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Studying to pass an exam | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| hobom Triglot Newbie Joined 4036 days ago 33 posts - 61 votes  Speaks: German*, English, Russian Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 7 16 May 2013 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello everybody,
a good friend of mine is currently studying to pass a Telc C1 German certificate, which she needs to study in Germany. Her current level is probably B1 or a little above. Her problem is that she has very limited time, around 3 months. The advice on this forum is usually for really learning a language (which is of course more important than passing an exam in the long term), but I didn't find much tips how to pass an exam. My friend's main problems are a lack of vocabulary and listening comprehension. Until now she has studied in a classroom environment, which is usually inefficient compared to focused self study. Is it possible to pass an C1 exam without actually having a C1 level, to somehow pretend proficiency? If yes, what would be the best way to prepare for such an exam? I would be very grateful for any advice or help from you guys. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5351 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 7 17 May 2013 at 12:28am | IP Logged | |||||
I passed a DELF B2 exam in French after intensive self-study and some private tutoring, and I'm about to start studying for the DALF C1. I don't know how the German C1 exams compare to the French, but here are some thoughts based on my B2 preparation. I'm trying to keep this generic, in hopes that most of it will apply to the German exams. 1. If you can afford it, find a one-on-one tutor who has prepared other students for these exams, and who is familiar with how the exams are graded. This is absolutely invaluable for knowing where you fall short, and what you need to learn. At the very least, you want to do several sessions as soon as possible, and several a few weeks before the exam. You can probably do this on Skype. It will probably cost at least 50% more than the average bargain-basement language tutor. 2. Make sure you know the format of the exam and the grading criteria well. On exam day, you really don't want to puzzling out what you're supposed to do during the exam. And it's often possible to pick up some points if you know what the examiners are looking for. (For example, on the DELF B2, the oral presentation needs to be "well structured". As long as you remember this, it's an easy couple of points.) 3. Be prepared to work very hard. For example, the ILA courses in France estimate that it takes 18–20 weeks of full time prep to pass a DALF C1 exam starting from B1. That's 4.5 to 5 months of full-time test prep. I imagine it's possible to fit this into 3 months, but only if you're serious about it. 4. Focus on academic language unless your tutor tells you otherwise. Almost all the CEFRL exams have a heavy academic bias, and so you can often avoid studying colloquial and casual speech beyond what's needed for an academic conversation. Edited by emk on 17 May 2013 at 12:33am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4828 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 7 17 May 2013 at 2:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree with emk, I'd just add a few notes
1.The one on one tutor is a great thing but try to keep the time with him/her at the speaking parts or discussing and correcting the writen assignments. Don't waste money on things you can do on your own like multiple choice exercises. And avoid the preparatory classes. A lot of money for little value as they spend most of the time on doing exactly the things you can do on your own easily and as there isn't that much space for speaking. 2.Get a preparatory textbook. I hadn't got one before either of my exams and while I passed, I would have had a bit easier time had I gone through one or two. When buying the textbook with audio, buy the most recent version as these exams go through some evolution and there may be changes both in the structure and content over the years. Even if you can borrow a ten years old one in the library for free, buy a recent one instead. 3.Yes, such a thing isn't possible to achieve in an hour a day. Dedicate as much time to it as you can. Ideally: live in the language all the time, perhaps some AJATT ideas would be helpful. 4.Sure, focus on formal language. But I would recommend watching a tv show nonetheless as it will get the listening comprehension out of the B1 level very fast. After watching completely unrelated tv series, my Spanish went to a much better level which showed quite everywhere, including formal language, news etc. And a tv show can be watched even when you are already tired and really not in the mood for serious work. 5.Not sure about the German exams in particular, but in general (especially in the British exams), you are expected to not use too basic vocabulary in a C1 exam. For example it is known about the CAE, that it won't look good if you describe anything as "good", "nice" or "interesting". For getting active vocab, I recommend anki as a very useful tool. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend a good source of the German vocabulary in particular as I am still far from that level. Good luck. It is definitely doable but it won't be for free. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hobom Triglot Newbie Joined 4036 days ago 33 posts - 61 votes Speaks: German*, English, Russian Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 7 17 May 2013 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for your kind suggestions.
