taken it recently remembers what topics they got.

Schreiben

• Mail beantworten
• Kurznachricht schreiben

Sprechen

• Gemeinsam etwas planen
• Meinung begründen

I'm just trying to collect more real examples/topics to practice with since there aren't many available online.

If you remember even one topic from your exam, it'd be really helpful. Thanks!

Hello! I am looking for some resources and tips for B2 writing. I took the TELC B2 exam earlier this year, and I need to retake the Schriftliche portion because I failed the writing section. It is an especially weak point in my German learning so far, and I find it very difficult to write about unfamiliar topics within the time limit. My nerves definitely do not help.

How did you prepare for the B2 Schreiben? I have a couple of exam prep books, but the themes are limited. Do you have any online or book recommendations for writing prompts and samples?

Thank you.

Starting German from zero and im overwhelmed before i've even begun.

watched a bunch of youtube, and airlearn sesh everyone has a different best method. I have saved like 20 instagram reels of resources, and now i have no idea which are actually worth it.

I have never properly learned a language before so i don't even know what first looks like. cases? vocab? Also i hear german grammar is deadly difficuly.

If you had to restart your german journey knowing what you know now, how would you structure the first 4 weeks / 8 weeks?

pls give me a simple roadmap.

Is it important to go through all the grammar for C1 or either I can practice a lot a month before the exam?

chatgpt says der Computervirus but I learnt that it was Das Virus. what's up?

I understand both mean balloon, but are there any rules when to use which?

I'm currently on b1 trying to push into B2, but I've no exact knowledge of what B2 is and how is it any different from C1 where you're supposed to practice with native level. Like aru till B1 I had, "this wordlist, this grammar" and I'm fine if I can understand that level of given things, but in B2 I'm supposed to start native content? Then how's it's why different from C1? I can't make progress unless I know what I'm trying to reach

I was planning on going to Germany this year, but I missed the application deadlines because I needed b2 and I only had b1 at that time. When I came to know that I'll only be going to Germany the winter of another year, I got lazy.

Initially I was studying at VHS and had completed my b1 but I hadn't still gave the official exam. So, I thought I'd properly study and be confident before giving the exam. It had been 5 months since then and i still haven't studied any German.

Now I want a certificate so I can resume my b2 at Goethe , but I js feel extremely lost and idk where to start as my b1 wasn't strong enough to begin with. Idk what to practice and where should I start? I need some tips. Btw English isn't my first language so there might be some grammar errors.

I focus more on reading than other abilities, and would like to know how I can effectively assess my reading proficiency.

i understand that movement usually dictates whether the object will be accusative or dative is movement. but what happens when there is no movement involved? For example, when you say "glauben an" or "zweifeln an," the following noun is accusative even though there is no movement involved. I just don't understand how you know what the case the noun is that succeeds the two way preposition or if there are any rules to it.