My TestDaF Experience

On Wednesday, 18.05.2022 I took the TestDaF at the Goethe-Institut Malaysia. In Malaysia there are only two places you can take TestDaF, either at the Goethe-Institut next to the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur or at Mercator at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi. I chose Goethe due to familiarity with the venue - I had taken German classes and exams there from B1 to C1 levels and felt more comfortable going somewhere I know rather than searching high and low for directions in a totally new, unknown place.

Why would I take this exam when I'm not flying off to study in Germany anytime soon? The biggest motivation, the big push factor, is the experience gained by going through the TestDaF exam preparation process.

Writing this exam gives me more than a personal challenge to overcome. Having gone through TestDaF, I can share my exam experience with my students who are going to take this exam in order to study in Germany. I write this to help others prepare better for their own TestDaF exam in future.

So I took the plunge, went to www.testdaf.de and signed up for TestDaF one fine Tuesday, the 12th of April 2022. Only five weeks before the exam on the 18th of May 2022, codenamed T116. Paid the 145 Euro exam fee by credit card, which translated to 685.96 Malaysian ringgit based on the day's exchange rate. The clock started ticking ...

Study Materials I Used

Now I could start preparing just five weeks before the exam because I'm already at the C1 level. I would say that if you're starting from zero and want to take TestDaF, you're looking at 525 to 750 hours of learning German (Reference 1). Your mileage may vary depending on the languages you already speak, background knowledge, life experience, aptitude, etc.

If you're at B2 you'll most likely need two months of full-time learning with targeted exam preparation to score the minimum required TestDaF grade of TestDaF-Niveau (TDN) 4 4 4 4 - that means a 4 in each of the four components of reading, listening, writing, and speaking. After all, an exam is an exam, you have to give them what they want. Therefore preparation is everything.

Books I managed to use:
01. Fit für den TestDaF (Hueber)
02. Prüfungstraining TestDaF (Cornelsen)
03. TestDaF-Training 2015 (Fabouda-Verlag)

Material I only used partially:
04. Mit Erfolg zum TestDaF (Klett)
05. Training TestDaF (Langenscheidt)

Material I did not manage to use:
06. TestDaF Musterprüfung 1-5 (Hueber)
07. Two practice tests from the official TestDaF website
08. Beatas DaF (YouTube channel - for the speaking part)
09. Dr. Deutsch (YouTube channel - for the speaking part)

Other material I went through:
10. Redemittel zur Beschreibung von Schaubildern, Diagrammen und Statistiken (www.wirtschaftdeutsch.de)
11. Redemittel zur Beschreibung von Grafiken, Diagrammen und Schaubildern (from Cornelsen)
12. Reading the experiences of other people who took TestDaF. Just Google ichhabeschwein TestDaF, my TestDaF experience, reddit German TestDaF and so on.

I started with the Hueber book "Fit für den TestDaF", going through all the sections from reading to listening and then writing and speaking. Then I did the same with the Cornelsen book "Prüfungstraining TestDaF". Subsequently I repeated the process with the Fabouda-Verlag book "TestDaF-Training 2015". Due to lack of time, I only did the writing and speaking parts of the Klett book "Mit Erfolg zum TestDaF" and the Langenscheidt book "Training TestDaF".

Going through the sections, I found reading the easiest. Perhaps it's my speed-reading ability, depth of vocabulary knowledge, and pre-existing knowledge. The tricky part is differentiating between "Nein" and "Text sagt dazu nichts" in Text 3. I'll share a tip here, summarized from the Fabouda-Verlag book:

     "Nein" means that statements in the text contradict the sentence.
     "Text sagt dazu nichts" means either the sentence is nowhere in the text and the text gives no information about the topic of the sentence, or the sentence is indeed contradictory but not towards the statements in the text.   

Listening was tough at first, but got better towards the end with more targeted listening practice - I listened a few times to exam-style audio from the test prep books, shadowed it by saying aloud what I heard, and did "shadowing" exercises like how simultaneous interpreters practice their skills (Reference 2).

Writing felt like a chore due to the nature of the subject and topics. I'm not keen on writing about those kinds of graph descriptions and then inferring trends and conclusions based on highly technical topics. Anyway no choice, so I read through tons of sample answers, compared them to the questions, and forced myself to memorize some Redemittel.

