German Test? IQ Test? And I paid for this??

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I did a German test today. It was dumb.

A bit of background is in order.

I signed up and paid 90 Euros for taking this 'zertifikat Deutsch' test. What is this ZD test and why do I care to take it? Well, it's basically a test to show that I possess minimal German profficiency. How embarassing. All those years of studying the language and I am now trying to prove I can tell left from right and find my way out of a train station... I joked that if I pass this test I can get a job as a cleaning lady.


So here is one example of why this test was no good.


There is an audio component. A taped interview that we're supposed to listen to and then mark the answer sheet according to what we hear. The 2 voices in the audio belong to a lady (interviewer) and a dude (a social worker who works at a place that helps people find jobs).

One of the questions asked by the lady to the dude was:
how many people work there?

the dude replies:
right there are 2 people, and there is a 3rd, the ZIVI, so we are a small group.



To clarify, a ZIVI is short for Zivildienst...somethingsomething, which is a dude who doesn't want to go to the military and ops to do social work for the Fatherland instead. It's a German thing. Every dude has to either go to the army or do social work (be a ZIVI).


The confusion was:
When the dude in the interview says 'there are 2 people', is he counting himself? There's the same type of confusing in English.


Example, your friends asks you:
how many people were at your party?

And you say:
oh it was small, only 2 people...

Your friend would probably say next:
you mean 2 people other than yourself, or all together there were only 2 people?

See?? Totally confusing.




Back to the test. Then when the interview dude says there is a 3rd person, the ZIVI, is the ZIVI supposed to be counted? If he is, why didn't the guy just say in the beginning that there are 3 people? The ZIVI's basically CONSCRIPTED, either into the army or zivildienst, he is not 'working there' the same as the others.


And then if you add in:
and the 3rd person at the party was the caterer.

Then your friend is going to be totally confused because c'mon, the reason why the caterer is there is not the same as why the rest of the people are there!


Everyone in the testroom had the same problem. After the test we asked the native German speaking proctor and she admited that it was unclear...

she said, well, I thought it was 3, but I haven't checked the answer key yet.

What kind of stupid test is that!


I am very unhappy with this test. This isn't like taking the SATs or the GREs where if I miss the question I know well, that's because I am stupid.

Here, today, there was no doubt in my mind that the test is the stupider one. :-/

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Comments

[sally]

hey judy, found your blog again.
email me back on my regular address what you're up to (aside from the obvious blog info).