Unfortunately, the telc c1 exam is not well known. This is why there is no tutor who has experience and not even a preparatory book (how sad is that). There is only one mock exam available online. Also the individual tasks seem to be kind of special (meaning that if you don't know the tasks before the exam, you're done for no matter how good your German(this is what emk mentioned)) However I think the advantage here is that always the same tasks appear in the test, so you can especially prepare for those and only those. But I am kind of lost on how exactly to prepare for these tasks. I could use some advice here: 1. You get a text and statements which are either supported by the text, or contradicted or ambigous. 2. You get a text with blanks where sentences are missing. You have to insert the sentences in the right order. 3. You get a long text and several summaries. You have to decide which is the best. 4. You get sentences like: "The author describes the disadvantages of blahblah". You have to find the passage where the author does this. Emk's and cavesa's posts have good advice on listening and speaking, but the reading part is giving me a headache. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5351 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 7 17 May 2013 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
A quick Google search for "telc German tutor" turned up at least one private tutor. There's also quite a few preparatory courses available in Germany. If your friend wants to make it from B1 to C1 in 3 months, she needs to take responsibility for finding appropriate resources and generally demolishing all the obstacles in her path. Even if she's a good test taker and knows a lot of tricks, it's going to be a lot of hard work.
Figure out what kinds of topics the reading passages are likely to be about. Even though upper level CEFRL exams could theoretically cover just about any topic, a lot of them tend to heavily favor the same dozen-odd subjects: the environment, work, relations between men and women, life in school, language learning, and stuff like that. Try to read a lot about these subjects. Read the news. If the exam is academically oriented, read about the relevant subjects (humanities, sciences, or whatever). This will help, at least some. Your friend really needs to do two things: (1) decide how badly she want this and how hard she's willing to work, and (2) talk to a professional. Passing a C1 exam with a starting level of B1 and 3 months of prep time is going to require more than a few test taking tips. Edited by emk on 17 May 2013 at 8:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Antanas Tetraglot Groupie Lithuania Joined 4631 days ago 91 posts - 172 votes Speaks: Lithuanian*, English, Russian, German Studies: FrenchB1, Spanish | Message 6 of 7 22 May 2013 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have listened to a part of Hoerverstehen exercises of this test. As far as I understand, that is the test your friend wants to sit. The speakers were not speaking fast. I tend to think that if your friend cannot understand them then it has nothing to do with poor listening comprehension but rather with a poor vocabulary. Unlike English and French, German (Hochdeutsch) is a language that is very easy to understand in its spoken form, if you know the words that are spoken. There are (almost) no liaisons, no contractions. And far less idioms than in both aforementioned languages.
So, my advice would be to bombard yourself with as much audio/written materials as possible. The words of German are made of far smaller number of stems than those of French or English. If you get acquainted with them, get a rough idea how majority of prefixes and suffixes contribute to the meaning, then you can already understand a lot in German. And she has to keep the faith that she can do it. Anyway, if she does not make it this year, it's very realistic that she will make it next year. In 15 months it is very reasonable time to reach this kind of C1 even from A2. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4476 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 7 23 May 2013 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
There is one more step I would do, in addition to the language study - find a friend (in this case perhaps you), let them prepare similar tests in the NATIVE language and go quickly through it. It will check how well you can do these types of tests - some people have more problems than expected with the form of the test, not as much with the language. And if you cannot solve the puzzle in your native language, no amount of TL study will help you in a test. There is also this webpage with wealth of information and tips and practice material for download. Let your friend read the "C1 Tipps" carefully. Alternatively, give this to the tutor as a guideline for test-specific coaching. Otherwise, for all exams is important the same - read / listen carefully to the question and answer exactly what is asked from you. Read the question twice to be sure. You may navigate out of difficulties carefully, but starting to answer abruptly to something different will disqualify you quickly. Usually, perfect writing/speech and glaringly wrong subject is about the same point loss as wrong / too simple grammar and vocabulary. For speaking part, learn few tricks for tight situations - reformulate the question slightly to get more time to think, learn few "neutral" sentences you can insert almost everywhere to gain time ("...frankly speaking, I haven't thought about this problem much.../...this is of no interest for me, but I can see why people may be curious/passionate/invested in it...", for example). Don't overuse it - the examiners have seen it all. Use it with subtlety. But everything is better than the "deer in the headlights" look and stuttering or silence. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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