The Core Module

Everyone takes the Core Module, whatever they want to study. It consists of three subtests. The Subject Module follows.

The three subtests at a glance

With the instructions at the start, the Core Module takes about 90 minutes. Between the subtests there are twice 2 minutes of break at your seat. After the Core Module comes a 30-minute break outside the exam room. Source: testas.de: structure of the digital TestAS. We worked out the time per task ourselves (25 minutes divided by 20 tasks).

What all three subtests have in common

• No notes. In the digital TestAS you may not write anything down. Everything happens in your head (FAQ test day).
• No points deducted. Wrong answers cost no points (testas.de: preparing for the digital TestAS). In the equations, however, guessing hardly helps because you enter numbers.
• Fixed rules. Each subtest follows rules that g.a.s.t. describes publicly. You do not need to know facts. You have to apply the rules quickly and reliably.

Typical mistakes (our experience from developing tasks)

These points do not come from g.a.s.t. We collected them while building and solving our own tasks.

1. Staying too long on one task. 75 seconds is not much. If you stay three minutes on a hard task, you lose the time for two easy ones.
2. Not checking all the rules. In Figure Sequences, several things often change at the same time. If you only see the movement and forget the colour, you choose a wrong option.
3. Holding too much in your head at once. Without notes, a fixed order helps: first the simplest equation, first the row with the most letters.
4. Entering nothing. With no points deducted, an empty answer is always worse than a guess, except in the equations, where a guess almost never hits.

Open

The g.a.s.t. preparation PDF (as of April 2022) names 16 tasks in 20 minutes for Latin Squares. The website names 20 tasks in 25 minutes. We follow the website. See Structure.