Good thing is that the essay format is fixed, "sei baan 死板" (dead board) in Cantonese best describes it, so you just need to focus on getting super familiar with the style they want. For good measure I hand-copied quite a number of model essays to get "into the flow". Works for me when I understand the topic at hand.

Speaking - the weirdest, or the most ideal for those who don't like to talk to other people. You listen to prompts while reading the questions, you get some time to think of what to say, and you speak when the recording prompts you to speak, until you hear a "beep" sound indicating "time's up, stop talking, move on".

I read scripts of sample answers and used my mobile phone to record myself speaking. For this part I found the sample answers from the Langenscheidt book more "spoken language style" and within the time limit compared to the sample answers from the Hueber book which sounded more bookish and had more details than could be fitted within the allocated time.

Now this format of speaking test where you talk to a computer is truly unnatural and robotic, but that's the way it is. Again, it's pattern recognition and strategic targeting. Aufgabe 4 and Aufgabe 6 are the two tasks at TDN 5, so if you do well on these then you're good to go for scoring the Speaking section. Otherwise you'll need the TDN 4 tasks Aufgabe 3 and Aufgabe 5 to save you. The remaining tasks Aufgabe 1, 2, and 7 are TDN 3.  

So that was pretty much what I did for five weeks in my free time - preparing for TestDaF. And of course, printing out the Zulassungschreiben, handwriting the sentence acknowledging and agreeing to the exam rules, signing it and making sure to bring it along on exam day.

My Exam Day Experience

Knowing that the exam would take half a day with no opportunity to leave the test centre until the end of the exam, I made sure to eat a good breakfast early in the morning - can't remember whether it was chicken rice or something else, but definitely enough to last half a day. I brought along one 1.5 litre bottle of water and some sesame seed puff biscuits for energy. And of course the bare essentials - identity card, the signed Zulassungsschreiben, three black ballpoint pens, three blue ballpoint pens.

Goethe is very strict about Covid standard operating procedures (SOPs). All test-takers must bring along a self-test kit and do a self-test on-site an hour before the test, only then they're allowed to proceed to the exam room. Those not fully vaccinated or unvaccinated also need to do a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at a clinic and bring along the results. And when in Goethe, either double face masks or a single N95 mask.

Seeing as the area around Goethe is often jammed, I decided to go there by motorbike. A week before test day I had done a dry run, which was a good thing as I found out about road closures and diversions. Good choice to ride, since I could skip all the traffic jams during the morning rush hour.

We were informed to be there at 8:00 AM, one hour before the exam started, so I had to wake up early, eat early, and leave early. The test centre also informed that the air-conditioning might be too cold for comfort, but I found it just nice.

So I set out around 6:45 AM, reached Goethe around 7:15 AM and had 45 minutes to hang around. Doors opened 8:00 AM. Covid self-test: negative. Okay, you may enter. Then the usual exam procedures of identity verification, submitting the Zulassungsschreiben, going through the exam rules and so on.

There were only six of us test-takers, the maximum allowed under Covid-era SOPs. One uncle - me. Four young Malaysians - two guys and two gals, younger than half my age, very highly motivated, all set on studying in Germany. One guy from India who flew in the day before, since all the places in India were full. While Goethe has place for six, Mercator Bangi has more - I believe they have twenty places.

And yes, the exam rules are strictly enforced. Handphones must be switched off and handed in before the exam for safekeeping. You only get them back after the exam's over. No reading allowed during breaks. No notes, no watches either. Just your IC and ballpoint pens. They had a large digital display projection showing the time, so no watch, no problem.

The exam went precisely like this according to schedule:
09:00 AM to 10:00 AM -> Reading
10:00 AM to 10:20 AM -> Break
10:20 AM to 11:00 AM -> Listening
11:00 AM to 11:30 AM -> Break
11:30 AM to 12:35 PM -> Writing
12:35 PM to 01:05 PM -> Break
01:05 PM to 01:40 PM -> Speaking, 1st group (3 people)
01:45 PM to 02:20 PM -> Speaking, 2nd group (3 people) - I was in the 2nd group

What I noticed:

What I mention here applies only to the paper-based test, which is the only format available in Malaysia as of the time of writing. The computer-based test is different in terms of number of items and task types. It is a matter of time before the computer-based test comes to Malaysia, so if that's what you're taking, find out more about the test format and task types.

