TESTSAM GmbH
Universitätsstraße 102
9020 Klagenfurt
Österreich

E-Mail: info@testsam.at
Internet: www.testsam.at

Bank details
Kärntner Sparkasse
IBAN: AT072070604400970192
BIC: KSPKAT2KXXX

Tax-No.: 147/2406
Finanzamt Klagenfurt
FN: 390957m
UID-Nr.:ATU67772109

The company Testsam GmbH works in cooperation with the ÖSD organisation.

The ÖSD is a central, course-independent examination system in which examinations are conducted and assessed according to standardised norms. The exams are based on the level descriptions of the “Common European Framework of Reference for Languages” (CEFR) and on “Profile deutsch”. 
The ÖSD is a communicatively oriented examination system with the aim of testing foreign language competence in real-life situations. 
The ÖSD is based on a pluricentric view of language: The standard varieties of the German-speaking countries Austria, Germany and Switzerland are considered equal and taken into account accordingly. The ÖSD tries to reflect the diversity of the German language in order to prepare candidates for the linguistic reality in the different German-speaking countries. In the examinations, this mainly concerns the receptive area, i.e. the reading and listening comprehension tasks. Texts from all three German-speaking countries are used here.

The examinations are built on the following basic principles:

1. Reference to reality

• Texts and tasks are authentic as far as possible and adapted to real situations of use. The selection of situations in which language actions take place is relevant and representative. This includes not only the authenticity of texts and tasks, but also their situational integration.

2. Test formats

• The tasks should reflect the candidates’ abilities as closely as possible. If, for example, listening comprehension skills are tested, the result should not be biased by a task that simultaneously demands a high level of writing skills, memory performance or oral production from the respective person. Conversely, multiple-choice tasks can hardly be used to make valid statements about the productive skills of speaking and writing. In these cases, more open-ended task forms are used.

3. Verification areas

• In order to obtain as comprehensive and differentiated a picture as possible of a person’s language competence, it is divided into individual sub-areas. The ÖSD distinguishes here between the communicative skills individually (reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing, speaking) and the communicative skills in their combination (for example, listening comprehension and speaking: Converse, Reading Comprehension and Writing: Grammar and vocabulary knowledge) as well as pronunciation and spelling are regarded as subordinate areas of communicative competence and as such are only implicitly tested and assessed.

4. Assessment

• The more open and direct language tests are, the higher the demands on examiners and scorers. To ensure reliable assessment, not only are precise assessment guidelines and criteria provided, but also intensive examiner training is conducted with training on assessment.