German A1 Test PDF: Free Pages or a Paid Test Set?

A search for "German A1 test PDF" returns two kinds of pages. The first kind is free: grammar exercise pages, worksheet-sharing sites and the official model test of the Goethe-Zertifikat A1. The second kind is paid: complete test sets for teachers. This guide shows what each kind gives you and when you need the paid set.

What the free pages give you

Free pages are good for practice. A grammar site gives you one exercise for one rule, for example the articles der, die and das. A worksheet-sharing site gives you a page that another teacher made for one lesson. The official A1 model test shows the format of the Goethe-Zertifikat A1 and has one version.

Free pages have three limits for a class test:

• One version. If two students sit next to each other, they see the same sentences.
• No points. Most free worksheets have an answer key, but they do not give points for each part.
• Different formats. A test from three different sources has three different layouts and three different instructions.

For a review lesson, these limits do not matter. For a class test, they matter.

What a class test needs

A class test (Klassenarbeit) has a fixed format. The students know the parts before the test day. The teacher corrects the test with points and gives a grade. For this task, a test needs:

1. One format for all topics of the school year.
2. An answer key with points for each part.
3. More than one version of each test, for neighbours and for the retake.
4. Pages that print well in black and white.

A paid test set gives you these four items. You do not write the test and the key yourself.

Free material on soruLab

soruLab gives you free A1 material without an account:

• A free sample: the full Greetings Test 1 with its answer key, three A4 pages. Download it from the German A1 Unit Tests page.
• Five topic pages with the word list, the multiple choice questions of Test 2 and a reading text, with the answers. Start with greetings and introductions.
• For the Goethe-Zertifikat A1 format, the free Goethe A1 reading practice and Goethe A1 listening practice pages.

Use the free sample to check the format before you buy. If the format does not fit your class, you lose nothing.

What the paid set gives you

The German A1 Unit Tests set has 15 tests: five topics of the first year, three versions of each test. Each test has the same five parts:

Part	Task	Points
Teil A	Vocabulary	10
Teil B	Gap fill with hints	20
Teil C	Multiple choice grammar	20
Teil D	Sentence writing	20
Teil E	Reading text with questions	30

Each test has 100 points and 40 minutes of work time. The instructions are in German. Each task has a short hint in English. The answer key with scoring notes is on the last page of each PDF.

The three versions of one topic test the same grammar with different sentences. You use one version for the test, one for the retake and one for the review lesson. The guide How to use three versions of one German A1 test shows the procedure.

Which source fits which task

Task	Free pages	Paid set
One grammar exercise for homework	Yes	Not necessary
Review lesson before the test	Yes, with the free sample and topic pages	Version 3 of the topic
Class test with points and a grade	No	Yes
Retake with different sentences	No	Yes
Goethe-Zertifikat A1 format practice	Yes, with the free Goethe A1 pages	No, the set is for class tests

The paid set is one payment, with no subscription. The 15 PDF files come to your email address immediately after the payment. Licence: one teacher, one classroom. Open the German A1 Unit Tests page to see the first page of each topic.