The DSH test specifications for the listening and reading sections of the examination provide the DSH locations with guidelines for the design of input texts,
but at the same time the DSH authors have a great deal of leeway in the concrete design of texts and tasks and little is known about the characteristics and comparability of the texts used at the DSH locations. In this article, 115 authentic listening and reading texts from eleven DSH locations are analysed in terms of their readability and other lexical features.