If you are looking for confirmation to your DaF proficiency test registration, check your  automatic response carefully. If you see the following words below in your mail, you are in.

Teilnahmebedingungen: akzeptiert

(eligibility requirements: approved)

Over the years, I heard from various sources about this lack of written communication between test applicants and the Goethe Institute in Frankfurt, once registration for the test has been made.

An outdated IT department sends out automatic responses in German, which clearly need an update.

As the test applicants are foreigners, I had wrongly assumed that they had just missed the written confirmation of their registration, or it might have ended up in spam.

Not so, it seems. I signed up my daughter on 28 December for the German proficiency test on 7 Feb. In response, I got a standard reply, listing my given data and asking not to reply to this e-mail.

Hinweis: Diese E-Mail wurde automatisch erstellt. Bitte antworten Sie nicht auf diese E-Mail.

(This is an automatic response. Please do not reply.)

So I contacted the Goethe Institute Frankfurt via private message on its Facebook page four days ago. It seems they have no social media manager, nor page administrator either.

Then I lost more time trying to find a contact e-mail address in regards to the test. No such luck. On the other hand, the contact e-mail address for signing up for a German course is clearly visible though…

I went back to the automatic response, and then I found it. In tiny writing, pressed between lines of data, I found it: Teilnahmebedingungen: akzeptiert

In spite of being German, I had a difficult time working my way through this. The registration confirmation procedure definitely needs improvement and a more customer-friendly service.

For a euro 200 test-taking fee, I expect more service, such as a clear statement of admission and links to important information.