About the National German Exam

The National German Exam is administered each year to over 15,000 high school students of German. The exam, now in its 65th year, provides individual diagnostic feedback, rewards students through an extensive regional and national prize program, and creates a sense of accomplishment. Exam results provide teachers a means of comparing students in all regions of the country, as well as programmatic data to help inform curricular decisions.

The exam is delivered electronically and has four levels, each with the same format. The Level 2, 3, and 4 exams are administered in the winter so qualifying students in the 90th percentile can apply for the AATG/PAD National German Exam Scholarship, a three-week study trip program to Germany. Students taking the Level 1 exam have not had the requisite two years of language instruction to qualify for the AATG/PAD National German Exam Scholarship, which allows schools to administer the Level 1 exam in the spring.

Targeted Proficiencies

It is important to note that the National German Exam is not a proficiency assessment. The Exam measures the performance of students based on what they have typically learned in German classrooms. The National German Exam targets levels of proficiency that high school students can generally achieve at levels 1, 2, 3 or 4 in listening and reading.

No one method, textbook, or approach is given preference over any other in designing the exams. The exams do reflect the principles of the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages and their focus on developing students' abilities to communicate effectively and with cultural competence as members of multilingual communities. Exam materials are selected with great care to be interesting, varied, and accessible to a large, general student population. The Exam is designed to be well within the reach of all students.

  • The Level 1 Exam targets student proficiencies in the Novice Low to Mid range as measured by the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. These students understand some ideas on familiar topics containing phrases, simple sentences, and frequently used expressions. They can understand the main point and a few details in short conversations, messages, and announcements.

  • The Level 2 Exam targets student proficiencies in the Novice Mid proficiency range. These students understand the main idea and some details on familiar topics expressed in sentences, short conversations, presentations, and messages.

  • The Level 3 Exam targets student proficiencies in the Novice High to Intermediate Low proficiency range. These students understand the main idea and many details on familiar topics expressed in a series of connected sentences, conversations, presentations, and messages. They comprehend information related to basic personal and social needs and relevant to their immediate environment such as everyday life, school, and community.

  • The Level 4 Exam targets student proficiencies in the Intermediate Low to Mid proficiency range. These students understand the main points and most details in conversations, presentations, and messages on familiar topics. They also understand the main idea and some details on unfamiliar topics. They demonstrate emerging evidence of the ability to make inferences. They comprehend texts focused on relevant real-world topics of general interest.

Structure, Content, and Question Types

Each level of the Exam is comprised of 100 multiple choice questions divided into two parts with 50 questions each. The listening and viewing portion is 40 minutes in length and consists of a series of short audio and video segments. The reading portion is 40 minutes in length and consists of a variety of print texts, including graphs and images. All materials used in the exam come from authentic resources.

All exam questions are based on an authentic audio or video clip, or a print text. Each set of questions consists of at least five and typically no more than 10-12 multiple choice items. The questions that make up a question set target a range of skills. Each question set has at least one question in which students are asked to identify the main idea, two to three items in which students identify supporting details, and at least one question to project beyond the text, i.e. to make inferences, to detect the tone of the text, or to identify the intended audience.

The question set may also include a question focused on vocabulary. Answering these types of questions involves skills and strategies that are critical to comprehension: skimming a text to get the main idea; scanning to identify details; and inferring, a higher-level skill to develop deeper understanding. These higher-order, or critical thinking skills are assessed to a greater extent in Level 3 and Level 4, but questions assessing critical thinking are also included in the Level 1 and 2 exams.

Whether they are practicing for the Exam, or engaging with any audio, video, or print materials in the interpretive mode of communication, students should encounter questions that move them from getting the main idea and identifying details, to making inferences and projecting beyond the text.

  • Identifying the main idea refers to understanding what the text as a whole is about, or to getting its “gist.” Main idea questions require students to:

    - Identify an overarching message or piece of information

    - Identify the text type or genre

    - Identify the purpose of the text, e.g. to inform or to entertain

    - Select a suitable title for the text

  • Identifying supporting details refers to understanding specific and significant pieces of information found in the text. Supporting detail questions often involve identifying who, what, when and where, and, especially when the source material is a chart or graph, how much.

  • Comprehending vocabulary refers to recognizing familiar words and also to understanding the meaning of words or phrases that may not be familiar. Vocabulary keys do not need to express the term in the stem EXACTLY; an approximation is adequate.

    These items ask students to:

    - interpret a phrase or idiomatic expression.

    - derive the meaning of a word from its context. Asking for one-word synonyms out of context should be avoided, especially in levels 2-4.

  • Making inferences refers to contextualizing, interpreting, and understanding a text.

    Items that involve making inferences require students to:

    - Categorize information (e.g., "In which subject would you learn about this topic?")

    - Identify the author’s point of view.

    - Select an appropriate follow-up question. 

    - Identify the intended audience.