How many thousands of applicants do you think they get? And how many hundreds of test candidates a year? The excellent candidates stand out well enough to get a quick decision, the more average go into a mix bag to be decided in competition once the batch have all been tested, so it takes more than a week. If you have that little patience, you won't last in the industry!
As for the German chap who applied two years ago and had no response, try again - your details will be lost under a mountain of other applications and assumed to be out of date anyway.