German Language CLEP - Free Study Guide!

Name of Exam: German Language CLEP

Number of Questions: 120

Time Limit: 90 Minutes

ACE Recommended Passing Score: 50 for six credits, 60 for twelve credits!

Practice Test Available?: No

Cost: $72 (Starting July 1st 2009) + Sitting Fee (Usually no more than $20) at your testing site. Military can take CLEPs for free with Tuition Assistance. Check with your Educational Officer!

Difficulty 1-5 : Depends on your German ;)
(One being the easiest, and five being the hardest)

Exam Description:

The German Language CLEP tests your knowledge in speaking, and reading German.

Personal Thoughts:

My advice for these is the same no matter what language you're thinking about taking. If you've ever taken a year of this particular foreign language in high school, then you should at least attempt the exam. If your family ever uses the foreign language in the house, you should definitely attempt the exam. I don't care if your family has made fun of your horrible accent for your entire life, and you can only understand two words out of five. You should really at least attempt the exam.

For military this is truly a no-brainer. The exam doesn't cost you anything, but you have the chance of picking up at a minimum 6, and possibly 12 elective credits just for showing you can understand enough of that language to pass. Please... if you have any experience with the language, then at least attempt the exam.

Exam breakdown:

According to the College Board website, the German Language CLEP exam is broken down as follows:

• 60% Reading
• 25% Listening: Dialogue and Narratives
• 15% Listening: Rejoiners

Areas of Study
A few of the topics that you will need to know are:

• Discrete sentence reading (vocabulary and structure)
• Short cloze reading (Fill in the missing words)
• Reading short passages (200 words of reading comprehension)
• Understanding spoken language through short stimuli
• Understanding spoken language through longer narratives

Free study resources
Click on the titles to go to the study resource.

Deutsch-Lernen Free Online Lessons - Awesome site that requires a beginners understanding of German. Free lessons and proficiency tests. Goes in depth with advanced lessons if you register (free).

About.com - German - About.com rocks when it comes to languages. Check it out!

LanguageSchool.net German - The site is horribly slow to load, but the written vocabulary lessons are extensive.

BBC German Lessons - The BBC has a great website, and their German section has conversation tutorials, lessons, and quizzes!

Recommended bargain-priced study resources

No recommended bargain based resources here. You really don't need them with all the free online options for brushing up.

Seriously.... go attempt the German Language CLEP if you know even a little bit of German. Even if you're not in the military and the money comes from your own pocket, that's a potential twelve credits for $100. You can't find a better deal than that when it comes to college credit.

Best of luck! Or I should say, "Viel Glück!"