Galicia PAU German - First Foreign Language common mistakes
Galicia PAU German - First Foreign Language · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Reading the title and first sentence, then answering global-understanding items (main idea, purpose, genre) from that alone, choosing the option that matches the topic rather than the author's actual intention or the text type.
Time pressure pushes candidates to skim only the opening; titles and first lines often set a topic without stating the point, and distractors are built to match the topic while misstating purpose or genre.
What to do instead
Read the whole text once for gist before looking at the options, then write a one-line summary in your own words and check each option against it. For genre/purpose items, ask 'what is this text doing - informing, persuading, inviting, reporting?' and reject options that only restate the subject.
Answering true/false or detail questions by matching a keyword from the question to a keyword in the text, without checking that the surrounding sentence says the same thing (e.g. marking true because 'billig' appears, when the text says 'nicht billig').
Keyword spotting feels efficient and is rewarded by many practice tasks; negations, comparatives, and modal particles (kaum, angeblich, durchaus) are easy to skip when scanning.
What to do instead
Locate the keyword, then read the full sentence plus the one before and after, underlining negation words and quantifiers. For each true/false item, quote the exact phrase in the text that decides it; if you cannot quote it, the answer is not established.
In short-answer items, copying a long stretch of the original sentence verbatim instead of answering the question asked, or giving a one-word answer that omits the required information (e.g. answering 'wann' with a place).
Candidates treat copying as safe and are unsure how much reformulation is expected; they also misread the question word (wann/wo/wer/warum) under time pressure.
What to do instead
Underline the question word first, then answer in a complete but short sentence using your own words where possible (change pronoun and word order). Check that the answer matches the question type: time for wann, place for wo, person for wer, reason for warum.
Filling gaps with a word that fits the meaning but the wrong grammatical form - wrong case after a preposition, wrong verb ending, wrong tense, or an infinitive where a conjugated verb or participle is needed.
Candidates translate the intended meaning from Spanish/Galician and stop at the first plausible lexeme, ignoring the syntactic slot (preposition + case, subject-verb agreement, auxiliary + participle).
What to do instead
After choosing a word, run three checks: (1) what does the preposition or verb govern (case, infinitive with/without zu)? (2) does the verb agree with its subject and match the tense of the surrounding text? (3) is the slot a finite verb, participle, or infinitive? Adjust the form before moving on.
Choosing connectors and modal particles by rough translation (using 'aber' where 'sondern' is required, 'weil' where 'denn' or 'deshalb' fits, or 'auch' where 'sogar' is meant), producing sentences that are grammatically possible but logically wrong.
Spanish/Galician 'pero', 'porque', 'también' each cover several German options; candidates map one-to-one and ignore the syntactic consequence (sondern after negation, weil sends the verb to the end, denn keeps normal order).
What to do instead
Learn connectors in pairs with their trigger: 'nicht X, sondern Y'; 'weil/obwohl/da' + verb-final; 'denn/aber/und' + normal order; 'deshalb/deswegen' + inversion. In the exam, check the word order after the connector - if it is wrong for your choice, pick the other connector.
Writing the guided composition as a list of short, disconnected sentences with no paragraphing, no linking words, and no reference to all the bullet points in the prompt.
Candidates write sentence by sentence, translating from Spanish, and run out of time before covering the last point; they also believe short sentences are safer than complex ones.
What to do instead
Spend two minutes planning: number the prompt's points and jot one idea for each, then write one paragraph per group of points. Start sentences with connectors (Zunächst, Außerdem, Allerdings, Zum Schluss) and join at least half of them with a subordinate clause. Before finishing, tick off each prompt point in the margin.
Producing a functional text (email, message, note) with the wrong conventions: no salutation or closing, informal 'du' in a formal context (or 'Sie' with a friend), missing subject line, or an email written as an essay.
Candidates focus on content and forget that the register and layout are part of the task; German conventions (Liebe/Lieber + first name, Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Betreff) differ from Spanish habits.
What to do instead
Memorise two templates: informal (Hallo/Liebe X, ... Viele Grüße/Liebe Grüße, dein/deine) and formal (Sehr geehrte Frau X / Sehr geehrter Herr X, ... Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Ihr/Ihre). Check the task for who you are writing to, and keep the register consistent throughout - no mixing du and Sie.
In mediation or reformulation tasks, translating word for word from the source instead of conveying the message, so the target text keeps Spanish/Galician syntax (long sentences, passive where German prefers active, literal idioms) and loses the required information.
Candidates equate mediation with translation and try to preserve every word; they also lack ready phrases for reporting and summarising in German.
What to do instead
Read the source, note the key facts in bullet points in German, then write from the bullets without looking back at the source. Use reporting frames (In der E-Mail steht, dass ...; Laut dem Text ...; Die Person möchte wissen, ob ...) and split long sentences. Check afterwards that every required fact is present, not that every word is translated.
Treating German-speaking countries as one culture: assuming Berlin is the only relevant city, mixing up Austrian/Swiss/German conventions (greetings, forms of address, food, holidays, spelling like ß vs ss), or inventing facts about customs and institutions.
Textbooks often centre on Germany; candidates generalise from one example and guess when a cultural item appears, rather than using what the text itself states.
What to do instead
Build a short fact sheet per country (capital, a few cities, one or two festivals, typical foods, forms of address, ß/ss in Switzerland). In the exam, answer cultural items from the text first; only use background knowledge to confirm, never to override what the passage says.
Misjudging register and text conventions in comprehension items - treating an informal chat message, a formal letter, and a news report as interchangeable, or missing irony and politeness markers (e.g. 'Könnten Sie vielleicht ...' read as a command).
Candidates read for information only and ignore markers such as du/Sie, greetings, modal particles, and sentence length that signal text type and tone; irony and indirect requests are rarely practised.
What to do instead
Before answering, identify the sender, recipient, and medium, and highlight register markers (du/Sie, first names vs titles, greetings, modal particles like doch/mal/ja). For tone items, ask whether the wording is direct or softened, and match the option that names the same relationship and intention.