Leseverstehen - Reading comprehension
Leseverstehen carries a large share of the reading marks. You meet short authentic-style texts - e-mails, notices, timetables, advertisements, short articles, diary entries - and must show you understood both the overall message and the detail.
Task types
- Richtig/falsch statements on a text.
- Wh-questions answered in German.
- Matching headings or notices to situations.
- Finding synonyms in the text, or completing a table.
Rules that earn marks
- Answer in the language and length asked; a bare Ja rarely earns full marks when the question says Antworte in einem Satz.
- Recycle the text's vocabulary but fit it to the question - if the question is about Anna, change ich to sie and adjust the verb.
- For warum, answer with weil and send the conjugated verb to the end.
- For scan tasks, locate the keyword first, then read one line before and one after; the answer is rarely in the keyword line itself.
- Treat the text as the only truth; do not add everyday knowledge.
Worked example
Text: Anna steht jeden Tag um sechs Uhr auf, weil ihr Zug um Viertel nach sieben fährt. Question: Warum steht Anna so früh auf? Answer: Weil ihr Zug um Viertel nach sieben fährt. Reasoning: warum demands weil; inside a weil clause the verb goes last, so fährt closes the sentence. The time should be taken from the text, and German words (Viertel nach sieben) are safer than digits if the item is prose.
Traps that cost marks
- Accepting a statement because it repeats words from the text, although the text never says it.
- Copying a whole sentence where a short answer was required, wasting minutes.
- Misreading nicht mehr, nur, außer, billiger als.
- Confusing look-alike words: besuchen/bekommen, fahren/erfahren, Stelle/Stelle in different compounds.
- Answering a wann question with a wo phrase.