Madrid PAU German (Alemán II) (Spain Madrid PAU) common mistakes
Madrid PAU German (Alemán II) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
When asked to justify an answer to a reading question in Spanish (or in German, depending on the option chosen), the candidate either gives no textual evidence at all or copies a long paragraph that contains the answer somewhere inside it, instead of locating and quoting the one or two sentences that actually prove the point.
Under time pressure candidates treat the justification as a formality and dump the nearest block of text. They also confuse 'citing' with 'summarising', because in class they were often only asked to explain in their own words.
What to do instead
Practise the two-sentence rule: one short quote copied verbatim from the text (with line number if the exam numbers lines) plus one clause of your own saying what it proves. For every past paper question, underline the exact proof sentence first, then write. Check that removing your quote would make the justification collapse - if the answer survives without it, the quote was not evidence.
The candidate answers a true/false or multiple-choice reading item correctly but justifies it with information that is only implied, or with general world knowledge about Germany, rather than with what the text states. Conversely, they mark a statement false only because it is not mentioned, instead of because the text contradicts it.
Candidates do not distinguish 'not stated' from 'false', and they let plausible real-world facts (e.g. that Oktoberfest is in Munich) override the passage, which may say something different or say nothing at all.
What to do instead
Before answering, label each option as S (stated), C (contradicted) or N (not in text). Only 'false' may be justified by a C, never by an N. Train with short texts where one option is true, one is contradicted and one is merely absent, and force yourself to write S/C/N next to each before choosing.
In the grammar section the candidate fills gaps with the verb tense that 'sounds right' in Spanish, producing errors such as 'Ich habe nach Berlin gefahren' for a completed past action, 'Wenn ich Zeit hätte, ich komme' without the required word order, or using Präteritum in spoken-register dialogues where Perfekt is expected.
Spanish has one simple past and a freer subject-verb order, so the mental grammar transfers directly. Candidates also memorise tense tables without the register rules (Perfekt in speech, Präteritum in narrative and with sein/haben/modals).
What to do instead
Build a contrast sheet of five sentence pairs (Spanish vs German) for each tense and drill the trigger words: gestern/letzte Woche + Perfekt in dialogue, als + Präteritum in narration, seit + present tense. For word order, memorise the position rules as a slot diagram (Position 1 – Verb – Mittelfeld – Verbend) and rewrite ten sentences a day from Spanish into German checking each slot.
The candidate mishandles the case system in fixed expressions and prepositions, writing 'mit dem Auto' correctly but then 'wegen dem Regen', 'ich helfe dir' as 'ich helfe dich', or forgetting the accusative after 'es gibt' and 'ohne'.
Prepositions and verbs are learned as vocabulary with a Spanish translation but without their case government, and the dative/accusative distinction is invisible in Spanish pronoun objects (le/lo). Candidates rely on feel, which defaults to accusative.
What to do instead
Learn every verb and preposition with its case attached as part of the entry (helfen + Dat., warten auf + Akk., wegen + Gen.). Keep a running list of the ~40 most frequent dative verbs and the two-way prepositions with a movement/location test. Do gap-fill drills where only the article ending is blanked, so the case decision is isolated from vocabulary.
In the writing task the candidate produces a text that answers the prompt but ignores the genre conventions: a formal letter to a language school opens with 'Hallo' and closes with 'Tschüss', an opinion piece has no structuring connectives, and the required word count is missed by 30–40 words in either direction.
Candidates prepare content but not text-type templates, and they write whatever flows rather than planning against the rubric. They also do not count words during the exam because they fear wasting time.
What to do instead
Memorise three skeletons - formal email (Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren / Mit freundlichen Grüßen), semi-formal message to a friend (Hallo …, Liebe Grüße), and opinion text (Einleitung – zwei Argumente mit einerseits/andererseits/außerdem – Schluss). Before writing, note the required length and the three content points from the prompt in the margin; after writing, count words in blocks of ten and add or cut one sentence to land inside the range.
The candidate writes long, ambitious sentences with subordinate clauses and then loses control of verb placement and agreement, producing errors like 'Ich denke, dass ich kann besser Deutsch lernen' or 'weil ich habe keine Zeit'.
The desire to show range leads to structures the candidate has not automatised. Under cognitive load, the conjugated verb is placed where Spanish would put it.
What to do instead
Adopt a rule of controlled ambition: use subordinate clauses only with a fixed frame you have drilled (Ich bin der Meinung, dass … / Obwohl …, …). Practise ten 'weil/dass/obwohl' sentences daily where you physically write the verb at the end first, then fill the middle. In the exam, prefer two clear main clauses over one broken subordinate clause.
The candidate reuses the wording of the reading passage verbatim in the writing or summary task, lifting whole sentences instead of reformulating them, and produces a text that reads as copied rather than composed.
Copying feels safe and saves time, and candidates lack paraphrase strategies such as nominalisation, synonym substitution and changing voice.
What to do instead
Practise three paraphrase moves on any sentence: swap the verb (sagen → erklären/betonen), turn a verb into a noun or vice versa (weil es teuer ist → wegen der hohen Kosten), and change active to passive. Do a drill where you summarise a 120-word text in 40 words without reusing any content word from the original.
In the sociocultural section the candidate attributes a custom or institution to the wrong country or region - placing the Fasnacht carnival only in Bavaria, treating 'Schulpflicht' as identical across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, or confusing the German and Austrian school-leaving qualifications.
Study materials often present 'German-speaking culture' as a single block centred on Germany, and candidates generalise from one documentary or textbook chapter. Austria and Switzerland appear only briefly in most courses.
What to do instead
Build a three-column comparison table (Deutschland / Österreich / Schweiz) for political system, school system and calendar customs, and fill it only from official sources (bmbwf.gv.at, eda.admin.ch, bundesregierung.de). For each item you revise, state the country explicitly; if you cannot, mark it as unknown rather than guessing.
The candidate treats the Landeskunde items as a general knowledge quiz and answers from stereotypes - for example assuming all Germans drink beer at every meal, that 'Kaffee und Kuchen' is a formal state occasion, or that the current federal chancellor or a recent election result is whatever they last heard, without checking the date of the fact.
Stereotypes are memorable and are reinforced by advertising and by simplified textbook culture boxes. Political facts also change, and candidates revise from undated notes.
What to do instead
For every cultural fact you learn, attach a source and a date, and separate 'custom' from 'current fact'. Keep a one-page 'current facts' sheet (federal president, chancellor, governing coalition, date of the last Bundestag election) that you re-verify a week before the exam on an official site. Reject any statement you cannot source.
The candidate runs out of time because they spend too long on the reading passage, then rushes the writing task and leaves the grammar section half-finished or unrevised, with no time to check endings, capitalisation of nouns and comma placement before subordinate clauses.
Reading feels productive and low-risk, so candidates over-invest there; they also have no rehearsed time allocation and no revision routine, so checking is left to chance.
What to do instead
Rehearse a fixed clock: for a 90-minute paper, roughly 25 minutes reading, 25 grammar, 35 writing, 5 final check. In the last five minutes run a checklist in a fixed order - noun capitalisation, verb at the end of subordinate clauses, subject-verb agreement, adjective endings, comma before dass/weil/obwohl. Do at least two full timed mock papers so the allocation becomes automatic.