The B1 German Speaking Exam, Step by Step (Goethe and telc)

The B1 speaking exam is the part people picture going wrong: you freeze, your partner rambles, an examiner stares. Almost none of that happens. Both the Goethe-Zertifikat B1 and the telc Deutsch B1 speaking module run to a fixed three-part script you can rehearse in advance, and both put another candidate in the room with you so you're rarely talking into silence. The single most useful thing to know before test day is that B1 speaking is a conversation task, not a performance. You plan things, you talk about a topic, you react to a partner. Here's exactly what each part looks like.

How B1 speaking differs from B2

If you've read about the Goethe B2 speaking exam, reset your expectations. B2 leads with a solo, structured presentation where you weigh advantages and disadvantages and defend a position, then move into a debate. B1 is gentler and more practical. Its centrepiece is a joint planning task: you and your partner organise something together, an outing or a party, going back and forth to reach an agreement. The presentation at B1 is shorter and simpler, and there's no requirement to argue a thesis. The whole design is asking one question. Can you handle everyday interaction in German? That's the CEFR definition of B1, and the speaking exam tests it head on.

Both Goethe and telc build their B1 oral around three parts, both pair you with another candidate, and both are watched by two examiners (one leads and talks to you, one grades quietly). The parts are ordered differently and the prep time differs, so take them one exam at a time.

The Goethe-Zertifikat B1 Sprechen exam

You get 15 minutes of preparation time beforehand, alone, and you may take notes to bring into the room. The speaking itself runs roughly 15 minutes for the pair. There are three parts, and they always come in this order.

Teil 1: Gemeinsam etwas planen (about 3 minutes)

You and your partner plan something together. The task card gives you a scenario, for example organising an outing, a party, or welcoming a visitor, along with a few points to sort out (when, where, who brings what, how to get there). Your job is to talk it through and reach a decision together.

This is the part that rewards interaction over monologue. Don't announce a finished plan. Make suggestions, react to your partner's, agree, gently disagree, propose an alternative. "Wollen wir vielleicht...?", "Gute Idee, aber wäre es nicht besser, wenn...?", "Einverstanden, dann machen wir das so." The examiners want to see two people negotiating, so a candidate who steamrolls the plan alone actually scores worse than one who builds it with their partner.

Teil 2: Ein Thema präsentieren (about 3 minutes)

You choose one of two topics on your card and give a short presentation about it. At B1 this is not the essay-out-loud you'd give at B2. You describe the situation in your home country, share your own experience, give your opinion, and mention advantages or disadvantages. The prompts on the card walk you through those steps, so you're never guessing what to cover. Follow the bullet points in order and you've built the whole talk.

Keep it concrete and personal. B1 presentations that work sound like someone telling you about their life, not reciting a Wikipedia article. Real examples from your own experience are exactly what the level is designed to elicit.

Teil 3: Über die Präsentation sprechen (about 2 minutes)

After each presentation, there's a short exchange about it. Your partner (and an examiner) asks you a question or two about what you presented, and you do the same for their topic. This is why you have to actually listen during Teil 2 rather than mentally rehearsing your own talk. A relevant follow-up question, and a clear answer to theirs, is worth real marks here.

The telc Deutsch B1 mündliche Prüfung

telc splits the oral into the same number of parts but reorders them and gives you more prep. You get 20 minutes of preparation time, and the oral itself runs about 15 minutes as a pair (occasionally a group of three if numbers are odd). Two examiners are present.

Teil 1: Kontaktaufnahme (getting acquainted)

You introduce yourself to your partner: name, where you're from, work or studies, hobbies, why you're learning German. It lasts about a minute and a half per person, then the examiner may ask a clarifying question. This part is a warm-up by design, so it's the easiest place to start strong. Prepare a natural self-introduction in advance and deliver it without sounding memorised.

Teil 2: Gespräch über ein Thema (discussing a topic)

You each get material (a short text, a photo, or a set of statements) on a topic, describe it, and then talk about it with your partner: your opinion, your own experience, comparisons with your country. It's a discussion, not a lecture, so bounce off what your partner says rather than delivering a solo block and stopping.

Teil 3: Gemeinsam eine Aufgabe lösen (solving a task together)

This is telc's version of the joint-planning task, and it's the direct twin of Goethe's Teil 1. You and your partner plan something concrete together, a birthday party, a trip, a gift, a night out, and you have to discuss and agree on several specific points. Same skill, same phrases, different exam. If you've rehearsed the Goethe planning task, you've already rehearsed this one.

How the B1 speaking exam is scored

For Goethe B1, Sprechen is one of four independent modules, each worth 100 points, each passed at 60 out of 100. You can sit it separately from the other three, and if speaking is your weak spot you can rebook just that module later without redoing the whole certificate. That's the modular safety net, and it takes a lot of pressure out of the room. We cover how partial passes work in what happens if you fail the Goethe or telc exam.

For telc B1, the exam is split into a written block (225 points) and an oral block, and you need about 60% of each block to pass. The oral is graded, not the individual parts, so a shaky moment in one part can be balanced by strength in another. Both exams grade the same underlying things: whether you completed the task, how fluently and coherently you spoke, your range and accuracy of vocabulary and grammar, and your pronunciation.

Notice what isn't being graded: a native accent and flawless German. B1 is an "independent user" level. Examiners expect mistakes, hesitation, and self-correction. A candidate who keeps the conversation moving with a few errors beats one who's grammatically careful but stops dead every sentence. The most common way to actually lose points is going quiet in the interactive parts, so keeping the exchange alive matters more than getting every ending right.

How to actually prepare

Two things move the needle. First, practise out loud with a real partner, because the planning and discussion parts only get comfortable once you've done them with another person a few times. Reading model dialogues silently does almost nothing for the skill the exam measures. Second, use the official practice materials, since the sample speaking tasks are the exact format, prompts and all, that you'll face on the day.

If you're still deciding between the two exams before you book, the differences at B1 are structural rather than about difficulty. We break them down in Goethe B1 vs telc B1: which one should you take, and cover the full format and fees in the Goethe-Zertifikat B1 and telc Deutsch B1 guides.

Walk in with your self-introduction ready, your planning phrases automatic, and your partner treated as a collaborator rather than competition. Do a few full runs out loud beforehand and the 15 minutes turn out to be the most rehearsable part of the whole B1 certificate. There are no curveballs in this room, only the same three tasks you've already practised.