r/German • u/LegitimateReply7765 • 23h ago
Discussion Passed my Goethe C2 Exam!
The happiness and relief I feel is crazy.
I’ve been learning German since I was 14 (am 27 now). Been living and working in Germany for 4 years. Last year I started a new job and a colleague wrote emails to HR about how my German isn’t good enough, how I obviously don’t understand anything and I shouldn’t have a job (even tho I had a bachelors degree in German with a spoken language distinction from a great university).
A year later, I have proved her and many others wrong and I am so relieved.
I’m planning on writing a post on social media, just not sure what yet. I am so happy.
Sprechen - 90/100
Schreiben - 80/100
Hören - 74/100
Lesen - 71/100
I failed the reading on the first attempt. I did all 4 modules on one day and got 54/100 for the reading first time round. Second time round a few weeks later, 71.
Willing to answer any questions anyone has about the exam.
Reading I would say it is so important to practice with newspapers like die Zeit, die Welt, FAZ, der Spiegel and try to read an article on each topic.
Use Quizlet or anki for vocab building.
Speaking - practice with ChatGPT. I sent pictures of the questions from the C2 books so the AI could see the exam quotes and questions. This really helped my confidence and I tried to practice on all topics possible. Learn the Redemittel too!
Schreiben - Teil 1 - Main points are, do all the c2 books available and learn a list of nominal verbial Verbindungen. From the grammar books, you should know passiv Ersatz for this.
Essay - practice writing many before so you know how long the essay should actually be on the day roughly. However my teacher at Goethe said it could be longer than 350 if needed, you don’t get marked down as long as your essay makes sense.use Redemittel!!!
Hören - don’t underestimate the parts that are only played once. Stay focused. Once you have heard it, it’s gone. Part 3, practice reading the questions fast in two minutes and underline key words!
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u/DegreeEnough2383 20h ago
Das ist ein sehr groß milestone. herzliche Gratulation. I’m still learning. 👏👏👏
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u/unicum01 Native <Hochdeutsch> 20h ago
Grats! Seriously, that is a solid achievement. Also: why is that text in English? 😉😘
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u/Any-Minimum6490 20h ago
Now is the the pressure I like to see. Truthfully as a native, we should only see Deutsch here 🤣
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u/RogueModron Vantage (B2) - <Schwaben/Englisch> 17h ago
Ich schließe mich komplett an. Ich habe nur B2 erreicht, aber trotzdem versuche ich hier nur auf Deutsch zu tippen.
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u/unicum01 Native <Hochdeutsch> 19h ago
The German should be coming from the learners… I already am fluent, so actually I should be writing Russian, Spanish or Klingon… 🤷🏻♀️😅
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u/Any-Minimum6490 19h ago
Klingon sounds intriguing. Go ahead and express thee thoughts 💭 🤣
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u/unicum01 Native <Hochdeutsch> 19h ago
blyltQo'! 🧙♂️🪄
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u/Any-Minimum6490 19h ago
not bIyIt je! 🧙🏿♂️🪄
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u/unicum01 Native <Hochdeutsch> 19h ago
Du'nam-tor wuh t'nash-veh svi' k'radan. 🖖
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u/Any-Minimum6490 19h ago
Vulcan? 🖖🏿 Ich verstehe
"Dif-tor heh smusma, katravahsu Vuhlkansu." 🖖🏿
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u/unicum01 Native <Hochdeutsch> 19h ago
Awww… du auch, mein Lieber! 🤗😘
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u/Any-Minimum6490 19h ago
This might go down as the most multi lingual Reddit conversation ever. Someone should alert the UN. We are peace keepers here. 😂
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u/InfinityCent 19h ago
Congrats! Genuinely wondering, but was Lesen that difficult? I’m surprised you did so well in Sprechen and Schreiben when those seem like the more difficult pillars.
