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The Application
What's the purpose of Sievers Study Hall?
Sievers Study Hall is designed to practice German through isolated exercises.
Each exercise aims at practicing one particular competency such as A2 connectors, B1 prepositions, Partizip II etc.
Through this isolated practice, you'll be able to apply these competencies with more ease while writing and speaking.
This application does not replace your current course, whether you’re learning with a course, a book or an app.
There are many exercises, where shall I start?
There are three features in German grammar that are particularly tedious: cases (in particular Accusative vs. Dative), prepositions, and the order of words in sentences.
For cases, Präpositionen – Artikel and Verben – Artikel will help you with cases following prepositions and verbs, respectively. Artikel, Pronomen, and Adjektivdeklinationen will complete the training.
For prepositions, the best starting point is Präpositionen, which focuses on their uses at each level. In addition, Präpositionen – Verben offers drillings for prepositions following verbs.
Last but not least, Wortstellung has been created specifically to train the order of words in German sentences. I’d advise to check out Konnektoren as well to master coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and causal adverbs.
Once this is done, you can check out other units particularly liked by users such as Adverbien to practice adverbs, Verben and (Un)trennbare Verben to practice German verbs, Partizip II and Präteritum to practice the past participle and the preterit, as well as Genus – Regeln and Genus to practice the gender of German nouns.
How to best use Sievers Study Hall?
You should be enrolled in a course with a teacher, with a book or with another app and aiming at a particular level (A1, A2 etc.).
Practice the material you've already discovered by doing exercises that fit your level.
Do not practice too many exercises at the same time; practice up to 3 exercises and 30 minutes a day.
Feel free to use external help while doing exercises such as declension tables and translators.
Do you provide any learning material?
Providing learning material isn’t my specialty. Plenty of it already exist online and offline, made by people far more experienced and knowledgeable than me.
I do however provide some articles when I notice an absence of accessible explanations. You can find the list of articles here.
Can I use Sievers Study Hall without creating an account?
Yes, you can use the application without creating an account. You’ll have access to all the content, but you won’t have access to all the features.
What features are available only after creating an account?
The following features are only available after creating an account:
Long-term, centralized storage of your progress
Access to your progress across multiple devices
The Bookmark feature
An extended Feedback when finishing an exercise
Will I receive any email after creating an account?
No, you won’t receive any email after creating an account (except when reinitializing your password). Updates and other news are sent when subscribing to the Sievers Study Hall Substack (see next question below).
How can I stay up-to-date with Sievers Study Hall?
Subscribe to this publication using the button below. I use this Substack to provide news and updates. I do not send more than one email per week.
Are the accounts on Sievers Study Hall and Substack linked?
No, your accounts on Sievers Study Hall and Substack aren’t linked. You can create an account on Sievers Study Hall without receiving any update from Substack, and vice-versa.
Is Sievers Study Hall free?
Yes, it’s 100% free and will always stay free.
Is it Open Source?
Yes, you can find the repository here.
You can run the app locally using the local.py file.
Is there a way to contribute?
Yes! You can “buy me a coffee” here: buymeacoffee.com/sieversstudyhall.
Since you’re asking, I particularly enjoy the Colombian “Finca Los Nogales Pink Bourbon”.
Content and Exercises
How can I write special characters (ß, ü, ö & ä)?
If your keyboard doesn’t allow you to easily type special character used in German, you have two options:
You can use the buttons below the input box
You can write ss, ue, oe or ae, which are recognized as ß, ü, ö and ä, respectively
Can I do an exercise multiple times?
Yes. Once you finish an exercise, you can click on the Refresh button to reinitialize it. It will also reinitialize the score.
You can also refresh an exercise before finishing it by clicking on the white circular arrow next to the progress inside an exercise.
I have an idea for a new exercise / Will you add feature […] in the future?
The current pipeline can be found here.
Feel free to add a comment if you have an idea for a new exercise or a new feature.
I've noticed an error in an exercise.
No, I’m pretty sure you didn’t.
Actually, I’m pretty sure I did.
Then you can flag errors in questions and corrections using the white flag in the top-right corner of the feedback container (the green or red one that begins with Correct or Incorrect). I’m monitoring and updating them regularly.
You can also leave a comment here if you notice an egregious error or any other flaw in the application, or you can send me an email.
How often do you update questions flagged by users?
I updated and correct questions flagged by users on a monthly basis (at a minimum).
Progress and Scores
Where is my progress stored?
If you use the application without creating an account, you progress is stored in your browser, in a cookie.
Once you create an account and log in, your progress will be stored on PythonAnywhere’s servers.
What do the percentages next to exercises correspond to?
Percentages show your score for a particular exercise.
Below 60%, I highly recommend you read again the theory.
Between 60% and 90%, practice again after a good night’s sleep.
Above 90%, you have a good grasp of the material.
Why was my progress erased for an exercise?
If you use Sievers Study Hall without an account: the progress of exercises that are not finished may be erased to liberate some memory. This is due to the limit in the size of the cookie. You can solve this issue by creating an account.
If you use Sievers Study Hall with an account: I may reset the progress for some exercises where I’ve made large changes.
I use this app on multiple devices (phone, computer, tablet etc.). Can I share my progress on multiple devices?
Yes, you can by creating an account.
Many thanks! Vielen Danke!
Small correction to your FAQ page (from the POV of Australian/UK English)
"your" should be "you're" in this sentence ... "This application does not replace your current course, whether your learning with a course, a book or an app."
"practice/practicing" should be "practise/practising" (because it's a verb) in a number of sentences