Written Test Rules

Entry Limit: Three entries per school; Advantaged Speakers only.

Multiple-choice test (100 questions, 20 each in the areas of culture, grammar, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and vocabulary) plus spelling test (20 questions). The test will be given ONE time on the day of contest and will take approximately 90 minutes. It must be completed in one sitting.

Students, you are responsible for bringing as many No. 2 pencils as you may need to take these tests. Scantron answer sheets will be used for all test sections except Spelling.

Entry Limit: Three entries per school per level: Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4.

This is a timed 20-minute multiple-choice test. The level 3 and 4 tests will be in German.

Students, you are responsible for bringing as many No. 2 pencils as you may need to take these tests. You will fill out your answers on a Scantron answer sheet.

Preparation Tips courtesy of Rustin Buck, Written Testing Co-Chair

The entire culture tests for levels 1 and 2 are in English; the entire tests for levels 3 and 4 are in German. For levels 3 and 4, 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 1 and level 2-3 Amsco workbooks. Yes, those books are very old and still refer to a divided Germany, but even the information about the DDR is useful from a historical standpoint. But the Amsco books should not be your only source of information, and if you don’t have the Amsco books, don’t despair. An extensive but not exhaustive list of other sources can be found on the State website with the rules for Pass auf! If you want to prepare yourself, gather and study information about the following topics:

Arts & Culture

• famous German-speaking artists and their major works
• German-speaking film stars and directors
• common fairy tales and folk tales from the German-speaking region
• 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)
• traditional food, drink, and customs associated with meals in the German-speaking countries
• holidays (religious and secular) in the German-speaking countries
• religion in the German-speaking countries
• popular German card games
• conversions between metric and customary measurements (distance, weight, volume, temperature)

Geography

• the largest 4-5 cities in each German-speaking country and the largest and smallest Bundesländer/Kantone in area and population
• approximate current population figures for each German-speaking country
• 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 Germany, the major lakes in each German-speaking country, the various canals that cut across Germany
• 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 Germany and Austria (don’t forget about Austria!!), for instance, Bavaria/Bayern is in the southeast of Germany
• the coats of arms of the German/Austrian Bundesländer and Swiss cantons
• the countries that border each of the German-speaking countries
• 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

History

• 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 Germany, Austria, or Switzerland

Politics

• the names for the various political sub-units of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (for example, the U.S. is divided into “states,” “counties,” and “cities” – what are Germany, Austria, and Switzerland divided into?)
• 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.)
• monarchs: kings of the various German nations (Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria), emperors of the (second) German Empire, and emperors/empresses of the Holy Roman Empire/Austria-Hungary
• past and present leaders (chancellors and presidents) of Germany and Austria, present leaders of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, leaders of the old DDR
• basic information about the European Union (member states, structure, headquarters, European Parliament)
• past and present currencies of the German-speaking countries
• major corporations in the German-speaking countries
• the basics of how the German school system is structured, esp. Grundschule, Hauptschule, Realschule, Gymnasium

Entry Limit: Three entries per school per level: Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4.

This is a timed 20-minute multiple-choice test. 

Students, you are responsible for bringing as many No. 2 pencils as you may need to take these tests. You will fill out your answers on a Scantron answer sheet.

Preparation Tips courtesy of Rustin Buck, Written Testing Co-Chair

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 4, you could find questions dealing with skills listed for Levels 1, 2, 3, or 4. On the other hand, if a skill doesn’t appear until a higher level (for example, secondary adjective endings at Level 2), you can assume that skill doesn’t appear on the tests for the previous levels.

One general tip: for each item, read the entire sentence and consider all four answer choices before making your final decision.

Level 1

• verb conjugation in the present tense, including regular, stem-changing, and irregular verbs such as sein, haben, werden, and wissen
• 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
• separable-prefix verbs (both how they work and which prefix you need in common situations that would be covered in German 1, e.g., is “to open” aufmachen, anmachen, zumachen, or vormachen?)
• pronouns in the nominative and accusative cases (for subjects and direct objects)
• articles/possessives (der, die, das, den, ein, eine, meinen, unsere, etc.) in the nominative and accusative cases
• 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 2

• command forms (du, ihr, Sie)
• present perfect (conversational past) tense: haben vs. sein as helping verb, correct past participles
• simple past tense of modal verbs (musste, konnte, etc.)
• simple past (preterit) tense of the verbs haben and sein only
• reflexive verbs
• future tense
• gefallen
• articles/possessives (dem, der, den, meinem, deiner, etc.) in the dative case
• pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr, uns, euch, ihnen, Ihnen) in the dative case
• dative prepositions
• accusative prepositions
• man
• viel vs. viele
• -n on nouns in the dative plural
• secondary adjective endings (ein rotes Auto, der alte Wagen, kaltes Wasser)
• comparative and superlative adjectives (schnell, schneller, am schnellsten)
• basic subordinate clauses (weil, dass, wenn)
• es gibt + accusative case

Level 3

• use of dative with certain verbs (helfen, gratulieren, danken, glauben, folgen, etc.)
• more extensive testing of subordinate clauses than at Level 2, esp. als vs. wenn vs. wann and wenn vs. ob
• simple past (preterit) tense of all verbs
• past-perfect tense
• wo- and da- compounds
• two-way prepositions
• 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
• adjectives used as nouns (die Deutschen, ein Bekannter, etc.)
• weak nouns (der Junge, den Jungen, dem Jungen, des Jungen, etc.)

