(CULTURE, GRAMMAR, LISTENING COMPREHENSION,
READING COMPREHENSION, SPELLING, AND VOCABULARY)
by Rustin Buck, Written Testing
Co-Chair
I am in charge of written testing at State. My own students and other teachers have asked me, “How do we know what to study for the written tests at state?” I think it can only be constructive and helpful to publicize the various topics and skills tested so that people are not groping around in the dark. You can rely on this information because the person writing it has the tests in his possession and knows what’s on them. However, I want to stress that these tips can only be considered completely reliable for the STATE tests. I am not completely knowledgeable about the content of the tests used at the regional level (Houstonfest, Sprachfest, Winterfest).
Culture
The entire culture
tests for levels I and II are in English; the entire tests for levels III
and IV are in German. For levels III and IV, therefore, it is useful
to know the German words for common geographical terms such as capital, river,
forest, mountain range, etc. Probably
the best single source you should study for the state culture tests is the
culture sections at the back of the level I and level II-III Amsco workbooks.
Yes, those books are very old and still refer to a divided
·
conversions between metric and customary measurements (distance, weight, volume, temperature)
· famous German-speaking scientists and their major discoveries, especially Nobel Prize winners
·
common German proverbs
·
famous German-speaking authors and philosophers
and their major works, especially winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature
·
famous German-speaking composers (birthplaces, style of music associated with them, major
works)
·
famous German-speaking artists and their major works
·
German-speaking film stars (mostly historical, not so much current) and directors
·
common fairy tales
and folk tales from the German-speaking region
·
monarchs: kings of the the various German nations (
Holy Roman Empire/Austria-Hungary
·
past and present leaders (chancellors and presidents) of
·
the names for the various political sub-units of
·
basic political
institutions of the German-speaking countries and their functions as well
as the major political parties
and their general orientations (for example, the U.S. has a Congress with
two houses, a presidency, a Supreme Court, a Cabinet, two major parties (Democrats
tend in the liberal direction, Republicans tend in the conservative direction),
etc.)
·
the largest 4-5
cities in each German-speaking country and the largest and smallest Bundesländer in area and population
·
approximate current population figures for each German-speaking country
·
common symbols
associated with each German-speaking country:
flags, national anthems, the oval stickers that go on cars
·
German automobile
manufacturers and the cities where they are headquartered
·
major corporations
in the German-speaking countries
·
holidays (religious
and secular) in the German-speaking countries
·
religion in
the German-speaking countries
·
popular German card games
·
rivers: longest rivers of each German speaking country,
which major cities each major river flows through, which rivers form important
borders
·
mountains: general location of major mountain ranges, highest
mountains in each German-speaking country
·
bodies of water:
the two seas that border
·
famous landmarks
in the various German-speaking cities (perhaps make a list of the top 20-30
German speaking cities and identify 3-4 of the most famous attractions (castles,
monuments, museums, architectural works) in each)
·
famous events
that occur in particular German-speaking cities annually (or sometimes less
often)
·
the capitals
of the four German-speaking countries
·
the capitals
and approximate locations of the
Bundesländer
of
·
the countries that border each of the German-speaking countries
·
the basics of how the German school system is structured, esp. Grundschule, Hauptschule, Realschule,
Gymnasium
·
basic German-Texan
and German-American history (mostly
prominent figures and what they did)
·
German history
(I know that’s a huge field, but do your best:
the Germanic tribes, Roman colonization, major wars throughout history
including WWI and WWII, decisive battles in various wars, the Cold War and
the division of Germany, German reunification)
·
dates of any Olympic Games held in
·
basic information about the European Union (member states, structure, headquarters, European Parliament)
·
past and present currencies of the German-speaking countries
·
traditional food,
drink, and customs associated with meals in the German-speaking countries
Grammar
Following is a breakdown of the skills tested at each level. Tests at the higher levels can test skills listed for the lower levels, e.g., at Level IV, you could find questions dealing with skills listed for Levels I, II, III, or IV. On the other hand, if a skill doesn’t appear until a higher level (for example, secondary adjective endings at Level II), you can assume that skill doesn’t appear on the tests for the previous levels.
Level I (Grammar)
· verb conjugation in the present tense, including regular, stem-changing, and irregular verbs such as sein, haben, werden, and wissen
·
command forms (du, ihr, Sie)
·
modal verbs in the present tense (wollen, müssen, etc.), including the fact that they kick the other verb to
the end of the sentence in the
infinitive form
·
present perfect (conversational past) tense:
haben vs. sein as helping
verb, correct past participles (this skill is lightly tested but does appear
a few times)
·
separable-prefix verbs (both
how they work and which prefix you need in common situations that would be
covered in German I, e.g., is “to open” aufmachen,
anmachen, zumachen, or vormachen?)
·
pronouns in the nominative, accusative (for direct objects
and objects of prepositions), and dative (for indirect objects and objects
of prepositions)
·
articles/possessives (der, die, das, den,
ein, eine, meinen, unserem, etc.) in the nominative, accusative,
and dative cases
·
-n on nouns
in the dative plural
·
dative prepositions
·
accusative prepositions
·
question words (wo, wohin, woher, wann, was, wie, warum,
welche-, wie viel, wie viele, wer, wen, wem, wessen)
·
word order (verb in position 2 of statements)
·
basic time expressions such as “on Tuesday,” “in August,”
“in the winter,” “over the weekend,” “five times a week”
·
du vs. ihr
vs. Sie
·
gern/lieber/am liebsten
·
wissen vs.
kennen
·
zu Hause vs.
nach Hause
Level II (Grammar)
· simple past tense of modal verbs (musste, konnte, etc.)
