Reading comprehension (Leseverstehen)
What Leseverstehen tests
Leseverstehen tests how you read different text types - notices, emails, articles, reports, stories - for different purposes. The exam distinguishes global reading (main idea, purpose, audience), selective reading (specific facts, figures, names) and detailed reading (inference, attitude, implied meaning). Typical formats are multiple choice, true/false/not given, matching headings to paragraphs, completing tables and short answers. The texts are often longer than classroom exercises, so you need a strategy rather than word-by-word translation.
Core rules
- Start with the task, not the text: know what information you need before you read.
- Skim first for the gist: title, first and last sentences of paragraphs, and any visuals. Then scan for names, numbers or key nouns.
- Distinguish stated, implied and not given. If the text does not support a statement, it is not true just because it sounds logical.
- Use reference words (this, they, it, such) to track what a sentence is really about.
- For matching headings, find the paragraph’s main idea, not a repeated word.
- For multiple choice, eliminate two options with clear evidence, then compare the remaining two against the exact wording.
Worked example
Passage: ‘The town library has extended its opening hours until 8 p.m. on weekdays. Staff say the change was requested by students preparing for exams. The weekend timetable remains unchanged.’ Question: The library is now open longer at weekends. True / False / Not given? Reasoning: The passage says the weekend timetable ‘remains unchanged’, so the statement is false, not ‘not given’. The extension applies to weekdays. A careless reader might see ‘extended’ and choose true; the detail ‘weekend’ is the trap.
Traps
- Choosing an answer because it repeats vocabulary from the text while ignoring the grammar or qualifier.
- Treating ‘not given’ as ‘false’. False means the text contradicts the statement; not given means the text is silent.
- Over-inferring: the answer must be supported by the text, not by your general knowledge.
- Spending too long on one unknown word. Use context and word formation to guess, then move on.
- In short-answer tasks, copying a whole sentence when the question asks for a specific detail.