Reading exam skills

When the source speaker is female, her possessive mein transforms to ihr, not sein (sein is for a male or neuter antecedent). The digest names the Marion item, where candidates used the wrong-gender sein for a female speaker. Fix: identify the person's gender from name or context first, then choose sein (he) or ihr (she); the case ending is a separate check.

A possessive on a direct-object noun needs the accusative ending. The digest names a case where seinen Bruder (accusative) was required but candidates wrote the nominative sein Bruder, losing the mark though they found who was visited. Same stem, different ending by role: sein Bruder (subject) vs seinen Bruder (object). Re-check each noun phrase for case.

Reflexive verbs lose their pronoun under manipulation: the digest names Sie fühlen gesünder written for the correct sich fühlen, and the same fault a year later. The reflexive pronoun changes with the person too: ich fühle mich -> sie fühlt sich — keep sich alongside the transformed verb ending, not just the verb.

Under person manipulation the tense is sometimes left as the source had it — present written where the past was required, or vice versa — leaving the wrong time frame even though the correct information was located. Transform the verb's person without switching its tense: keep the source's tense unless the question signals otherwise.

Longer answers that copy extra material score worse, because the extra text adds more chances of a manipulation error. The digest says, near-identically across two papers, that the most successful candidates gave short, succinct answers and did not lose marks through unsuccessful manipulation. Lift only the minimum the question needs.

Word order invalidates otherwise-correct Q6 answers more than anything. After rewriting, candidates leave the finite verb in the wrong place: a main clause needs the verb second (V2), but a subordinate clause after weil/dass/obwohl sends it to the end. The digest also names weil used for the subordinating dass. Re-check verb position after transforming.

die Familie is grammatically singular in German, though it refers to several people, so it takes a singular verb: die Familie wohnt (not wohnen). The digest names candidates giving die Familie a plural verb, which could not be credited — the German analogue of the French le personnel fault. Check collective nouns for singular agreement.

A common misconception is that a person-shift is one word-swap (mein -> sein), nothing else. In reality every dependent form changes together: the verb ending, the case ending on a possessive (set by the noun's role, not gender), and any reflexive/object pronoun. Fixing only the visible word leaves an answer that sounds transformed but hides a contradiction.