I PASSED the Goethe C1 German Exam! 🇩🇪 My Experience, Tips & What’s Next

Summary

The creator celebrates passing the Goethe-Zertifikat C1 exam after nearly two years of studying German. It was her first German-language exam. She reflects on her results, what she found difficult, and how she hopes to keep improving. In hindsight, she thinks taking exams at intermediate levels before attempting C1 might have reduced the pressure.

Exam Results and Reflections

Listening: 70/100

She plans to keep listening to podcasts and everyday German. Since she lives in Germany and expects to go to Austria, she also wants to become more familiar with regional accents, including Austrian, Swiss German, and southern German varieties.

Reading: 70/100

Although she usually considers reading one of her strengths, she had not practiced it enough and felt very anxious during the exam. She plans to read more news articles, work through a book focused on reading practice, and gradually explore German literature—even when she does not understand everything.

Speaking: 83/100

She was surprised that her speaking score was higher than her listening and reading scores. She wants to speak German more often, make more videos in German, and record herself for practice.

Feedback from German speakers has highlighted the need to distinguish the ü and u sounds and improve word order (Satzbau). During the exam, she paid closer attention to word order than she usually does in casual speech.

Writing: 84/100

This was another unexpectedly strong result. She wants to write more often, produce more complex texts, and expand her vocabulary. Her proposed routine is to choose a topic every week or two, research it in German, learn around 20 related words, and write a text of roughly 500 words.

In the exam, she wrote substantially more than the required word counts—about 350 words for the first task and around 60 words over the target in the other. This left no time to proofread, so it was important to get the writing right on the first attempt.

Broader Lessons and Next Steps

Looking back, she recognizes how far she has come. When she first arrived, she struggled to understand forms, airport information, and other everyday German. Her progress required sustained effort, and there were periods when she doubted she could succeed.

She expresses gratitude to her parents, friends, and viewers for supporting and encouraging her. She also plans to share a detailed video about how she studied German and another about her progress in Spanish.

People and Learning Materials Mentioned

• Speaker: The video’s creator and narrator.
• People mentioned: German speakers who have given her language feedback, as well as her parents, friends, and subscribers. They are mentioned but do not speak in the subtitles.
• Learning materials: German podcasts, news articles, a prospective reading-practice book, and German literature.