Level 4

• verb + preposition combinations, e.g., sich freuen auf, sich freuen über, teilnehmen an, Angst haben vor, sich interessieren für, etc.
• present and past participles as adjectives and extended adjectival constructions (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
• present and past subjunctive II
• subjunctive I
• gelingen
• skills from Levels 1-3 in more complicated constructions

Entry Limit: Three entries per school per level: Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4.

This is a timed 20-minute multiple-choice test. Levels 1 and 2 take the same test and Levels 3 and 4 take the same test, but they are ranked separately for each level. Listen to recorded items in German and answer questions about the content of the information you heard. 

Students, you are responsible for bringing as many No. 2 pencils as you may need to take these tests. You will fill out your answers on a Scantron answer sheet.

Preparation Tips courtesy of Rustin Buck, Written Testing Co-Chair

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.

Entry Limit: Three entries per school per level: Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4.

This is a timed 20-minute multiple-choice test. The test will consist of questions about a series of short readings. Questions will generally be in German.

Students, you are responsible for bringing as many No. 2 pencils as you may need to take these tests. You will fill out your answers on a Scantron answer sheet.

Preparation Tips courtesy of Rustin Buck, Written Testing Co-Chair

There’s not much you can do to prepare for this. 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.

Entry Limit:  Two entries per school per level: Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4.

Levels 1 and 2 take the same test and Levels 3 and 4 take the same test, but they are ranked separately for each level. A series of words will be called out in German (the speaker will say the word, its part of speech, a sentence using the word, and the word again). The words will be recorded, not called live. Contestants write the called words on their answer sheets. Spelling (including umlauts) and capitalization (nouns capitalized, other parts of speech not capitalized) must be perfect in order to receive credit for a given item. Spelling lists are based on the glossaries in the back of all German textbooks.

Students, you are responsible for bringing as many pencils as you may need to take this test.

Preparation Tips courtesy of Rustin Buck, Written Testing Co-Chair

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 recorded. The person on the recording 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 if you apply the rules.

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.

Consonants

• 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), but some people also roll it with the tongue. We have attempted to use a combination of guttural and rolled r’s on the State recordings, but sometimes a guttural “r” sounds a bit tricky on a recording. Just be aware of that.
• You probably know that “st” and “sp” at the beginning of words are pronounced like “sht” and “shp” in German, but don’t be tempted to spell them that way.
• Remember that the buzzing sound as 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 as in the English word “ouch,” that’s spelled “au” in German.
• If you hear a sound as in the English word “boy,” that can be either “eu” or “äu” in German.
• If you hear a sound as 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.

Entry Limit: Three entries per school per level: Levels 1, 2, 3, & 4.

This is a timed 20-minute multiple-choice test. Vocabulary will be taken from approved textbooks on the appropriate level. The test will consist mostly of items in which you choose the correct English meaning for a given German word, but other formats are possible as well.

Students, you are responsible for bringing as many No. 2 pencils as you may need to take these tests. You will fill out your answers on a Scantron answer sheet.

Preparation Tips courtesy of Rustin Buck, Written Testing Co-Chair

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 vocabulary tests consist of the following types of items:

• Given a word in German and four choices for what it could mean in English, you select the right translation.
• Given a list of words in German, you select the one that does not belong (has the least to do with the rest of the words).
• Given a sentence in German with one word missing, you select from four choices of German words the one that best fills in the blank.
• Given two lists of words in German, you match up the antonyms (words with opposite meanings).
• Given two lists of words in German, you match up the synonyms (words with similar meanings).
• Given a question or statement, you select the correct rejoinder (response). These may feature common idioms.
• At Level 4 only: Given a German idiom (figure of speech), you select its correct German definition.
• Tie-Breakers: Given a word in English, you provide a German equivalent.

Entry Limit: 2 contestants per school per level (Levels 1 & 2 only)

The contestants will have 25 minutes to write a response to a prompt that is appropriate for their level of German. All contestants in each level will have the same prompt, but the prompts will change from year to year. The contestants may not use any print or electronic aids (phones, dictionaries, etc.). Either one or two writing sessions will be offered early in the day to allow sufficient time for judging.

Students, you are responsible for bringing as many pencils as you may need to take this test.

Click here to download the critique sheet for Timed Writing.

• Check lists of schools and entries: Refer to chart above if necessary.
• Protect answer keys with your life! 
• Time the test.   Students should be given only 20 minutes for the test and only 10 minutes for the tie-breaker.
• When you begin to test, hand out the answer sheets first..  Have them put their name, school, and Level (circle I, II, III, IV). Before handing the student the test, make sure he/she has filled out the above information and then get started. (This procedure is primarily for Listening Comp and Spelling.) Culture, Grammar, Reading, and Vocabulary tests will be given ONLY each hour or half hour, e.g., 9, 9:30, 10, 10:30 as students arrive, up to 12:30 pm.
• No tests may be handed out after the designated time on the schedule posted on the website. Be strict but fair.
• Grading procedure: You will receive a packet with sheets for listing the winners.  You must fill out a sheet for each Level I, II, III, and IV.  Please list the top 10 highest scorers. Usually, Level I and Level II, and Levels III and IV are given the same test, but  Please remember to grade them separately. Only level I competes to level I, only level II competes to level II, only level III competes to level III. There are no “advantaged speaker” tests.
• Fill out the award assembly sheet. Rank the entries first through tenth place.  Schools receive sweepstakes points for these rankings.  Please write the names carefully and legibly, as this sheet is used to read names for the awards assembly.  Do not to leave campus until you have turned in the  award assembly sheet to the tab room and been cleared by them.
• The coordinators for your area are in the scantron room in the event you need more forms or have any questions.

Your donation of time, encouragement and constructive comments tremendously benefits our students and our German programs!

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