[Part 1] German B1 – Exam Preparation

Exam preparation: The most important tip for your German exam - Never read the whole text!

In this series of articles I'll give you some tips for your German exam. The first part is about the examination part: reading comprehension.

Why should you never read the whole text in a TELC, Goethe or ÖSD - German exam?
The exam is about whether you understand the content of the text and not about understanding all the words.

You probably already know the tip: "First read the questions or possible answers and then concentrate on the corresponding situations and questions".

This tip is not bad, but you will still waste a lot of time!

The exam situation: Time in the exam is getting short and you are slowly getting nervous. Before you don't give an answer, you better write something down.

That way you can't possibly do your best! That's why it is so important that you don't waste time with unimportant things, such as reading the whole text!

The more time you have, the more relaxed you are in the exam. The more relaxed you are in the exam, the better your result will be!

If you read the whole text you are wasting a lot of time, which you will lack to control and think about the text.

With the help of the "scan strategy" you can save a lot of time and you never have to read the complete text in your German exam again.

What is the scanning strategy?

With the scan strategy, you don't read the entire text, nor do you read the entire questions or answer options. Rather, you scan them for keywords and compare them between the text and the questions or possible answers.

Your advantages with the scan strategy:

• You don't have to read the text.
• You save a lot of time.
• You don't really have to understand the text.
• You are much more relaxed because you have enough time and don't worry about words you don't understand.

How exactly the scanning strategy is carried out is explained in this video from my B1 exam preparation course:

So simple, so fast, so efficient!

In my online video course I will prepare you to take the B1 exam at TELC / Gothe and ÖSD. You will find tips and strategies like these that will help you to prepare for your exam.

Click here to prepare for your exam. (click)

Did you know the scan strategy yet? Do you know any other tips?

Write a comment below and let us know!