CLEP German Language (Levels 1 and 2) Exam

The CLEP: German Language examination was developed by the College Board as a way for individuals to demonstrate undergraduate-level knowledge and skills in this area. Almost three thousand American colleges give credit to students who pass a CLEP exam; for this reason, many college-bound students take a CLEP exam in order to skip over introductory courses.

The content of the exam is broken down as follows: understanding spoken language through short stimuli or everyday situations (15% of the exam); understanding the language as spoken by native speakers in longer dialogues and narratives (25%); mastering the meaning of words and idiomatic expressions in the context of sentences and paragraphs (18%); identifying usage that is structurally correct and appropriate (18%); and reading and understanding texts representative of various styles and levels of difficulty (24%). The German Language exam consists of 120 multiple-choice questions and must be completed within 90 minutes.

After the exam is complete, an unofficial score report will be made available. This score report will include the total score on a scale of 20 to 80; the American Council on Education recommends that students get credit if they score 50 or above on the Level 1 exam, and 63 or above on the Level 2 exam. The total score is the raw score (number of correct answers) adjusted according to the difficulty of the exam version. The College Board does not distinguish between unanswered questions and questions answered incorrectly, so test-takers are encouraged to respond to every question. Some of the questions on the exam are pre-test questions, which are used to develop future versions of the exam and do not contribute to the raw score. It is impossible for test-takers to determine which questions are pre-test questions. The CLEP exams are administered in both computer and paper formats at over a thousand locations throughout the world. To register for an exam, visit the College Board website.

Practice Questions

1. Translate: Nach dem Mittagessen sind wir nach Munchen gefahren.

A: That night we drove to Munich.
B: After dinner we will drive to Munich.
C: After lunch we drove to Munich.
D: Before lunch we will drive to Munich.
E: After lunch we will drive to Munich.

2. What is the appropriate reflexive pronoun for the pronoun er?

A: mich
B: euch
C: dich
D: sich
E: uns

3. Which tense does German use most often to refer to a previous time in a conversation?

A: imperfect tense
B: present perfect tense
C: future perfect tense
D: pluperfect tense
E: past perfect tense

4. Read the following sentence and select the appropriate description of the pronoun: Wir haben Ferien gemacht.

A: subject pronoun in the nominative case
B: direct object pronoun in the accusative case
C: indirect pronoun in the dative case
D: prepositional object in the accusative case
E: indirect pronoun in the genitive case

5. In what situation can you replace the noun object of a preposition with an object pronoun?

A: when the noun refers to a person
B: when the noun refers to an animal
C: when the noun refers to a country
D: when the noun refers to a place
E: when the noun refers to a time

6. The prepositions aus, bei, mit, nach, and von always take a verb in the ____ case.

A: nominative
B: dative
C: genitive
D: accusative
E: ablative

7. Which of the following is NOT a coordinating conjunction in German?

A: und
B: denn
C: ober
D: aber
E: wenn

8. Translate: Jeden Morgen haben Henrik und Frans am See gegessen.

A: That morning Henrik and Frans ate at the lake.
B: By the lake, Henrik and Frans would eat every morning.
C: In the morning, Henrik and Frans had eaten by the lake.
D: Henrik and Frans ate the lake every morning.
E: Every morning Henrik and Frans ate at the lake.

9. Read the following sentence and select the appropriate description of the pronoun: Und eine Karte war für mich.

A: subject pronoun, nominative case
B: direct object pronoun, accusative case
C: indirect pronoun, dative case
D: prepositional object, accusative case
E: direct object pronoun, dative case

10. Which pronoun is referred to by the reflexive pronoun euch?

A: ich
B: sie
C: ihr
D: wir
E: es

Answer Key

1. C. Note that the verb is in the present tense.
2. D. Er is the masculine nominative singular pronoun.
3. B. Present perfect tense is also known as the conversational past tense.
4. A. The pronoun in this sentence is wir.
5. A. In German, one can also use the interrogative wen after a preposition only when referring to a person.
6. B. The dative case is primarily used for indirect objects.
7. E. Coordinate conjunctions are those that join two coordinate clauses.
8. E. Note that the verb is in the imperfect tense.
9. D. Mich is the object of the preposition für.
10. C. Ich is the nominative singular pronoun.