In 2025, 44 percent of the theory tests for a car license in Germany ended in failure. In the practical test, the share was 37 percent. The figures count first attempts and repeat attempts together. In 2024 the failure rate was 45 percent in theory and also 37 percent in practice.
education
What a School Grade Means
The German states agreed on the meaning of school grades in 1968. Each grade describes how far the work meets den Anforderungen, the requirements. A 1, sehr gut, means the work meets the requirements to a special degree. A 3, befriedigend, means it meets the requirements in general. A 6, ungenügend, means it does not meet them and the gaps cannot be closed soon. Fifteen of the sixteen states also set the written Abitur papers centrally. Rhineland-Palatinate is the only exception. In Bavaria, the ministry has set the Abitur papers since 1854.
The Law Exam
In Lower Saxony’s second state exam in law, each written paper carries a code number instead of a name. A first examiner and a second examiner grade it. A federal ordinance defines the grades for the law exams in words. Befriedigend is a performance that meets average requirements in every respect. Mangelhaft is a performance that is, on the whole, no longer usable. Ungenügend is a performance that is completely unusable. In 2018, 27.9 percent of candidates across Germany failed the state part of the first exam.
Places to Study Medicine
On December 19, 2017, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on how places to study medicine are given out. The rules must in principle follow dem Kriterium der Eignung, the criterion of aptitude. The court accepted the Abitur grade as a measure of aptitude. It struck down rules that put a student’s preferred location ahead of grades. It also struck down unlimited waiting time, and it gave the legislators until December 31, 2019, to write new rules.
Marking every error
From 2009 to 2015, a regulation of the Saxon ministry of education set out how Abitur papers were to be marked. It stated the rule plainly: Sprachliche und formale Mängel sind in allen Prüfungsarbeiten zu kennzeichnen. Errors of language and form must be marked in all exam papers. Each type of error had its own code. R marked spelling, GR grammar and Z punctuation. The same regulation set out separate codes for faults in content. The first marker corrected in red ink, and the second in green.
Four sides of a message
In 1981, Friedemann Schulz von Thun published the first volume of Miteinander reden, Talking with each other. In it he described four sides of every message: the factual content, what the speakers reveal about themselves, the relationship, and the appeal. In the model, disturbances and conflicts arise when sender and receiver read and weigh the four sides differently.
By this model, a comment on a report also carries a message about the relationship with the person who wrote it.
Able to take criticism
The German word kritikfähig has two meanings in Duden. It means able to criticize, and it means able to accept and bear criticism. One word covers both sides of the exchange.
The Apprentice’s Record Book
Every apprentice in a recognized training occupation must keep a written or electronic training record, the Ausbildungsnachweis. Most people call it the Berichtsheft. The duty is set out in § 13 of the Vocational Training Act. Under § 43, an apprentice is admitted to the final examination only after presenting the record. The craft tradition also gave German the word Meisterstück, master’s piece. It first meant the work a journeyman made for the master examination. Today it also means a masterly achievement in any field.
Grades for Diligence and Order
Kopfnoten are school grades for something other than performance in a subject. The school system of the GDR used four of them: Ordnung, orderliness, Mitarbeit, participation, Fleiß, diligence, and Betragen, conduct. Saxony plans to keep its Kopfnoten after its 2024 school reform. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also gives them. Hesse and Lower Saxony grade Arbeitsverhalten, work habits, and Sozialverhalten, social behavior.
Four Everyday Duties to Report
Four everyday rules use the same word, unverzüglich, without culpable delay.
An employee who is sick must tell the employer unverzüglich that he cannot work and how long he expects to be away. If the illness lasts more than three calendar days, he must present a doctor’s certificate on the next working day at the latest (§ 5 EntgFG).
A tenant who finds a defect in the apartment must report it to the landlord unverzüglich. A tenant who does not report it must pay for the damage that follows (§ 536c BGB).
An employee who notices an immediate, serious danger to safety and health, or a defect in a protective system, must report it unverzüglich to the employer or the responsible supervisor (§ 16 ArbSchG).
A student who misses an exam because of illness must hand in a withdrawal and a medical certificate unverzüglich. At the University of Duisburg-Essen, a withdrawal within three days of the missed exam, not counting Sundays and holidays, usually still counts as unverzüglich. If the reason is not accepted, the exam is graded nicht ausreichend (5,0), a fail.