Sarajevo Canton Eksterna Matura common mistakes
Sarajevo Canton Eksterna Matura · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
During the Hörverstehen, the candidate stops listening to keep writing a full answer to the previous item and therefore misses the next two answers entirely.
Candidates try to transcribe complete sentences instead of noting keywords, and they underestimate how tightly the audio paces the items; the recording is usually played twice, but panic about a missed item makes them fall further behind.
What to do instead
Practise note-taking with abbreviations and symbols only, and train the strategy of leaving a gap and jumping to the next item immediately. Use the reading time before each section to predict what kind of information is needed (number, time, place, name). On the second listening, fill gaps rather than rewrite.
The candidate answers a Hörverstehen true/false or multiple-choice item based on a word that appears in the audio but misjudges the speaker's actual meaning, for example missing a negation or a change of mind.
Items are built on distractors: the audio mentions the tempting option in a rejected or negated context ("eigentlich wollte ich..., aber..."). Candidates match surface words rather than the full proposition and stop listening after hearing the familiar term.
What to do instead
Train recognition of contrast and negation markers (aber, jedoch, eigentlich, nicht..., sondern, statt). Before choosing, ask what the speaker finally decides or states, and verify against the whole utterance, not a single word.
On Leseverstehen tasks, the candidate reads the questions and options first, then searches the text for matching words and selects the option with the greatest word overlap.
This is a fast but unreliable shortcut; exam texts deliberately paraphrase correct answers and repeat original wording in wrong options. Candidates do it because it feels efficient under time pressure and because they lack confidence in global comprehension.
What to do instead
Read the text once for overall meaning before looking at the items, then locate the relevant passage and compare meaning, not wording. Practise identifying paraphrases (synonyms, nominalisation, changed word order) and marking the exact line in the text that justifies each answer.
When a Leseverstehen item asks for the main idea or the author's purpose, the candidate chooses a detail that is true according to the text but too narrow to be the main point.
True details are attractive because they can be verified in the text, whereas the global statement requires synthesis. Candidates conflate 'correct' with 'answers the question asked'.
What to do instead
Classify each item before answering: detail, inference, main idea, or tone. For global items, check whether the option covers the whole text or only one paragraph, and eliminate options that are true but partial.
In Wortschatz items, the candidate picks the option that sounds similar to a Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian word or to an English word (false friend), e.g. interpreting 'Konzept' or 'bekommen' by analogy.
Transfer from the first language and from English is automatic and fast, and candidates often have passive recognition of a word without knowing its precise meaning or collocations.
What to do instead
Build a personal false-friend list (bekommen, Konzept, sensibel, aktuell, realisieren, Chef) and learn words in collocations and example sentences rather than as isolated translations. For each exam item, insert the chosen word back into the sentence and check that the whole phrase is idiomatic German.
The candidate selects a synonym that fits the general meaning but not the required register, collocation, or grammatical context (e.g. choosing a verb that does not take the preposition or case used in the sentence).
Vocabulary is often learned as a one-to-one translation, so candidates ignore fixed prepositions, case government, and typical partners (eine Entscheidung treffen, sich um etwas kümmern).
What to do instead
Learn nouns with their verbs, adjectives with their prepositions, and verbs with their case. In multiple-choice items, eliminate options that are grammatically incompatible with the surrounding sentence before judging meaning.
In Grammatik gap-fill tasks, the candidate supplies the correct tense or form in isolation but ignores the sentence context, producing a form that is grammatically possible but wrong here (e.g. wrong tense after 'als'/'wenn', wrong article after a preposition).
Candidates memorise paradigms and apply the most familiar form; they do not scan the sentence for triggers such as time expressions, conjunctions, or prepositional case.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed checking routine: identify the trigger word, determine the required case/tense/voice, then write the form. After filling all gaps, reread the whole text to check consistency of tense and subject-verb agreement.
The candidate confuses word-order rules in subordinate and main clauses, placing the finite verb in the wrong position after weil, dass, obwohl, or after an initial adverbial (wrong: 'Gestern ich habe...').
German verb-final and verb-second rules differ sharply from the candidate's first language, and the rules are learned declaratively but not automatised, so they collapse under time pressure.
What to do instead
Drill the two patterns mechanically until automatic: conjunction + subject + ... + finite verb at the end; adverbial first + finite verb + subject. Write ten short sentences daily and mark the verb position visually before checking.
In Kommunikation tasks (situational responses, letters, short messages), the candidate writes or selects a response that is grammatically correct but pragmatically inappropriate: wrong level of formality (du/Sie), missing greeting or closing, or ignoring the register required by the prompt.
Candidates focus on grammar and content points and treat formulaic elements as unimportant; they also transfer informal habits from messaging into formal writing tasks.
What to do instead
Memorise paired templates for formal and informal registers (Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren / Liebe ..., Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Bis bald) and practise identifying from the prompt who is writing to whom. Before submitting, tick off each content point and check the du/Sie choice throughout.
In Kommunikation role-play or response items, the candidate answers only part of the prompt, omitting one of the required speech acts (e.g. accepting an invitation but not proposing a time, or apologising without giving a reason).
Under time pressure candidates write the first plausible reaction and stop, without decomposing the prompt into its required functions; they also misread the situation and respond to an imagined question.
What to do instead
Underline every required element in the prompt (function, topic, register, key information) and number them. Draft one short sentence per element, then combine, and finally verify that each underlined element is explicitly addressed.