I doubt that German parents put in a lot of resources for 7-10 year olds to pass tests. I guess private language classes can be a thing. But if it's anything similar to Hungary, kids with bad performance can also get extra afternoon help from the actual school teachers for free and kids of working parents can stay in school until later in the afternoon, working on homework under supervision etc.

In my experience academic competition is way less cutthroat than what I hear from the US, India, China etc.

Yes and what does that mean? That the system puts a disadvantge on people with difficult backgrounds.

I have non-academic parents and the system sure as hell made me understand that very well at a young age. The folks with attorneys and doctors as parents had it way easier...

It took a lot of additional energy to be able to go to "Gymnasium" in Bavaria. In the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, were I was born, this was much easier though.

> It took a lot of additional energy to be able to go to "Gymnasium" in Bavaria. In the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, were I was born, this was much easier though.

This is one of the very few aspects that socialist/Eastern Bloc countries actually did better than the capitalist Western ones. Working-class kids had a fairly equal opportunity at getting into the same schools as the rich kids.