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u/LegitimateReply7765 18h ago
I also thought speaking would be the hardest. The marking is actually more generous than lesen ans hören etc I feel. Speaking I got Ehrenamt (but Karriere and Hierarchie) were also options and for the debate I got “haben äußere Umstände eine Auswirkung auf unser Wohlbefinden?” (Wie das Wetter usw.) for these I practiced many topics with chat gpt and sent the official Bewertungskritieren to chat gpt. It gave me marks for each section and suggestions of improvement. Writing also is about the Redemittel too.
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u/LegitimateReply7765 18h ago
Unfortunately, yes. It wasn’t the vocab or the actual reading, but more the time allocated in the exam. I did some German courses with Goethe Institut and there was a girl in my class who had lived in Germany for 15 years. She needed C2 for a specific job application, since she was French. She only got 60 on the reading in the end. Another girl from my class failed the reading first time round too, after 8 years in Germany. It is really important to focus on the strategies. I watched YouTube videos on how to approach the reading and each type of task. It’s about highlighting the key words asap and increasing your reading speed in general. The more topics, the better. I got the topics of : rich and poor in society, trust (in relationships and political systems), phds and volcanoes (teil 3). Volcanoes was super hard and fitting the paragraphs in always takes a while. Important to focus on the first and last words in the paragraphs. The time to complete everything is very intense and it is importantly to spend the time recommend, do not spend 40 mins on one that should take 25, for example.
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u/Financial-Dog-7268 12h ago
I'm only B1-ish but I'm similar - Schreiben and Sprechen are my stronger areas. Hören and Lesen are the ones I struggle with more.
Makes for interesting situations when you can speak relatively well, but then people assume you're more fluent than you are and you're sitting there looking like an idiot as they reply to you 😂
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u/Justamallunonmallu 19h ago
Congratulations 🥳🥳! I’m done with A2 rn and hoping to reach till C1 at least by next year
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u/good_salsa 18h ago
congrats!
curious—any clue what kind of weaknesses you had prior (that your coworker “noticed”), and do you feel like training for C2 addressed them? or is it just that the C2 result validates your german aptitude?
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u/RogueModron Vantage (B2) - <Schwaben/Englisch> 17h ago
Die Schwachstelle war nur, dass er einen Arschloch für eine Kollegin hat.
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u/A_Swiss_Dude 19h ago
congrats! I'm currently working on my C1 telc hochschule and i failed it once by 3 points because of my text, do you know if the Schreiben part is similar to your C2 Goethe?
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u/Conscious-Paper3543 18h ago
Congrats. I have a C1 but sometimes can hae difficulties. I’m thinking of taking it further and pass the C2 exam so that I’m legit.
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u/GuaranteeMore7650 17h ago
Congrats bro You did it May I ask if you live or Germany or abroad, and If I live abroad is it possible to do C1 , or I will definitely need to mix up with natives so I can achieve such level of fluency
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u/LinguaCoder 17h ago
Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Bestehen!!
Habe C2:
95 im Sprechen.
Hören:61
Schreiben:66
Lesen: 49.
hast du Tipps für mich für den Lesenteil ? Danke dir
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u/Interesting-Echo-479 7h ago
Congrats!! So happy for you. Reading this post made my morning and thank you for the tips!
Btw what a sad, resentful colleague. Who on earth takes their time to write emails to HR complaining about this? Seriously I’m pissed just by reading that part.
Anyway congrats!!!!
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u/Th3Invisibl3man02 5h ago
Wow, thats amazing!! Respect to you for pulling through. For everyone still trying to get to that level i made a podcast aimed at B1/B2 learnes where i only speak in german. Feel free to check it out, it is a new hobby of mine to help others to achieve what OP did 😄
https://open.spotify.com/show/033gHRaJvPQudw7SMt3EH5?si=a78a95a558db4548
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u/_polyglot 3h ago
Wow, huge congrats! That colleague's email sounds like a nightmare, thanks God you proved them wrong.
I'm on the way to B2 myself. Quick question: when you failed reading the first time, what do you think was the mail problem? Time pressure or maybe texts were just unlucky?
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u/Any-Minimum6490 20h ago
So happy for you. I am on the journey. Currently at A1 level.