EPD oral exam: procedure, topics and an example

Procedure: choose, prepare, present, discuss

At the start of the preparation time you receive 2 tasks on 2 different topic areas and choose one of them. Preparation lasts at least 15 minutes. You may use a monolingual dictionary supplied by the VWU and take keyword notes.

Then you speak freely for about 5 minutes along the guiding questions (Leitfragen) printed with the task. Reading out a written-up text or reciting something learned by heart is not accepted. Only after the presentation do you receive a new impulse, which you discuss spontaneously for about 5 minutes.

The commission has 3 members: your examiner, a second VWU teacher and a university representative.

• Choose: one of 2 tasks, on different topic areas
• Prepare: at least 15 minutes, with the VWU dictionary and keyword notes
• Present: about 5 minutes, freely, along the Leitfragen
• Discuss: about 5 minutes on a new impulse, without preparation
• Result: right after the exam

• Monologue: Structure & Tips
• Discussion Strategies

Impulses and guiding questions

For the presentation the impulse is a graphic, a short text or a cartoon. For the conversation it is a picture, a simple graphic, a quote or a statement. With a statement you get two opposing positions and argue for one of them.

In the model, each presentation task comes with 5 guiding questions, and they follow a recurring shape. If you know it, you have the outline of your presentation in your head before the exam. Say you pick a graphic from the topic area Medien, on artificial intelligence. The Leitfragen then carry you through the 5 minutes like this:

• What is the impulse about? Summarise its main point briefly.
• What is the situation in your home country or in your everyday life?
• What advantages and disadvantages do you see?
• How will the topic develop in the future?
• What measures do you propose, and why?

Topics: 10 areas, 4 angles

The model names 10 topic areas from which the tasks of both the written and the oral exam are drawn. Each topic can be asked from 4 angles: Globalisierung (globalisation), Digitalisierung (digitalisation), Nachhaltigkeit (sustainability) and Zukunftstrends (future trends). The same topic can therefore come up as a question about its future or about its sustainability.

• Arbeitswelt und Wirtschaft (work and the economy)
• Beziehungen und Geschlechtergerechtigkeit (relationships and gender equality)
• Gesellschaft und soziales Engagement (society and social engagement)
• Konsumgesellschaft (consumer society)
• Körperliche und mentale Gesundheit (physical and mental health)
• Lernen, Bildung, Studium, Wissenschaft (learning, education, university, science)
• Medien (media)
• Tourismus und Reisen (tourism and travel)
• Wohnen (housing)
• Umwelt (environment)

• Topic Vocabulary

What the examiners look for

The model publishes no points grid for the oral exam. Instead it describes what you should show, and it opens with one sentence: „Nicht Ihr Wissen, sondern Ihre Deutschkenntnisse werden geprüft.“ Your German is examined, not your knowledge.

Short, faulty sentences from a small vocabulary are not enough, and neither is reciting something learned by heart. You do not need to speak perfectly or without mistakes. What you should show is that you can:

• use what you have learned the way the task or the conversation requires,
• understand the examiners and react to them,
• make clear that you have not understood something, that you disagree, or that you know little about a topic,
• correct your own mistakes with the examiners' help,
• express yourself so that you are understood without effort or misunderstanding.

• Assessment Criteria

Practise speaking with VWUPass

Oral practice is an add-on to the VWUPass EPD subscription: you add it once for €10, and it gives you 3 months of speaking practice.

In the trainer you pick a task, set your preparation time on the timer and record your presentation. In the second part you answer follow-up questions from an AI on the spot. You can also run both as a full simulation, presentation first and conversation second, as in the exam.

Frequently asked questions