One very important thing to know is that you must arrive early. Not too much, maybe 10-15 minutes, but they’ll close the doors and nobody’s allowed in. This was actually my second time at the Einstufung, but since I arrived on the dot at the listed time, I was already too late to enter. I was given a flyer with the information, but that cultural tidbit wasn’t mentioned. >>;

There were a lot of people, and they were all equally as lost and nervous as I was. From a young lady fresh out of medical school wanting to get her language certificate, to gaggle of teenagers - and even a few older people! - we had all piled into the room and found our seats.

One thing that was interesting to note is that one of the proctors took the time to talk to each of us, to determine which type of exam we ought to take. There was no separation according to beginner or intermediate - the only thing that was different were the exams we were handed. (They were all eye-searing neon; I took comfort at that being the same at seemingly all educational institutions.)

We could bring our own writing utensils, even though they had a little glass of their own. It didn’t matter if it was pen or pencil, as the entire test was multiple choice with an answer sheet. No Scantrons for us! This was done the old-fashioned way. A proctor told us to not write on the exams, as they were to be reused, and to only make an X in the answer bubble we wanted.

The test was mostly fill-in-the blank, where we chose which of the answers to tick off. It was four pages of 50 questions total, and the answer sheet had 25 on each side. I later learned that each side was graded mostly separately, where a 20/25 score was very good and let you into the higher level course (for example, I took the A-level exam, but didn’t score quite well enough to qualify for the B1 course).

We were encouraged to take the test quickly, in about half an hour, the proctor said, because lingering too long could give false positives/negatives from overthinking. It was alright if you didn’t know too much! That’s what the A1/A2 level classes are for. Once we were done with the test, one of the proctors would discuss the score with us and discuss which course would be the best fit, and the details of registering for a course.

In itself, the test was... interesting. The first half was what one would typically expect of tested material - pronouns, verb conjugation, whatnot. The second half, however, I found a bit baffling. Some of those sentences people didn’t even use day-to-day! One question was telling the time on the clock, and really “quarter till one” was what the clock read, even if the correct answer was “thirty-five minutes past noon”. I’m getting flashbacks from my French exams in high school.

You know how people take math and/or philosophy classes even if they’re not going into a math field, to prove their ability to make rational decisions? The second half was like that: complexity for the sake of displaying complexity. I’ve been studying on my own for a while, and have been watching news and reading magazines since I’ve come here to Germany, so I can say with confidence that section was more to see how flexible you are in your mental gymnastics than it was rote memorization.

I suppose the test was well-balanced in that regard, comparing memorization of basic concepts and vocabulary to how well you can play around with the language. One take-away is that reading is super important, even for A-level testing. You don’t need to load up, necessarily, on dusty old books, but picking a popular classic from your target language and learning some different styles of writing would help a lot.