By Margarita Votteler, experienced C1 examiner since 2009
Build a TestDaF text with the agent
Write a text on this topic — your Agent assesses it honestly, like the real exam, and practices with you until you pass.
"Grammarly found nothing." I hear that sentence often, usually right before I read a text that would fail the exam. Both can be true at the same time. A grammar checker and an examiner look at different things, and that difference decides which tool actually helps you before the exam.
What Grammarly can do for German
To be fair: for a long time Grammarly was an English-only tool. Since autumn 2025, according to the company, it also supports German, with spelling and grammar corrections, rewrites and translation. More languages followed in 2026. So if you read that Grammarly cannot handle German, you are reading an outdated article.
For emails, applications and term papers, an assistant like this is useful. It finds typos, agreement errors and many case errors, and it makes sentences read more smoothly. What it does not do is not in any feature list, because it is not its job: it does not know your exam.
What a grammar checker cannot see
Here is a text of the kind I get for the paper-based TestDaF:
"Ich bin der Meinung, dass ein Auslandsstudium viele Vorteile hat. Man lernt eine neue Kultur kennen, verbessert seine Sprachkenntnisse und wird selbstständiger. Deshalb sollte jeder Student ins Ausland gehen."
A grammar checker finds nothing here, and it is right. The text is correct. As an examiner I see something else. The graph from the task is missing, there is no counter-argument and no reference to the home country. All three sentences have the same structure. Parts of the task are missing, and in the TestDaF Institute's criteria the treatment of the task comes before language.
The Goethe-Zertifikat C1 works the same way. If you cover two of the four required language functions, task fulfilment is capped at level C, no matter how clean the grammar is. Three things a general grammar checker does not check, because it does not know the task:
Task fulfilment. Are all points of the task covered? Is the text type right: forum post, formal message, or argumentative text based on the given material?
Structure and weighing of arguments. Is there a clear line of thought, a counter-position and a justified decision? The DSH model examination regulations explicitly list topic development and text structure as assessment aspects.
Register. "Das macht Sinn" is grammatically fine and still a register error in an academic-style text. A forum post that reads like a term paper costs points in task fulfilment at the Goethe-Zertifikat.
What GermanExam.pro does differently
GermanExam.pro is an exam agent for four exams: TestDaF, DSH, Goethe-Zertifikat C1 and telc C1 Hochschule. You send your text together with the task. The assessment follows the publicly available assessment criteria of the respective exam. For the digital TestDaF these are the six aspects, for the Goethe-Zertifikat the four criteria with levels A to E, for the DSH the criteria of the model examination regulations. The result is an estimate on the exam's own scale, for example TDN 3 to 5 or DSH-1 to DSH-3, together with the CEFR level.
For the text above, the feedback reads roughly like this: the graph does not appear, so part of the task is missing. The argument has no counter-side. The language is correct, but every sentence has the same structure. Estimate: below TDN 4, because of the task, not because of the language.
The feedback is honest. If a text would fail, it says so, with the reason. And it does not stop at correction. The agent asks you questions instead of rewriting the sentence for you. That way you solve the same problem yourself next time. Your error patterns are collected, and from them you get a practice PDF built from your own mistakes, not from a textbook.
Which tool when
For the email to your landlord, a grammar checker is enough. For the term paper you want to check for typos, too. If you want to know whether your text reaches TDN 4 or DSH-2, you need a tool that knows the task and the criteria.
Using both is not a contradiction. A grammar checker after the exam feedback catches the last typos. The other way round does not work: an error-free text without reference to the task is still a text that misses the task.
I say nothing about Grammarly's prices here, because they change. The current prices for GermanExam.pro are on the pricing page.
The honest limit
GermanExam.pro does not award grades either. Only the TestDaF Institute, the Goethe-Institut, telc or your university do that. What you get is an estimate based on the criteria the exam itself uses, plus the mistakes you need to work on before exam day. If you want to see what that looks like for your text, send it in. Check my text →
An overview of the passing thresholds of all four exams is in How many points to pass?.
Frequently asked questions
Can Grammarly check German texts?
Yes. According to the company, spelling and grammar corrections for German have been available since autumn 2025, along with rewrites and translation. Check the provider's site for the current feature set.
Is a grammar checker enough for exam preparation?
It helps with linguistic accuracy. It does not check task fulfilment, text type, structure or register, and that is where most points are lost in TestDaF, DSH, Goethe C1 and telc C1.
Does GermanExam.pro replace a teacher?
No. It replaces waiting for the next correction. For every practice text you get an immediate estimate based on the criteria and feedback on your error patterns.
GermanExam.pro is an independent learning tool. We have no connection to the TestDaF Institute, the Goethe-Institut, telc gGmbH or the universities that run the DSH. Grammarly is a trademark of its provider. The statements about its features come from the provider's own publications, as of September 2026.