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How to Prepare for the Greek A2 Written Exam in 2 Weeks — Insights from Our Co-Founder

2025-02-27 10:44
New Cyprus naturalization rules make it easier for IT professionals to get a Cypriot passport. Our co-founder seized this opportunity and passed the required Greek language exam.

Here, he shares his experience — how he prepared, what worked, and his approach to the written part. If you’re planning to take the exam, you’ll find useful insights.

How I Prepared for the Greek A2 Test (Written Part) to Get the Cyprus Passport — in Just 2 Weeks

It has been quite some time since I last took an exam. I think the last one was back in 1990 at my technical university.
After years of career building, I discovered my passion for IT recruitment and founded my own company. In 2018, my family and I relocated to Cyprus.
Since then, I’ve been thinking about getting local citizenship. In 2024, the opportunity finally came with the new Cyprus naturalization rules.
I met all the criteria, just needed to take a Greek A2 test to get my A2 Greek language certificate.

OK, it wasn’t just 2 weeks

I’ve been learning Greek for a couple of years in relaxed group classes (2 hours a week). With my work and family, I just didn’t have time to really dive in. So, my vocabulary was weak, and speaking was a struggle.
But hey, I HAD studied, so I must know something, right? That’s what I thought when I decided to check myself. I gave an old Greek A2 test shot.
The result? I didn’t understand a thing.
It was my waking-up moment — either I switch to full-on intensive mode or forget about the certificate and Cyprus passport. I don’t quit easily, so I chose the first option.

Quick Greek A2 test structure overview

As you prepare, you’ll see the tasks yourself, so I’ll skip the details and just cover the structure.
The Greek language certification exam has 4 parts — reading, listening, writing, and speaking. The first 3 are part of the written exam (you’ll read and listen to texts and complete tasks like true/false statements, picture matching, letter writing, etc.).

Exam preparation ≠ language learning

Get this clear: exam preparation is a mechanical process. You’re not learning the language for everyday use, but drilling yourself for what you’ll face on that test day.
For the written part, it’s understanding what’s being said and written, while in the speaking part, it’s being able to talk about certain topics. That’s all.
With enough dedication and a systematic approach, anyone can get ready for this.

4 hours a day, no breaks (working towards the Cyprus passport)

Two weeks before the exam, I pulled myself together, shifted my priorities (work, family, etc.), and committed to studying at least 4 hours a day, with no days off.
My materials? Old Greek A2 tests. I had this book:

Here is the link to the book.
I started drilling through exam papers from previous years, one by one.
My two biggest challenges? Vocabulary and writing skills.

Vocabulary problem

Expanding my vocabulary became priority #1 because it is the key to understanding what’s written and said to me. I listed words from each task I went through and started cramming them obsessively.
I combined the useful with the pleasant, memorizing words as I walked along the seaside path below:

Vocabulary Solution

Here’s what my 2-week routine for the Greek language certification exam looked like:
1) Morning. I pick 100 words, add them to MemoWord, and then go for a one-hour walk. For some reason, 10 out of those 100 just won’t stick! So I have to add them to the next session. If there’s some fancy scientific explanation for this phenomenon, let me know in the comments!
Here is the link to MemoWord.
2) Evening. I take those 10 stubborn words, add 90 more, and go through the same routine again.

Result

During the Greek A2 test, I only came across 2 unfamiliar words throughout all the tasks, and not knowing them didn’t bother me at all. How about that? Just 2 weeks of walking by the sea, and I filled my vocabulary to this level!

Writing Text Problem

Understanding words is one thing, but putting them into sentences is another. At my level, writing a short 80-120-word text without mistakes was hard, so I took a smarter approach.

Writing Text Solution

More memorizing. Now on the level of texts. The topics that come up throughout the exam (including all sections, even speaking) are pretty much the same: family, work, travel, etc.
I wrote about 20 of these texts, had my tutor check them, and then started memorizing them. I kept writing them out until I could do it without making any mistakes.
IT IS ENOUGH — EVEN IF YOU GET A TOPIC YOU HAVEN’T PREPARED FOR!
And if you get a topic you haven’t prepared for, try a sandwich-style approach.

My example

For the written part of the Greek language certification exam, I had a task that went something like this: “As a contemporary artist, you won first prize at an art exhibition in Nicosia. The award ceremony took place on Sunday, 4 February. Share how it went.”
I used the task's wording to start my text, like this: "I participated in an art exhibition in Nicosia on the 4th of February, where I won first prize. The award ceremony was scheduled for Sunday."
Next, I added things I already knew by heart and that made sense to add:
  1. The award ceremony was in Nicosia, and I live in Paphos (+ a few sentences about Paphos)
  2. I have a big family (+ a few sentences about my family)
  3. Since I live in Paphos and needed to travel to Nicosia, plus I have a big family and the ceremony was on Sunday, I decided to head to Nicosia with my family on Friday evening (+ a few sentences about the trip, a city tour of Nicosia, and how we spent time together, etc.)
In the end, you say you showed up at the ceremony, got the prize, and was really proud of yourself. Or something like that.
This strategy makes it easy to know what to write. Grab the start and end from the task itself, then add what you know in the middle. The text is ready, with at least 80% of it being without mistakes.

Hard, but rewarding

I had the written exam on the 14th of May, 2024, and the speaking part on the 25th of May. The results came on the 30th of July, and I finally received the certificate in October.

As I mentioned, I had some basic knowledge of the language, but if I hadn’t pushed myself, there was no way I would have passed. My 2 weeks of intense practice paid off.

I've shared how I prepared for the speaking part of the exam in this article.