Online Degrees and CLEP and DSST Exam Prep Discussion
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German Study Help? - PonyGirl93 - 04-28-2010

Soo... in the short time that I've been done with CLEPs, I have become bored to death!! Not for lack of chores, etc., but for some intellectual stimulation beyond reading. I never had this problem before: CLEPs have ruined me!! lol. So anyway, I have decided to take the plunge & really dedicate myself to learning German. I love the language, but I always get in a rut about half-way through German 2-level stuff. Anyone have recommendations of children's books, websites, textbooks, etc to help me? Don't even speak about Rosetta Stone, I tried that & hated it!! My knowledge is extremely sporadic & unbalanced (my vocab skills faaaaar advance my grammar skills), so I need some serious technical help :willynilly:

Anyone?

German Study Help? - wb.john - 04-28-2010

I like to use Livemocha to find people to practice with. I use Anki to review vocabulary. Smile

German Study Help? - NAP - 04-29-2010

Hi!

I am so excited to read your post! After I take the French CLEP next year, I would like to start studying for the German CLEP.

I have not looked at study materials, yet, but while I was shopping for French materials, I noticed some possibilities.

German – A Self-Teaching Guide by Wiley (I really liked their book for Chemistry basics.)
German for Dummies (different levels and audio)
German Demystified
Teach Yourself German series from McGraw Hill

Also, check German Language CLEP Study Guide He found an excellent website for French.

I thought learner.org had a video series for German, but I was not able to find it on their website today. I am using the series for French.

I did find that Pass Your Class/Ace the CLEP has a guide for the German and French CLEPs. I decided to go with an AP guide by REA for French – thicker book with audio. I don’t know if I will try the German CLEP guide or an AP guide.

I don’t have any concrete information to share about books. When I am ready to study for this, I was planning to look up the books at Amazon and read all of the reviews.

I hope you will get more suggestions and find what you need to be successful. Please let me know what works best for you, and keep us posted on your progress.

German Study Help? - NAP - 04-30-2010

Another thought:

If you are good at having conversations in German, consider the ACTFL. It would give you an opportunity to earn upper-level credits. It is an ACE approved program. I have also read that it does not duplicate CLEP credit. I don’t know what TESC’s policy is about this exam, though.

There is more information at the bottom of this post -

http://www.degreeforum.net/general-education-testing-discussion/6508-foreign-language-fluency-how-get-lots.html

German Study Help? - MacX - 04-30-2010

Hey, I took and passed the German CLEP - 79. But well I am German and I missed one question because I got distracted by someone freaking out in the testing center Big Grin

What I can tell you about my personal experience from the test is the following:

The listening section I would imagine rather difficult without the proper knowledge, you need a pretty broad vocab, the grammar is not as important as you might think.

Most of the questions make the impression, they are taken out of the things tourists would say. "Tim fragt Steffi :In welche Richtung ist der Bahnhof?" (Tim asks Steffi: In which direction is the train station) And the question would go something like this(all options in German)

(A)"Moechte Tim wissen, ob Steffi den Bahnhof sucht?" (Does tim want to know if steffi is looking for the train station?)

(B)"Hat Tim Interesse mit dem Zug zu reisen?" (Is tim interested in traveling with a train) --Yes he is

Then theres C and D. So as you can see mostly they will not ask for a "translation" or restatement of the question as "Fragt tim steffi wo der Bahnhof ist?" (Is tim asking steffi where the train station is?) They wont make it that easy.
The answers that are correct are more along the line of this string of thought --> if tim is asking for the location of the train station, what will he probably intend to do with this knowledge, not just go there, but much rather "he intends to travel, etc".

The multiple choice type is basically the same as the listening. They will give you a sentence "Sebastian lebt in Muenchen und will den Sommer in New York verbringen"(Sebastian lives in Munic and wants to spend the summer in New York). The Question-Answer section would look like this :

"Wenn Sebastian nach Amerika reisen moechte braucht er" (If sebastian wants to travel to America he will need :

(A) Eine Zugroute (A train rout)
(B) Ein Auto (A car)
© Eine Karte von Europa (A map of europe)
(D) Ein Flugzeugticket (An airplane ticket)

Some of the questions are very ridiculous, but if you just miss some of the important vocab for some of the questions even deduction skills wont do you any good. For this question if you recognize "Amerika" in the question and realize that "Muenchen" is a city in Germany, you only have to know "Flugzeugticket" to find the obvious answer.


I cannot really give you any learning advice, only my insight of this test. I was raised Bilingual, so i did not really have to "learn" any of the two languages.

