CLEP German and General Foreign Languages

Let me give you an idea of the foreign language tests by talking about the German CLEP I took today. Bear in mind that despite what you may have heard, these tests measure fluency and not proficiency. In my opinion, due to the very high standard that these tests are written at and the severe time constraints you’re under, you should not bother attempting this test unless you can understand at least 90% of the verbs/prepositions and 25% of the nouns in any “normal” German dialogue in a single pass without asking the other person to “Bitte, wiederholen sie.”

These tests will be different for each language, plus different from year to year. The following is merely the current example to give you a frame of reference.

German CLEP (November 2009) consists of 3 sections:

(All listening passages are “one shot only,” you cannot re-listen to anything.)Listening Section I
- 17 questions. Short dialogue, but the questions and answers will also be listening only. There will be nothing to read. No overall time limit, but a 10 second timer for each question.

Listening Section II
- 30 questions in 9 minutes. Longer dialogues of approximately 1-2 minutes each. Questions and answers are written, though. Example dialogues: A job interview, a couple debating about which restaurant is their favorite, et al.

Reading Section III
- 70 questions in 60 minutes. About 10-20% are short “fill in the blank” questions. The rest are progressively longer dialogues with, literally, a handful of visual-aid type questions. Such as a photo-copy of an invoice. These questions seemed out of place and might have been part of the non-counted “questions under development.”

General Notes on Test:
- The speakers are excellent and have virtually no accent. Unfortunately, the audio quality is poor. Expect to be listening to perfect speakers who sound like they are talking on a CB radio. Static, cracks and all. I tried more than one headphone. It’s a legitimate test issue.

- This might surprise some people, but all questions are in German. There are also no questions about German grammar rules. It’s all demonstrative testing. You’re gonna get your hands dirty.

- This test is very difficult. Aber, the rewards are fabulous. Only the foreign language tests allow you to receive credit for 2 classes with 1 test. On the other hand, remember that education is all about making money and that there are no market incentives to make the test “reasonable.” Hence, this test is hard. Furchtbar hard. Even if you took German in high school, lived in Germany and speak/listen to German on a weekly basis this test will still be a significant challenge. Ain’t trying to scare ya’, but you need to go in there with your eyes open. There’s nothing worse than being surprised on the test.

- In case you’re wondering about my credentials, I received a 61 on the scaled score. My school (UF) however, requires a 63 to get the credit for 2 semesters. Ich bin S.O.L.
- Last, but not least, remember that the higher education system in America is a sham. But don’t let that scare you away from taking CLEP exams. Like the great, late Robert Heinlein said: “The game may be crooked, but it’s the only game in town.”

 

Was just about to post a thread asking about this. So glad you said something, because I would have been getting in waaaaay over my head. Thanks

 

I'm glad I read this. I set a tentative appointment for Mid November to take German level I and II tests. (Feeling fairly prepared having taken 4 years of German in HS and corresponded with some German friends) Now...I think I'll push that test back to December or maybe even January.

I found sample questions on the CLEP site (http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/clep/german_language_fact_sheet.pdf)

Do these resemble any questions you had on the test?

What's the highest you can score on this test? (it seems to me that it would be far easier just to take the class with a lenient teacher. Probably the point, though. It would be far easier to find a scholarship that would cover the tuition of that class than try to circumvent there whole process...Mark twain: "In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."

Could you recommend studying any resources? Like news broadcasts? German radio?, etc?