|
 |
Preparing for German C2 exam? | ||
Tags: German | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Hordini Diglot Newbie Austria Joined 5584 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 1 of 3 13 March 2012 at 1:23pm | IP Logged |
|
Hello everyone.
I'm taking a German course this semester that deals primarily with C1 level material, and the goal of the course is to be around C1 level by the end of it. At the end of the semester, I'm going to be taking the Österreichische Sprachdiplom (ÖSD) test. I'm planning to at least take the C1 level test, but I've been thinking I'd like to do some extra work on my own to try to prepare for the C2 exam. I figure it will be beneficial either way, because by the end of the semester, I'll either feel prepared to do the C2 test and will go for C2, and if not, I can still do the C1 exam and likely be better prepared for it after spending a lot of time with C2 materials during the course of the semester. I realize that the gap between C1 and C2 is pretty large, but I'd rather aim high and achieve a lesser goal (C1), rather than not push myself and never know if I could have done it. So I guess my question is, does anyone have any advice on materials or strategies to get ready for a C2 level exam while also taking a course that is shooting for C1 level? While I still have some grammar review to do, I feel like my biggest hurdle right now would be the vocabulary. Are there any recommended materials or vocab lists that are geared towards reaching the C2 level? Any good strategies for things to focus on to lessen the C1 to C2 gap in a relatively short period of time? Any advice, comments, or feedback would be greatly appreciated! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4689 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 2 of 3 13 March 2012 at 4:10pm | IP Logged |
|
If you're already at around C1 and trying for C2, I think the idea of canned vocabulary lists is silly, at best. What you need is to be comfortable with essentially any sort of general (i.e., not technically specialized) situation that may arise, so you need to practice accordingly. Fortunately, you have a huge advantage in that you are in a German-speaking area.
Read newspapers and magazines. Read books. Surf German-language websites. Listen to the radio. Watch TV and movies. Talk to people. Any unknown words that come up in any of the above, try to learn, especially if they come up regularly. You won't get them all right away, but make sure you keep learning some all the time, and that you get used to guessing the meaning of unknown words from context, as well as understanding materials as well as possible even when you miss words. As for the exam itself, they all have their own peculiarities for which you need to prepare. I don't know anything about the ÖSD tests, but make sure you do, and that you practice accordingly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5227 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 3 of 3 13 March 2012 at 9:49pm | IP Logged |
|
I've never sat through any higher level German tests, but the ones I did were incredibly similar to their Cambridge English counterparts. I sat the English C2 level test a few days ago, and the materials Cambridge themselves provide are the same for C2 and C1, so I don't think it's too far fetched to assume it works pretty much the same for ÖSD (while always keeping in mind that there might be differences).
Cambridge exam exercises follow the same patterns for all levels but otherwise normal exercises turn towards 'the hunting of the snark' at the higher ones: multiple choices that are all too similar, minimal key words buried in heaps of fluff -- you miss a very little nuance or word and you're boned. While this is more or less reasonable and to be expected, it really falls apart in the listening part, where exercises are often based on totally unrealistic expectations of what people can pick up from something they heard. I mean, confronting people with academic texts where you must translate from nonsense such as 'individual members of the social community receive their information via visual symbolic channels' to 'people read' (paraphrasing Feynman there), or making them differentiate if an individual is merely surprised or shocked by carefully analysing the wording of his comments is fine when you can go through the whole text as many times as necessary, but our ears are not recorders. The difference between how people write and how they speak may be negligible at the lower levels, but the gap grows as you go up. Only the most stupid among academics (those who believe in the old adage 'if you can't be clever at least be obscure') speak like that even if all of them can write that way, so the listening part of the test tends to be flawed in that regard. I honestly think I'd have had the same problems I had, had the test been in my native language (which kind of makes sense if C2 is supposedly the highest level that can be achieved). Given the gap between written and spoken German is even bigger than that in English, I'd be careful with that -- get some old exams and check them thoroughly. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
