I Before E Except After C

This is probably the golden rule that will help me pass my English Exit Exam otherwise known as JEPET. I've noticed that without spellcheck, I can't spell words like view, believe, severe, or any word with ie in it. Just in case, I did use spell check there. Veiw, beleive, seviere is how they would be spelt according to me. The four years of German that I took in high school are partially to blame for this everyday mistake.
In German words like sein, dein, mein do not follow the English rule. German is very similar to English where words look similar, and sentence structure is almost the same with a few exceptions. Notice that in German the rule is E before I. Well, the rule is which ever letter makes the predominant sound goes second. It could be the other way around though and look like an English word but have a very different meaning. Example: Die Kammera ist kapput, und ich hab kein Geld fur ein anderes. The word Die in German is the feminine gender for camera. That word follows the English rule. Or I could have said: Mein Kammera is kapput, und ich hab kein Geld fur ein anderes. For everyone who wants to know what I wrote, it is the camera is broken and I don't have any money to buy another one.
Basically after four years of studying German, I learned more about English than I did in normal English classes. But in my opinion, English classes in California don't do a good job explaining sentence structure. This is the case in high schools though. In my jounior year, my teacher was still trying to teach the class proper sentence structure. That was a bit of a shock to me. But I hope that I still remember enough about English that I learned in German class for this English Exam.