Madrid PAU German (Alemán II) (Spain Madrid PAU) common mistakes
Madrid PAU German (Alemán II) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
In the reading-comprehension section, the candidate answers with a word copied verbatim from the text that merely looks similar to what the question asks (e.g. a distractor noun from the same paragraph) instead of a phrase that actually answers the question posed.
Under time pressure the candidate scans for keyword overlap and treats lexical coincidence as evidence of the answer, without re-reading the stem to check what is being asked (cause, agent, contrast, or quantity).
What to do instead
Before looking at the text, underline the question word in the stem (wer, was, warum, wann, wie viele, welche Person). Then locate the sentence containing the keyword and read the whole sentence plus the one before it, and write the answer as a short paraphrase rather than a copy. Practise with true/false-plus-justification items in which the justification must come from a different sentence than the one containing the keyword.
The candidate treats a 'justify your answer' item as a yes/no question, writing nur 'Ja' or 'Nein' or 'richtig/falsch' without quoting or paraphrasing the passage.
In Spanish school practice, justification is often implicit; the candidate does not realise that the PAU marking scheme awards points separately for the decision and for the textual evidence.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed two-part template: decision + 'Im Text steht: ...' with a short quotation or paraphrase and the line number. Rehearse on past-style texts until the quotation habit is automatic, and check that the quoted fragment genuinely supports the decision rather than merely mentioning the topic.
In the lexicon/grammar section the candidate fills gaps by translating the Spanish word in their head and choosing the German word with the closest dictionary meaning, ignoring case, preposition government, or the verb's required reflexive pronoun.
Vocabulary is stored as Spanish-German pairs without the grammatical frame (e.g. 'sich freuen auf + Akk.', 'abhängen von + Dat.', 'jemandem helfen'), so the chosen word is semantically right but syntactically wrong.
What to do instead
Build vocabulary cards that always include the frame: verb + preposition + case, or noun + article + plural. When checking an answer, verify three things separately: meaning, case, and preposition. Do a dedicated drill on the ~30 most frequent verbs with fixed prepositions (warten auf, sich interessieren für, sich beschäftigen mit, teilnehmen an, sich erinnern an).
The candidate writes subordinate clauses with the finite verb in second position ('...weil ich habe keine Zeit') or puts the conjugated verb before the subject after an initial adverbial ('Gestern ich ging...').
The candidate composes German sentences with Spanish word order, applying the Spanish rule that the subject follows the adverb and that subordinate clauses keep normal order, because German verb-final and verb-second rules have not been automatised.
What to do instead
Drill the two rules as mechanical transformations: take a main clause and convert it with weil/dass/ob/wenn/als, moving the finite verb to the end; take a statement and front a time or place expression, keeping verb-second. Write ten sentences of each pattern per session and read them aloud, since the error is easier to hear than to see.
The candidate confuses the tenses and moods that carry the most marks: using Präteritum where Perfekt is expected in speech, forming the Perfekt with 'haben' for verbs of motion, or writing Konjunktiv II forms as 'würde sein' or 'wenn ich wäre' instead of 'wäre'/'hätte'.
The candidate learns paradigms as lists rather than as choices tied to register and function, and Spanish has no direct equivalent of the German Präteritum/Perfekt split in spoken narrative.
What to do instead
Memorise the small closed set: sein/haben/werden and the modals in Präteritum, the 'sein'-taking motion and change-of-state verbs (gehen, fahren, kommen, aufstehen, bleiben, werden, passieren), and the irregular Konjunktiv II forms (wäre, hätte, würde, könnte, müsste, ginge, käme). Apply them in short guided-writing tasks where the context (spoken report vs. written narrative vs. hypothetical) is stated explicitly.
In the written-production task the candidate ignores the required text type and register, writing a single unstructured block for what is asked as a formal email, a letter of complaint, or an opinion piece, and mixing 'du' and 'Sie' within the same text.
The candidate focuses entirely on grammar and vocabulary and treats the prompt's genre and addressee as decoration, because Spanish writing instruction often emphasises content over text-type conventions.
What to do instead
Before writing, spend two minutes on a skeleton: salutation appropriate to the addressee, opening sentence stating purpose, two or three body points, closing formula, signature. Fix the register once (Sie for formal, du for informal) and keep it throughout. Learn one model opening and closing per text type so the frame is pre-memorised and the exam time goes to content.
The candidate exceeds or falls short of the required word count and pads with memorised filler ('Meiner Meinung nach ist das ein sehr interessantes Thema, weil es viele verschiedene Aspekte hat') instead of developing the prompt's specific points.
The candidate has no reliable sense of how long 120-150 words is in German and has memorised generic phrases as a safety net, so content coverage is sacrificed to length management.
What to do instead
Count words on three of your own practice texts to calibrate the visual length of 120-150 words. Plan one sentence per required point plus a short introduction and conclusion, which usually lands in range naturally. Replace filler with concrete detail: a reason, an example, or a contrast, each tied to the prompt.
The candidate transfers Spanish punctuation and capitalisation conventions into German: no capital letter on nouns, Spanish-style opening question marks, or commas placed by Spanish rules in infinitive and subordinate clauses.
These habits are deeply automatic in the candidate's first language and are rarely taught as separate skills, so they survive even when grammar and vocabulary are strong.
What to do instead
Do a dedicated proofreading pass that looks only at capitalisation of nouns and sentence-initial words, then a second pass that looks only at commas before dass/weil/wenn/aber and before zu + infinitive. Keep a personal error log from marked work and check the same five items every time rather than re-reading for general impression.
In the culture section the candidate answers from general knowledge about Europe or from stereotypes, for example treating all German-speaking countries as having the same school system, the same head of state, or the same official language situation.
The candidate has learned 'German culture' as a single undifferentiated block and does not distinguish the Federal Republic's federal structure, Austria's parliamentary republic, and Switzerland's confederation and multilingualism.
What to do instead
Build a comparison table with one column per country (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and rows for head of state, political system, number of federal units, official languages, main religious and regional divides, and one or two landmark cultural institutions. Learn each fact attached to its country and verify any claim that starts with 'in the German-speaking world' by asking which country specifically.
The candidate confuses culture-section proper names and dates, mixing authors, composers, and historical events across countries and centuries (e.g. attributing Goethe to Austria, placing the fall of the Berlin Wall in the wrong decade, or confusing the First and Second World Wars' dates).
Names and dates are learned as isolated items without a chronological or national frame, so similar-sounding items collapse into each other under exam pressure.
What to do instead
Anchor each name to three tags: country, century, and one work or event. Draw a single timeline from 1871 to the present with the key caesuras (1914, 1918/19, 1933, 1945, 1949, 1961, 1989, 1990) and place literary and political items on it. Test yourself by covering the tags and reciting all three for each name.