Hallo !
I get questions about my German prep and Goethe Exams quite often. Hence, I will be sharing all the FREE resources I used for my German prep.
Note to my readers: I qualified the Goethe Institut A2 Zertifikat exam without attending the official Goethe Institute classes, and I attribute majority of my prep to the ton of free resources out there.
For my A1 prep I attended the German A1 course ( Evening classes for about 6 hours a week) at the Department of European Studies in Manipal. Prof. Nikita Joshi really helped cover the basics with a lot of repetition and classroom activities. Unfortunately due to our college schedule, they could only cover about half the prescribed A1 syllabus in the course duration. Nevertheless, the course would have been sufficient to answer the A1 exam had it not been for the 1 year break after my A1 course.
After a year, I pretty much started from scratch and used the following resources to refresh( more like start from scratch) :
1) German with Jenny: ( It is now called lingoni German) This is a YouTube series teaching A1-B2. What I liked about this course best is the balance of grammar, repetition as well as day-to-day examples, context based vocabulary learning and reading lessons to help you understand the usage of rules in sentences. In my opinion, this is by far the BEST (most comprehensive) resource out there. Replay the videos after regular intervals, feel free to take notes and revise. German can be a tricky languages with the variety of personal pronouns and of course- the infamous articles- der,die, das. Lingoni German, though, has you covered with tips and tricks to memorise these articles relatively easily.
2) German with Anja: I haven't watched these videos as much as Lingoni German, but she follows a similar approach. You might want to check out a couple of videos of both the channels to decide which one you like better.
(You can binge watch the above videos, but eventually you'll realise that this approach doesn't add to your long term learning. So find out what works best for you.)
3) Netzwerk textbooks and solutions: Almost all courses follow the official book prescribed by Goethe Institute -Netzwerk for all the levels. This book has reading, listening, writing and activities- ideal prep for the Goethe exam structure.
I was lazy, and didn't go through all the exercises but in class, we had completed quite a lot of them. However, for my examination prep I made it a point to watch all the videos at the end of the lessons ( because they're fun to watch ) as well as do all the listening exercises ( They are marked with a CD symbol ). Note that you can order these textbooks online ( or get the pirated pdf ) and don't have to attend the official Goethe course.
The hardest part for me, and for most learners, on the A1/A2 test is the listening section. Doing the listening exercises in the textbooks ( both the main textbook as well as the workbook) is absolutely crucial as the vocabulary and environment setting of the audios you'll hear on test day is highly derivative of these exercises. I can rest assure you that along with the video courses and vocabulary, this is all the prep you'll need for the listening section.
The solutions for the Netzwerk books are available on the Klett USA website. They also have access to all the audio video content in the textbooks, and what's more - transcripts for all the audios as well. That way you don't have to carry the accompanying CD along.
Note down the textbook code in a text file or so, as you'll need to authenticate your textbook to access the resources. Klett USA also has a ton of other resources that you can access.
Other books: Netzwerk set [textbook+workbook+vocab book+ exam prep book] is quite self sufficient for your exam prep. I don't recommend paying for any other material in print or online.
I did buy one book which had a lot of daily life conversation examples with their English translations, but I also found a ton of mistakes in the book. I would recommend doing the Netzwerk exercises+audio/video exercises as well as watching Easy German videos, for daily conversations, over these kind of books focusing on surface level content.
4) Super Easy German followed by Easy German: You can absolutely binge watch these videos to help you get used to listening to Native speakers as well as foreign speakers across multiple age groups. This goes a long way especially if you are learning German with a plan to study/work in Germany. The host walks around the streets of Germany and other countries and pedestrians answer to questions like "What is your favourite food", "Which is your favourite holiday destination" and so on. I recommend you write down few phrases as you watch, as this will help you on your Speaking section of the test. My favourite part about this channel are the super enthusiastic hosts, and the fact that I get to listen to multiple German dialects as well as non-native speakers.
I will soon put up a post on the possible speaking topics that could appear on your test for A1/A2. (From my research, there is only a fixed set of topics that could appear on the speaking section)
5) Nicos Veg : I super duper highly recommend you to watch these movies to test your German comprehension abilities, or if you have trouble deciding if your skills suffice to answer the Goethe level exam ( of course you can give mock tests for that, but I'm talking about fun ways here) . The vocabulary and grammar is distributed as per levels, for instance - 'Nicos Veg A1'. You can either watch the whole movie ( about 1hr 40 min) at stretch or watch them in parts. You will also find the part-wise videos on YouTube. I suggest you to not binge watch higher levels, or even watch them before you're done with the prep for your level. You can then gauge your skills based on how much of it you can comprehend. You certainly might want to go back to your 'Netzwerk' textbooks/ vocabulary and improve your exam prep if you find yourself struggling to understand 25% or more of the content.
6) YouTube -examples of speaking tests : You will find few examples of the Goethe speaking skills test online. Watch these videos to understand how they will structure your speaking section (i.e the personal introduction followed by partner activities of question-answers on random topics, daily planning and an individual speech ) . Here is an example of A2-Sprechen
Quick tip: On your speaking test, you have to ensure that you take the conversation forward irrespective of your speaking partner. In my case, I was paired with a speaker who could barely frame a sentence. So I am expected to not wait too long, and continue to ask questions/ make comments.
Quick note on Speaking and Writing sections: As I mentioned earlier, the number of topics and the format of assessment is quite rigid when it comes to these topics. Look at the 'Prufungstraining' book for more sample tests to understand the format well, and know what to expect on test day. After this simple exercise you should ideally be able to predict more than 70-80% of the questions that will appear on your test.
The Prufungstraining book is available for free on Klett USA. Look at 3) for more details on Klett USA
There are two sides of the coin. Learning German is no different. There are some who'll tell you that it is one of the hardest languages out there, with the impossible, infinite list of articles you'll have to memorise .
Then there's the other set of people (I take pride in being one of these xD) who'll tell you that it is not so impossible after all. And like everything else, a little perseverance can go a long way. Hope this article helps you get closer to being one of us.
Guten Tag !
PS: Check out this space in a few days for blog posts on the list of Speaking topics you can expect on your test (including my prep answers for those) , as well as for all the fancy vocabulary flashcards that i made during my exam prep:)
I will also try upload a cam scanned copy of all my notes.
