I have to give this german Assessment Test for RAV next week. Has anyone given that? Any tips? What comes in it Or what Should i prepare for it. Any help would be good.
Thanks
Hi everyone
it is just a test to judge your overall level of German so they can see if you need a course and which level. I did it 5 years ago, nothing to worry about. It is not a test you can fail.
Is it just written Test Or speaking also ?
You have to identify things from a picture, perhaps a kitchen.
Possibly understand a job advertisement in German
Possibly attempt to apply for a job in German.
Possibly speak a few words at the end when they look at your paper.
It's to assess if you have any German knowledge at all, & if any what standard.
I never had to do one, but seriously it's not how well you do, it's how badly you do that can be to your advantage, assuming you want to learn German.
If you do badly the RAV may well offer you a 3 month course, paid for by the RAV, to improve your German. Depending on the sort of work you're looking for they may insist that you take the course.
Whichever way you want it, you're not going to learn enough German by next week to alter the outcome.
as the others have said the RAV just want to see what level of German you have and what a suitable level of class would suit you. There is no need to cram for it.
Thanks everyone.
I have to do this test as well. I heard that RAV pays for German course for beginners (A0, A1). What if you have a little bit of knowledge already? I imagine RAV doesn't pay for classes above B1 lvl? (If you have a college degree but are not in the desired profession.) Or does it?
Would it make sense, like Slaphead said, to do a bit worse and get a free course out of it? I guess repetition can't really hurt ... but I must say I don't like the idea of doing this.
RAV St Gallen lists A1, A2 and B1 German courses on its website, i.e., nothing above B1:
Hello, today I did this German Assessment Test (Deutscheinschätzung) in Zürich. I decided to describe how everything goes. I hope you find it useful. The experience may vary and the tests will probably change. But just to know what to generally expect.
You have to bring the invitation with you. I was placed in a room where desks were arranged in a square (without one side). There are two tests A and B and you have 45 minutes. You get a pencil and an eraser. From what I remember:
1. First page just basic information arranged in a table (name, surname, address, date of birth, nationality, profession, language skills, hobbies).
2. On the second page was a picture of a studio apartment and you had to write down about 10 nouns and their genders (der Tisch, das Bett etc.) and draw a line to the object. You could choose the objects yourself and there was loads of them, so no worries. The next task was to briefly describe your own apartment.
3. On the 3 (4?) page was a list of signs/descriptions (1-8) and you had to find the matching sentences (a-h). It was something like: 1) “No entry, staff only” And the matching sentence was something like: “You have to find another door.” Not your typical “Rauchen verboten!”= “Du darfst hier nicht rauchen.” since the verbs were not duplicated. Like one picture was a phone message "I miss you." and the matching sentence was something like "You have to come home as soon as possible." So a little bit of understanding is required here. But pretty easy non the less.
4. The next exercise on page 4 (3?) was a short story about a woman who came to Switzerland. Like 20 sentences, basic vocabulary. And then you had to answer 10 questions: Where did she come from? Etc. Nothing tricky.
5. The last exercise: we had an add (vacation, hotel in Italy) and we had to write a letter of complaint (Beschwerdebrief).
After this written part of the exam we had a short conversation with one person from a committee. He/she also went through our written exam. For me it was just a short introduction, who I am, where I come from, what my plans are. Very pleasant.
If I had one more chance, I would probably do the letter of complaint first, or at least not last. Otherwise it was easier than I expected. Oh and, pretty obvious but anyway, try not to be late. 45 minutes is not really an abundance of time.
I don't think there's any hard and fast rules, and it will anyway vary with which canton and office you're going through. I did courses up to B2 through RAV in OW/NW last and earlier this year, for example, but they were run in Luzern, as it happens, that being the nearest large city.
It really depends on how much they think it will make a difference and, tbh, I'd they can think of anything else for you to do.
The assessment I did was just to confirm what level I was at, hence not only the level but the type of course that's appropriate. It had spoken and written elements at each level and allows you to get a different "score' for each, so I came out a decent A2 spoken, B1 for understanding but only A1 written. Was quite useful, the way they did it.