practice is the key

The test covers the fundamentals of road driving - Behavior on 20/30 speed zone, entry & exit to & from the highway, speed in towns, lookout for zebra crossings, cycle ways & turns, parking and associated actions and finally behavior on roads with signals. My biggest learning for preparing for the test was to completely wipe off my driving experience on Indian roads and rules seen on German roads. It was very important to systematically learn with my teacher Astrid. My biggest learning was following the "blinksystematic" mechanism while changing roads in cities and also on the highway. These are very different. Also, I had to systematically learn about "Einspuren" under different circumstances as this is really really important to pass the test. Sometimes, "rückwarts fahren" is tested and is important to learn that properly including Notbremse. All in all, "practice" is the key to succeed. If you have doubts, always talk and be honest with your instructors to help you out. "Nervousness" topic is very standard and my simple suggestion after going through it - "Accept it". It is very normal to be nervous. But, as you must have practiced a lot before the test, trust in those learnings as this will help to behave normally during the test. In my situation, I was nervous as well. But one thing which was always going in my mind - "What's the worse that can happen?". Accepting the worse case helped me to calm down. I was also not easily giving up as I trusted the driving practices I had done before the test. In addition, the examiner are very kind and understanding and they will not do anything to ruin your confidence. Do small talk only if you can handle this and can still manage to follow the rules of the road including "speed to be maintained". Examiners may do small talk to help you calm down and also when the roads are out of danger. They know what they are doing. This also helps to prepare you for real life situations. I was honest with my examiner that my German was not so good but I will try my best to understand the instructions. Also, I mentioned that in case of any doubt, I will request to repeat and clarify. Honestly, they were very kind to accept my request and this helped me a lot. My examiner did small talk in German only when the road was out of danger. I had to translate to English in my head and then reply back in broken German. In this situation, I always kept my eye on the speed meter and also on the speed signals & directions to not deviate much in those conversations.