University entrants have to master many new challenges in institutions of higher education and act linguistically appropriately in different situations. This is often particularly difficult for international students at the beginning of their studies. The present article explores to what extent the TestDaF examines campus-life situations that have to be mastered by first-year students at institutions of higher education in Germany. The aim is also to identify which of these tasks are typically difficult for prospective students and university entrants. Based on these findings, recommendations are to be given to improve pre-sessional preparatory courses and German language courses during term-time with regard to their content. For this purpose the results of a needs analysis of linguistic requirements in academic environments are compared with the requirements of the TestDaF tasks. Furthermore, typical mistakes and difficulties in test takers’ performances on the TestDaF are analysed to enable further advice on the appropriate focuses in German language courses in higher education.