·
simple past (preterit) tense of the verbs haben and sein only
·
more extensive testing of present perfect (conversational
past) tense than at Level I
·
reflexive verbs
·
future tense
·
gefallen
·
wo- and da-
compounds
·
two-way prepositions
·
viel vs. viele
·
secondary adjective endings (ein rotes
Auto, der alte Wagen, kaltes Wasser)
·
comparative and superlative adjectives
·
basic subordinate clauses (weil, dass, wenn)
·
es gibt + accusative
case
Level III (Grammar)
· use of dative with certain verbs (helfen, gratulieren, danken, glauben, folgen, etc.)
·
man
·
more extensive testing of subordinate clauses than at
Level II, esp. als vs. wenn vs. wann and wenn vs. ob
·
simple past (preterit) tense of all verbs
·
present and past subjunctive II
·
genitive case, including genitive prepositions
·
word order with adverbial phrases (time, manner, place)
·
present perfect tense of modal
verbs (Ich habe es machen müssen.)
·
was für ein/eine/einen
·
present and past participles as adjectives (bellende Hunde, der vor kurzem angekommene Zug)
·
infinitival phrases (Ich habe vergessen, den Hund zu füttern.)
·
passive voice (present, simple past, present perfect,
and future tenses) and substitutes for passive voice (man, lassen)
·
relative clauses
·
verb + preposition combinations,
e.g., sich freuen auf, sich freuen über, teilnehmen an, Angst haben vor,
sich interessieren für etc.
·
adjectives uses as nouns (die
Deutschen, ein Bekannter, etc.)
·
weak nouns (der Junge, den Jungen, dem Jungen,
des Jungen, etc.)
Level IV (Grammar)
· subjunctive I
· gelingen
· skills from Levels I-III in more complicated constructions
Listening
Comprehension
There’s not much you can do to prepare for this.
Working hard and paying attention in German class at school is the
best preparation. Just remember to listen for broad meaning and
don’t panic if you don’t understand every word.
Reading
Comprehension
There’s not much you can do to prepare for this, either. In general, just read as much German as you can and remember that you can often figure out words you don’t immediately know by looking at the context.
Spelling
We’re not going to publish a list of words to study here. Your teacher might have a list or you can develop your own list by looking at the glossaries of German textbooks. The test consists of 50 words plus 10 tie-breakers. The test is on a cassette tape. The person on the tape will read the word, give you the part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.), read a sentence using the word, and repeat the word. Chances are, no matter how much you study, there will be some words on the test you’re not familiar with. In those instances, don’t panic. Remember that German spelling follows very predictable rules and that you can probably guess how to spell the word in you apply the rules. First of all, make sure you capitalize all your nouns. Since the test tells you which words are nouns, you have no excuse not to do this correctly. Don’t capitalize any other parts of speech (verbs, adjectives, etc.). If you don’t capitalize a word that should be capitalized or do capitalize it when it shouldn’t be, it will be marked wrong.
Recall that a “v” sound as in “vest” is usually expressed with a “w” in German. If you hear something that sounds like the “y” sound in English (as in yellow), it’s probably “j” in German. If a syllable begins with a “k” sound, it’s probably spelled with “k” in German, almost never with “c”. If you hear something that sounds like “kv,” it’s probably “qu” in German. Remember that “f” is not the only way to spell the “f” sound in German; there’s also “v.” Especially if the word begins with a syllable that sounds like “fair” or “fore” that’s probably “ver” or “vor” in German. Remember that the “r” sound in German is not like the English “r”. The German “r” is usually guttural (throaty), or occasionally rolled with the tongue. On the tapes I made for state, I usually used the guttural “r”, which sometimes doesn’t come out too well on tape. Just be aware of that. You probably know that “st” and “sp” are pronounced like “sht” and “shp” in German, but don’t be tempted to spell them that way. Remember that the buzzing sound like in “zip” is expressed by “s” in German; don’t spell a word with “z” in German unless you hear the “ts” sound.
Vowels: If you hear a vowel sound like in the English word “ouch,” that’s spelled “au” in German. If you hear a sound like in the English word “boy,” that can be either “eu” or “äu” in German. If you hear a sound like in the English word “eye,” that is almost always “ei” in German, in very rare instances “ai”. It’s definitely never “ie,” although many people make that mistake. In German, “ie” says “ee” as in “seek.” Finally, you might want to work with your teacher on recognizing the difference between umlauted and non-umlauted vowels. This is important, because if you leave off a necessary umlaut or put one when it’s not necessary, the word will be counted wrong.
Vocabulary
The only advice I can give you for vocabulary is to study words that you’ve been exposed to in class, both in the textbook and in any other materials your teacher has given you. The format of the vocabulary test at each level is primarily thus: You are given a word in German and four choices for what it could mean in English. You choose the right one. On the level II test, most of the test is in that format, but there are also around 10 “words in context”; you see a sentence in German with one word missing and you have four choices of German words that could fit in the blank. On the level IV test, in addition to the primary format, there are a few “synonym” questions in which you’re given a German word and you choose, from four other German words, which has the same meaning as the original word.