Bethel Park’s German program has a reputation of being successful.
With a majority of students being members of the German National Honors Society and placing well at Foreign Language competitions, the German program’s reputation has been seen to be well-earned.
The rankings on this year’s National German Exam only helped to reinforce this.
The exam this year was far different from years past. The all paper and pencil exam had this year become totally electronic.
Its switch to computer-based tests was not the only thing different about this year’s exam. The exam’s layout differed greatly and new sections were added.
Real German newspaper articles and ads were used instead of the stories written for the exam. Also, the listening portion consisted of videos instead of audio only.
The grammar section changed as well. It went from multiple choice to fill-in-the-blank.
Both Mr. Tobias and the students anticipated a more difficult exam this year in comparison to previous years.
The class spent two weeks preparing for the test by taking practice exams provided by the National German Exam to get a feel for what to expect.
“I expected there to be a lot of weird, current articles that we had to read and answer questions about. I expected there to be a lot of grammar questions,” senior Erin McMahon said.
The students spent two periods taking the two 40-minute portions of the exam.
The anticipated high level of difficulty did pull through; however, the types of questions did not.
McMahon said, “The focus wasn’t on grammar. It was on being able to read quickly which isn’t a focus of our class.”
Despite the difficulty, the students again placed highly among the students in Western Pennsylvania.
Bethel Park managed to take three spots in the top ten, with Kevin Fleishmann, a senior, ranking first.
Logan Tuite, a senior, ranked fourth and Stephen Davis, a junior, ranked seventh.
Tuite and Davis are both eligible to win a trip to Germany this summer. Fleishmann is ineligible because he had spent his junior year of high school in Germany.
Tuite’s place among the students came as a surprise to him.
“I was expecting a solid 24th place,” Tuite said.
Other students who placed highly include Hayley Lazzari, Erin McMahon, Billy Ruschel, Jamie Cavarak, Alex Klara, Brendan Kail, Joe Beaver, and Rebecca Swaney, who all won a silver.
Katie Zilcosky, Ben Muscato, Kaileigh Poe, Micheal Stephenson, and Rachel Albert all won bronze.
Of the students who took the level three exam, four of them qualified to apply for a scholarship. Thomas Weber, Natalie Lalama, Corrine Herbestreit, and Jack Brownfield are the four sophomores who qualified.
Overall, the German program made a solid showing in this year’s National German Exam.