DTZ Study Plan: Eight Weeks Until the Prüfung

Before you buy materials or memorize lists, you need a baseline for each skill. Otherwise, you'll spend eight weeks on what you enjoy, instead of what you lack.

Therefore, in Week 1, complete one full practice task for Hören, Lesen, Schreiben, and Sprechen under real conditions – meaning with a time limit and without a dictionary. The result will determine where the remaining seven weeks go.

The first two weeks are about diagnosis and the most common building blocks of everyday German.

The Brief is the Prüfung part with the best effort-to-points ratio because it follows a fixed structure. Write two complete Briefe per week for different occasions and cover all content points in each.

Get corrections or compare with a sample Brief. Note your three most common errors – usually word order, verb endings, or salutations – and specifically check these three points in your next Brief.

Sprechen cannot be learned by reading. Record yourself with your phone: one minute of Bildbeschreibung, one minute of making a suggestion and reacting. Listen to the recording once and focus on only one criterion per listen.

For Hören, these weeks you will practice pre-reading the questions. The goal is to know what information you are looking for before the audio starts.

In the last two weeks, complete at least two full simulations of the written part in one sitting – same time, same order, no breaks in between. This trains concentration for 100 minutes, which many underestimate.

Do not take on new material now. The last week is for reviewing your own error log and the Prüfung day procedure.

Progress is not shown by exercises feeling easier, but by measurable metrics: more correct answers in the same time frame, fully covered content points in the Brief, longer free speaking time without interruption.