Top Tips and Tricks To Prepare For German B1 and B2 Level Exam
First of all welcome to my blog.
I hope you find the below steps useful and informative in preparing for your German
exams.
Kindly follow the steps below in order to become self-sufficient in German.
You need to learn all the vocabulary of A2, B1, B2.1 & B2.2 books. You have to reach
a level, where you wouldn’t do a calculation of verb from present tense to perfect
tense in your mind. For example – If you think of an “invented” verb, then
automatically “erfunden” should strike in your mind, not first thinking of erfahren
then converting into a past perfect verb and then realizing oh! it is “erfunden”.
You should have a strong grasp over the “adjective endings”. For example – “das”
would always take ‘e’, eine – e, dem=den=einem=einen=einer – en and so on. When you
would do reading, you will start noticing these small grammar things. Unless you
won’t pay attention while reading, your mind won’t learn it permanently.
This is for a beginner, who is struggling with German grammar – Whenever you’re confused about article or adjective endings grammar part, then you could write down the sentence in Google-Translator and check your article or adjective endings grammar part. Grammar part is always correct in Google Translator, except the correct usage of verb, noun, and formation of sentences or the TeKaMoLo way of writing. You could only enhance your correct usage of verb+noun+formation of sentences by reading German Blogs/Books. These mistakes happen because we directly translate English sentences to German which is not correct every time – For example – In English we say how are you? but in German the correct sentence is “wie geht’s Ihnen/dir?” or in English we would say “to learn a new language”, we would directly transfer this sentence from English to German which would be “neue Sprache lernen” but in reality, “neue Sprache beherrschen” would sound more appropriate to the examiner. You’re giving an examination, not casually talking to someone in Germany. You have to work hard to get good marks.
You could also use this site in order to correct your German. But I’m pointing out again, verb and noun usage is not at all every time correct. Website is http://www.germancorrector.com.
You need to stick a white paper in your bedroom, near your bed wall or near your study table wall and write all these Grammar sentences, including – list of all the dative, akkusative and nouns or gender (female, male, neutral) on that white paper. This strategy would help you to grasp those grammar rules permanently because just mugging up and not practicing daily will make you forget it, thus, you need to practice everyday.
You should be a pro with using Nomen-Verben Verbindung (NVV) in your sentences.
Along with double and single connectors, reflexiv verb, and correct usage of fixed
prepositions. These grammar topics will definitely elevate your capability to solve
“grammar questions” in your exam.
Dig out all your German Books after B1 and mug up all the vocabulary by heart.
Including vocabulary from Hören transcription as well.
Do not think of learning vocabulary from outside unless you don’t know from the
books – B1 to B2 books. Vocabulary is like an endless Oocean. You should first
target vocabulary from books and should know all the vocabulary of the relevant
topic given in the books like Umwelt, Freunde and Familie, etc.
In order to understand the correct usage of the verbs – you could use these two sites to understand the verb correctly – Always use the website version of http://www.dict.cc (for vocabulary) and http://www.reverso.net -> this would help you to frame correct sentences. It is an inevitable step – do all your schreiben and sprechen exercises from B1 to B2 Arbeitbuch and Kursbuch . Do not chuck this step. It is for your benefit. You should only use Redemittel from books. You should know – how to and where to smartly use
Redemittel in your schreiben and sprechen. Don’t get duped by making your own Redemittel, because during examination whoever will be your teacher, they will focus on the books.
Your understanding of German while reading should reach to that level – without
jumping back to the verb and then understanding German. Your understanding of German
should be like understanding of English while reading at once without jumping or
sneaking here and there for the verb. This level of prowess could only be reached
after reading German at least 1 hour per day, without skipping Sunday, continuously
for 6 months.
Coming to the hearing part. Take out Hören part of your A1 Book till B2 Book (Kurs &
Arbeitbuch) and listen to it while reading the transcription. You should be able to
understand “Hören Part” smoothly when you would follow this method at least 1 hour
per day, continuously for 6 months, without skipping.
Your sprechen can only improve if you are able to write German smoothly. In order to
improve your schreiben – you need to be comfortable with vocabulary. If you think,
you can write German without hesitation, then you can practice your schreiben simply
by writing essays and getting them corrected.
PS – Don’t take “umlaut” alphabet for granted. If you write “Horen” instead of
“Hören”(o with two dots above), then the word would fall under a spelling mistake.
You need to write all the nouns in Capital-Letter (it is a must).
Don’t forget to use a comma and a full-stop in your schreiben. Google also ranks
websites according to their grammar-correction, which also includes when to use a
comma etc.
When you’re done with your German Books then you can move to German Blogs or DW-Top
Thema is enough for practicing.
Other than that you can follow Learn German, Easy German and Learn German with Anja channels on YouTube and mine as well 🙂 :).
In order to improve your sprechen on certain topics – you need to Google about it,
read multiple blogs and understand how natives use a specific verb.
After implementing the strategy above, practicing German on a daily basis and
referring to alternate websites and apps, it would take at least 6 months
approximately to come to a fluent level.It all depends upon – how many hours you
dedicate to German Studies or what is your motive behind learning German.
If you get time – YouTube about “learning German with Jenny”, check out B1 and B2 playlist on her channel and see all the videos of grammar and sentence formation. This is only for those who wish to unleash their German skill. You could also look for a native German – where you could exchange your English wisdom with them and in return, you could ask for German.
Do not forget to turn your mobile language into German.
Last but not the least, when you think that you are able to understand German while
reading and hearing then you could keep on practicing German by watching movies.
Check out all the exam preparation books of B2 below. The exam pattern is subject to
change every year as well as the Goethe syllabus according to the changing times. So
please cross check on the website once before you go ahead with anything.
Either you can buy a book online or download its PDF format if it is available
online. Ask on any Facebook group or Whatsapp group if someone has an exam
preparation book in a pdf format. You can later take a print out.
List of B2 level books
- Aspekte Neu B2 by Goyal – It contains two books – Lehrbuch (it is a coursebook) & Arbeitsbuch (it is a practice book).
- Fit Für Goethe-Zertifikat B2 – Exam preparation book.
- Mit Erfolg zum Goethe-Zertifikat B2 Übungsbuch + Audio-CD – Exam preparation book.
- Prüfungstraining Goethe-Zertifikat B2 – Exam preparation book.
Hope you found the information useful.
Please stay tuned for more language tips and learning methods.
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