GOETHE A1 · CHEAT SHEETS
Five sheets. The whole A1 grammar the paper can ask.
Not a grammar course — the A1 exam's grammar, compressed to one page per sheet, each rule placed where the exam actually tests it.
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der · die · das · Articles — the A1 exam's favorite trap
You can't memorize articles per word at A1 — 650 words is too many. Memorize the PATTERNS instead, plus the ~40 exam nouns that break them. The Schreiben form and the Hören picture items test this constantly.
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Akkusativ · Only ONE thing changes — learn just that
The A1 accusative is small: only masculine der-words visibly change (der → den). Everything else looks identical to the nominative. The exam tests exactly this one change, mostly in the Schreiben email and the Sprechen requests.
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Wortstellung · Verb position — the rule that fixes 80% of your sentences
German A1 sentences live and die by verb position. Three rules cover nearly every sentence you'll write in Schreiben Teil 2 — where word order IS the grade.
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Perfekt · The spoken past — one pattern, two helper verbs
At A1 you need exactly ONE past tense: the Perfekt. Pattern: haben/sein (position 2) + Partizip II (end). The Hören dialogues use it constantly; one Schreiben sentence with a correct Perfekt signals control.
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Höflichkeit & Formeln · The fixed phrases that ARE the Schreiben and Sprechen grade
A1 examiners grade three fixed-phrase slots explicitly in Schreiben Teil 2 (Anrede, Gruß, closing = 1 point) and the whole of Sprechen Teil 1 runs on greeting formulas. These are free points — learn them as fixed blocks, not grammar.