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As early as the end of the 1990 s, the advantages and disadvantages of the DSH examination as well as the possibility of its further development were already being discussed. The question of centralised or decentralised design played a major role in the debate. This article discusses terms that are central for the DSH: linguistic study skills, study relevance, and academic orientation.Furthermore, the article shows how the quality assurance of all university entrance examinations, introduced in the RO-DT of 2011, shapes today's design of the DSH. This article also reveals which role FaDaF plays in this process, supporting German universities in implementing uniform quality standards. Criteria catalogues for the creation and assessment of examinations play a special role. In addition, the article deals with the sample DSH and the DSH manual that are based on it. In the final section, the innovations of the DSH examination regulations are also highlighted.The article thus sheds light on how the DSH, as a decentralized examination designed by universities for universities, is trying to meet the challenges of the 21st century in the field of activity between universities, HRK, FaDaF and the DSH office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a study in which analytical and holistic ratings of participants' performances in the writing section of the digital TestDaF were investigated. It was investigated what influence the rating procedure has on the participants' results and to what extent the results of two different procedures are comparable. In the first study phase, performances were rated analytically by experienced raters, on each of six criteria using a 6-level grading scale. In the next phase, nine raters from the first (analytical) phase of the study applied the new (holistic) scale in assessing the same performances. In both (analytic and holistic) phases of assessment, differences in the quality of the ratings were examined according to both rating methods, and both inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were calculated separately for both rating methods. The analyses showed no significant differences between the rating methods in terms of rater behavior. However, the use of the holistic method tended to result in lower ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the receptive and productive vocabulary competences of N = 340 international students at German universities using frequency-based vocabulary tests. It is investigated to what extent vocabulary competence and academic success are connected and whether the graduates of different university admission language tests (e. g. DSH, TestDaF) show comparable vocabulary competences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a competency- and needs-based approach to exam preparation. The influence of test objectives, format and task types on the creation of teaching materials is shown on the basis of the digital TestDaF. For this purpose, learning materials are described that are geared towards the development and training of communicative competencies. The aim is to go beyond pure format training in exam preparation and thus achieve positive washback effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the developmental phases of the digital TestDaF and shows how the new task types and the digital test administration strengthen the relationship to the context of higher education institutions in Germany and to the CEFR. The contribution deals extensively with the test construct, the test format, and the different types of tasks used in the reading, listening, writing, and speaking sections. Innovative approaches and methods of performance assessment and scoring are discussed as much as their practical implementation. Finally, the paper presents some perspectives of future studies on the digital TestDaF and elaborates on relations to contemporary language testing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Testlets are subsets of test items that are based on the same stimulus and are administered together. Tests that contain testlets are in widespread use in language testing, but they also share a fundamental problem: Items within a testlet are locally dependent with possibly adverse consequences for test score interpretation and use. Building on testlet response theory (Wainer, Bradlow, & Wang, 2007), the listening section of the Test of German as a Foreign Language (TestDaF) was analyzed to determine whether, and to which extent, testlet effects were present. Three listening passages (i.e., three testlets) with 8, 10, and 7 items, respectively, were analyzed using a two-parameter logistic testlet response model. The data came from two live exams administered in April 2010 (N = 2859) and November 2010 (N = 2214). Results indicated moderate effects for one testlet, and small effects for the other two testlets. As compared to a standard IRT analysis, neglecting these testlet effects led to an overestimation of test reliability and an underestimation of the standard error of ability estimates. Item difficulty and item discrimination estimates remained largely unaffected. Implications for the analysis and evaluation of testlet-based tests are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]