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Most efficient way to study for C1 test | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 1 of 21 20 October 2014 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I would ideally like to sit the C1-certificate in German by mid-March next year.
I am probably border B2/C1 for reading/listening, but my speaking is weaker (probably low B2), and my writing up to now has been fairly non-existent. I am not sure how realistic a five month time frame is given my level, but I do have the advantage of living in an immersive environment in Germany, and am married to a German. Can anyone who has sat the C1 exam (esp. the Goethe C1 German test) give any practical advice? I don't have infinite funds, but could hire a tutor if that was seen as a good investment. I could also simply write essays every day and my wife could correct them. Or I could perhaps write essays etc at home for a couple of months, and then hire a tutor a few months before the exam. Or I could buy Assimil and review all the lessons intensively over a month or two in an attempt to consolidate my knowledge of grammar. I obviously can't do everything, so I would be very grateful for any practical advice people have as to the most efficient study schedule I should adopt. Edited by patrickwilken on 20 October 2014 at 12:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5531 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 21 20 October 2014 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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A few things I remember from my French B2 exam:
1. Corrected writing helps a lot. You can get this done online, in exchange for your own corrections in the opposite direction. 2. A good tutor who specializes in exam prep is enormously useful. But tutor quality various tremendously, and few tutors will know much about C1 exams unless you search them out deliberately. 3. If the oral portion of the exam is demanding, it really helps to practice for the specific format. Will you need to give a presentation? To defend an idea? How much time will you have to prepare, and what resources will you be allowed to use? Even working through this a half-dozen times with a tutor can make a big difference on exam day. But maybe the German exams are different from the French exams here. Edited by emk on 20 October 2014 at 2:37pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 21 20 October 2014 at 3:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
EMK: Thanks for taking the time to reply. I was hoping to get your input.
I was thinking of starting to write something every day, which at first my wife can correct, and then later I could get a tutor and work in a more focussed way on problems. I wonder if it makes more sense to start by doing some sort of major grammar revision first, say over a month and then start writing, or just to start writing and address problems as they arise.
I am thinking along the same lines. Goethe Institute have one-month exam preparation classes, which I could sit in January/February next year (doesn't make any sense to do this earlier I think). The plus/minus of living in Germany is that there are tons of German tutors here. The downside is to find someone who really is competent to help prepare you for something like a C1 exam. I will have to look around my impression is that minimum cost is something like 30 euros/45 minutes - and as I can't realistically afford more than 300-400 euros a month - that would imply one 90 minute session a week.
Thanks. I need to do further research on the exact format of the exam. My guess is there isn't so much difference between German and French. My impression is that the content of the exam focuses on contemporary issues so it probably would be very helpful to start listening to Deutschland Funk (German equivalent to PBS/BBC) as well as regularly reading newspapers (e.g., die Zeit) as a way of building vocabulary etc around contemporary issues. Edited by patrickwilken on 20 October 2014 at 3:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5531 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 21 20 October 2014 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I just started writing, making heavy use of Linguee to find natural ways to say something. I blundered my way towards to the following approach: 1. Keep it short. 100 words/day is fine, and it makes it much easier to get corrections. 2. Write about things you tried to speak about, but handled awkwardly. Within a month or two of writing, you'll rapidly pass from a stage where your errors are obvious and easy for anybody to correct, to a stage where things sound "off", but it's hard to say why. It's much easier to find good correctors for the earlier stage. I don't have good advice for handling really high-level speech in the real world, other than "get to B2, then start having lots of animated, intelligent conversations with groups of native speakers." I'm living proof that if you only have one native speaker available, you won't automatically reach a level where you can switch seamlessly and effortlessly from talking about books, to talking about the Ebola epidemic, to talking about business, to talking about open source mapping efforts. I can and do talk about all these subjects at length in French, but probably not at anything like the level your wife would have in English (based on your earlier remarks). But up until a solid B2, I'd say: 1. Write 100 words/day and get them corrected, until this becomes relatively easy. 2. Speak a lot, with as many people as possible. 3. Have a tutor who knows the exam format put you through a realistic oral exam several times. Also, spend lots of time trying to make points and support them with evidence, both in writing and in conversation. Your point might be "We should go out tonight" or "The mayor is idiot" or "The new season of Sherlock is actually pretty fun" or "Global warming is going to flood Miami" or "Yes, my cable TV is messed up, and you need to send a technician to fix it." This stuff is the core of B2 active exams, and the French C1 exams merely lift it up to an academic level. A solid foundation of basic persuasive skills will pay off both on exams and in real life. :-) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5261 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 5 of 21 20 October 2014 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Benny had a Mission to sit the C-2 German exam. He didn't succeed but his process may give you some ideas. Benny's changed his site today and I can't seem to find his updates to this mission. Edited by iguanamon on 20 October 2014 at 9:07pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 6 of 21 21 October 2014 at 2:05pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks. I think I just need to start. I think the perfectionist in me makes it hard for to simply start writing.
I hadn't realized Benny was trying for C2 in 3-months. I am not sure have a sufficient amount of his personality to even be able to try to emulate his style, but I'll have a look. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5531 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 21 21 October 2014 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Just accept that you'll make all sorts of weird mistakes, but that your correctors will point out the most glaring. :-) Writing can be a very pleasant exercise: It's your time to look stuff up in dictionaries, polish your phrasing, and so on, and to get feedback on stuff you've been totally skimming over in your input up until now.
Benny was also a false beginner, with five years of mediocre German classes behind him. I find it's much easier to relearn things I once knew than to start from scratch. But even if we assume he optimized for the exam at the expense of everything else, his near-pass of the C2 exam was extremely impressive. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 21 22 October 2014 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I totally agree with emk's advice, I'd just add one more bit. Buy a preparatory coursebook with cds and key (or two) and get familiar with the exam format, common task formats, topics that get regurgitated often. Every exam consists basically of two parts. First is knowing the language and having the real skills. Second is knowing how to take the exam. Sure, you can pass if you have mastered only the first aspect but it is a risky endeavour, believe me.
One more thing: an experienced tutor can be a good investment but preparatory classes never are. Never. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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