What my father did to learn German, he read the newspaper specifically the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)" maybe you can google it.
This is about the hardest thing to read in German, it is even to much for some Germans (if they are retarded uneducated people).
BUT if you can read and understand half of what is going on in the "FAZ" I guarantee you, you will score at least a 65 on the test, if not, I will pay for your Clep fees Wink

P.s. If you want to know anything else, or maybe chat !in german! i'd be glad to help. My email is maxpowell90@yahoo.de
P.s.s. Its just until may 5 I wont have any time, I got a Statistics and Macro Eco Final Mon/Tues and I will try to CLEP (and miserably fail) College Algebra. I gotta try before this semester and with all my finals I had know time to study and i am so lazy as it is...

German Study Help? - PonyGirl93 - 05-01-2010

Thanks, everybody [: Right now I'm not focusing on studying for the test, I really just want to learn the language. However, if I succeed I will definitely look into all of those testing options Smile

@MacX... I googled FAZ & there's no way I understand half of that stuff!! Maybe, maybe 1/5, on a good day Wink lol I still have to be armed with my dictionary to fully understand children's books Big Grin

German Study Help? - Yenisei - 05-03-2010

I took the German CLEP back when I was stationed in Germany, and I would agree that the listening section is the most difficult part- try to find some streaming news broadcasts to get your ears accustomed to hearing the language.

I did fine on the CLEP, and you don't have to be bilingual (although it obviously helps).

If you want to learn German, deutschewelle.de is a fantastic resource (you can read the news in German and many other languages) and they have some language learning resources as well- look for "German Courses" on the left-hand pane on the homepage. You can choose the German language news in the upper right hand corner dropdown menu "Choose from 30 Languages".

As far as a book recommendation, check out Modern German Grammar on Amazon.

One last thing- the Frankfurter Allgemeine is considered notoriously difficult to read, even by Germans. Having a business/economics background makes it quite a bit easier.

German Study Help? - PonyGirl93 - 05-03-2010

Yenisei Wrote:I took the German CLEP back when I was stationed in Germany, and I would agree that the listening section is the most difficult part- try to find some streaming news broadcasts to get your ears accustomed to hearing the language.

I did fine on the CLEP, and you don't have to be bilingual (although it obviously helps).

If you want to learn German, deutschewelle.de is a fantastic resource (you can read the news in German and many other languages) and they have some language learning resources as well- look for "German Courses" on the left-hand pane on the homepage. You can choose the German language news in the upper right hand corner dropdown menu "Choose from 30 Languages".

As far as a book recommendation, check out Modern German Grammar on Amazon.

One last thing- the Frankfurter Allgemeine is considered notoriously difficult to read, even by Germans. Having a business/economics background makes it quite a bit easier.

Thanks!!

I have listened to the Radio D drama/podcast thingy before (& just started re-listening), & was just planning to look at the rest of the deutschewelle site, good to know that it's good Big Grin

Just got all my childrens books in at the library, can't wait to dig in Big Grin Big Grin

German Study Help? - Yenisei - 05-04-2010

There's a really fantastic German-English dictionary online at LEO Deutsch-Englisches Wörterbuch. You'll find it invaluable when reading the news online.

German Study Help? - CLEP_enthusiast - 07-21-2012

I think you're absolutely spot-on. My research also had led to me to the fact the German CLEP is mostly focused on the listening and unless you've been in a class where it's total immersion you really have to prepare thoroughly.

Thanks to the previous poster and Mac for sharing that German question. I'm excited to take the CLEP and if I do take it, it won't be months down the line after I can listen to at least 80-90 hours of German news. I'd venture to guess if one can nail the listening section, you're probably guaranteed to pass the test. Also, CLEP recommends 12 credits if you can get a 60 score. Really worth studying for!

Question: In the listening section are the questions verbal or are just the possible answers written on the screen?

Yenisei Wrote:I took the German CLEP back when I was stationed in Germany, and I would agree that the listening section is the most difficult part- try to find some streaming news broadcasts to get your ears accustomed to hearing the language.

I did fine on the CLEP, and you don't have to be bilingual (although it obviously helps).

If you want to learn German, deutschewelle.de is a fantastic resource (you can read the news in German and many other languages) and they have some language learning resources as well- look for "German Courses" on the left-hand pane on the homepage. You can choose the German language news in the upper right hand corner dropdown menu "Choose from 30 Languages".

As far as a book recommendation, check out Modern German Grammar on Amazon.

One last thing- the Frankfurter Allgemeine is considered notoriously difficult to read, even by Germans. Having a business/economics background makes it quite a bit easier.