The C-Test: rules, example and practice
The C-Test is the core of the German part in almost every Studienkolleg entrance test. Here is how it works and how not to lose points.
Rules
- The first sentence stays complete.
- From the second word of the second sentence, every second word loses its second half.
- With an odd number of letters, one more letter is missing: “Rolle”, “die”.
- Only an exact match counts — including capitalisation, umlauts and ß.
- Usually 20–25 gaps per text, 3 to 8 texts, about 5 minutes per text.
Try it right here
C-Test · Probe05:00
Complete the second half of the words — as in the real test.
Der C-Test ist ein Teil fast jeder Aufnahmeprüfung. In je zweiten Wo fehlt d zweite Häl, und d ergänzt d fehlenden Buchs. Mit et Übung wi du je Tag schn und sich.
Five error types
Capitalisation
Nouns start with a capital letter, everything else is lower case.
Umlaut and ß
“a” instead of “ä” is an error.
Ending
Right stem, but the wrong gender, case or tense.
Wrong word
The word does not fit the meaning of the sentence.
Empty
An empty gap always scores 0. A guess is better.
Tips
- Read the whole text first and get the topic.
- Fill the obvious gaps across the text, then return to the hard ones.
- Look at neighbouring words: articles and prepositions show the case.
- Practise one timed text a day.
Where the C-Test is used
BerlinStudienkolleg der FU BerlinBerlinStudienkolleg der TU BerlinHannoverNiedersächsisches StudienkollegLeipzigStudienkolleg Sachsen (Uni Leipzig)KöthenLandesstudienkolleg Sachsen-Anhalt, KöthenNordhausenStaatliches Studienkolleg NordhausenFrankfurt am MainStudienkolleg der Goethe-Universität FrankfurtDarmstadtStudienkolleg der TU DarmstadtKasselStudienkolleg KasselMünchenStudienkolleg MünchenHeidelbergStudienkolleg Heidelberg (ISZ)KarlsruheStudienkolleg am KITKonstanzStudienkolleg der HTWG KonstanzKaiserslauternInternationales Studienkolleg KaiserslauternBochumStudienkolleg Bochum (kirchlich, kostenfrei)