If you've done a lot of the test prep material, you'll notice that most of the graphs are "ancient", dating back to the 1990s and 2000s. They also have sources which you need to quote. In the exam I took, the graphs are current with dates up to the 2010s with no sources given, so I didn't need to quote any sources. Not sure if this would be the case for future exams so might as well prepare for it anyway.

The type of tasks and texts is exactly the same as in the prep material, only that the specific topics are different. So do as many sample tests as you can, and stick to the allocated time.

If you can read and understand material on knowledge websites like www.focus.de, www.wissen.de, www.wissenschaft.de, or a news website like www.mdr.de then you're all set for the second text of the reading section. For the third reading text, the vocabulary level is something like what you get from a website such as www.mpg.de or a specialist reference book.

For listening, if you can understand panel interviews and talk shows on German TV, radio, or Internet then you're good to go. That would be programmes on zdf.de, YouTube, dw.com Video-Thema at the B2/C1 level or other media for native speakers.

In the speaking section where you speak to a computer, the software used is Audacity so you can see the waveforms as you speak. We only needed to press two buttons: Record, followed by Play, and then let the whole thing run for the next 30 minutes.

How I did:

Reading was my best, I finished 10 minutes before the ending time. I answered most of the questions very quickly with just a few unclear for the third test where I had to choose either "Nein" or "Text sagt dazu nichts". As expected, the reading texts felt like those that would appear in the abovementioned websites.

Listening was better than I expected and this time I managed to jot down key words in German in good speed. During exam preparation there were times I scribbled down notes in English because the people were talking so fast that writing notes in German would slow me down. In the exam I understood all that the speakers said and only missed one item for the third text, which I just had to "tembak" (shoot = guess). Oh well, for the first and third texts it depends how well the evaluators accept my words.

Essay writing time was just enough. I had to leave out one content point due to time constraints so I discussed two instead of the three I planned for. Nevertheless I finished writing barely two minutes before the ending time.

Speaking - not my best among all four sections. I felt I didn't do so well compared to the rest, because I just talked about only what I thought was necessary and no more than that. Surprisingly I found the allocated time more than enough for five out of the seven speaking tasks. Perhaps I didn't use much high-flung vocabulary or complex formulations.

Anyway, what's past is past, and I'm still awaiting the results as I write this. Hope this helps!

[Update 30.06.2022]:
I got my TestDaF results late at night on the 29th of June 2022 and guess what ... I did better than expected! For the reading section I was very confident of scoring a 5, but wasn't so sure about the other sections which I thought I'd get 4s at the most, possibly even a 3 for speaking. But the end results really exceeded my expectations.

Reading: 5
Listening: 5
Writing: 4
Speaking: 5

All in all it does validate my German proficiency level at that of C1 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). According to the TestDaF website, TDN 3 corresponds to CEFR B2, TDN4 to CEFR B2/C1, and TDN5 to CEFR C1. (Reference 3) has a table showing how TDN levels correspond to CEFR levels. (Reference 4) describes the TDN levels in English.

Reference 1
https://www.goethe.de/ins/my/en/spr/prf/testdaf/inf.html
"Before registering for the exam, candidates should have already completed between 700 and 1,000 45-minute units of teaching in German. It is not necessary to provide evidence of your knowledge of German when registering for the exam."

Reference 2
https://mindkraft.me/how-to-develop-thought-fluency-in-a-foreign-language/
https://web.archive.org/web/20210727182718/https://mindkraft.me/how-to-develop-thought-fluency-in-a-foreign-language/
Shadowing 1: L1 : L1 Mimicking (English : English)
Shadowing 2: L1 : L1 Interpreting (English : English)
Shadowing 3: L2 : L2 Mimicking (Chinese : Chinese)
Shadowing 4: L1 : L2 Interpreting (English : Chinese)
Shadowing 5: L2 : L2 Interpreting (Chinese : Chinese)

Reference 3
https://www.testdaf.de/de/teilnehmende/warum-testdaf/das-muessen-sie-koennen/

Reference 4
https://www.testdaf.de/de/teilnehmende/warum-testdaf/testdaf-levels-englisch/