Preparing for the Fachsprachprüfung: what the pass rates tell you

44% of medical-language examinations in Nordrhein were not passed in 2025. Why that happens, and what follows for how you prepare.

The Fachsprachprüfung is taken at the chamber of physicians. It does not test your German in general. It tests your work in the language: the conversation with the patient, the documentation, the handover to a colleague.

The failure rates

For 2025 the Nordrhein chamber reported 3,352 sittings: 1,863 passes and 1,489 failures, so 44% of sittings were not passed. In Berlin, 185 of 535 exam participations in 2025 were repeat examinations, or 34.85%.

Both figures count sittings, not people, and no nationwide count of individuals exists. What they still show is that repeats are normal rather than exceptional, and that a failed attempt costs months.

Why good German is not enough

• The exam is a role play with a patient, not a grammar test. Explaining things in lay language is part of the performance.
• The written documentation follows German conventions: history, findings, suspected diagnosis, plan.
• The doctor-to-doctor handover expects technical language and abbreviations, which is exactly the register a B2 course does not cover.

What follows for preparation

Practise in the form you will be examined in. A language course that only does grammar and vocabulary does not prepare you for the FSP, however good the certificate looks. Ask your chamber for the published exam requirements and work against those.

Countries of origin in the exam statistics

In Nordrhein the most frequent countries of origin in 2025 were Syria 1,001, Turkey 290, Iran 257, Jordan 240, Honduras 207, Ukraine 195. That is one chamber's statistic, not a national distribution.