June 9, 2026
The Best Free Practice Materials for the Goethe and telc Exams
Before you pay for a single mock exam, know this: the two organizations that write the Goethe and telc exams both publish full practice tests for free. Same task types, same timing, same marking criteria as the real thing. A paid "premium mock test" from a site you've never heard of is guessing at the format the exam board has already handed you for nothing. Start with the official material, exhaust it, and only then consider spending money.
This post maps out exactly what's free, where it lives, and how to actually use it, for both the Goethe-Zertifikat and telc Deutsch, from A1 up to C2.
Why the official free sets beat paid mock tests
The single most important thing a practice test does is rehearse the real format under real conditions. A Goethe B2 listening section plays some parts once and some twice, the reading section has a specific set of task types, and the writing is marked against a published rubric. If your practice material gets any of that wrong, you're training for the wrong exam.
The exam bodies get it right by definition, because they set it. Third-party mock platforms vary wildly. Some are excellent, most are approximations, and a few are just old real exams re-typed with errors introduced along the way. When the people who write the exam give you a sample set that matches it perfectly, plus the answer key and the grading grid, paying someone else to approximate that is backwards. Free official first. Always.
Do your first full practice test early, not the week before. It tells you two things nothing else can: how the format actually feels under time pressure, and which module is your weakest. You want that information with weeks left to fix it, not two days before you sit down.
Free Goethe practice materials: the Modellsatz for every level
The Goethe-Institut publishes free Übungsmaterialien (practice materials) for every level of the Goethe-Zertifikat, A1 through C2. The core of it is the Modellsatz (model set) and, for some exams, an additional Übungssatz. These are complete sample exams: all four modules (Lesen, Hören, Schreiben, Sprechen), the audio files for the listening section, the answer keys, and the assessment criteria the examiners use.
You reach them from the Goethe-Institut's exam pages. Each certificate has its own practice area, for example the Goethe-Zertifikat B2 exercise page, and the pattern is the same for every level: navigate to the certificate you're taking, then to "Practise" or "Übungsmaterialien." Everything there is free and there's no account required to download the PDFs and MP3s.
The official practice hub for every Goethe-Zertifikat level from A1 to C2. Each exam has a full Modellsatz (sample exam) with the reading, listening, writing and speaking tasks, the listening audio, an answer key, and the examiner marking criteria. This is the single most accurate free resource for Goethe prep, straight from the exam body.
The interactive online model tests
Alongside the downloadable PDFs, Goethe offers barrier-free interactive online model tests for most levels (A1, A2, B1, C1, and C2). These were built with accessibility organizations, so they work with screen readers and other assistive tech, but anyone can use them. You work through the reading and listening tasks in your browser and get your answers scored automatically. For the C1 online set, the reading and listening modules are electronically graded with an immediate score, so you find out where you stand without hand-marking.
The interactive versions are the closest thing to sitting the digital Goethe exam, so if you're booked onto a computer-based sitting, do at least one of these to get used to clicking through tasks rather than shuffling paper. (For the full picture of how the two formats differ, see our post on digital vs. paper-based German exams.)
A Modellsatz is one complete sample exam, not an endless bank of questions. For most levels Goethe publishes one Modellsatz and sometimes an Übungssatz, so you get roughly one or two full mock exams per level for free. That's enough to learn the format cold. When you've genuinely worked through both and want more repetition, that's the point where a reputable paid resource can earn its keep, not before.
Free telc practice materials: the Übungstest
telc works differently from Goethe because telc isn't a single institute. It licenses the exam to thousands of independent test centers, and it also runs a publishing arm. What that means for you is that telc publishes a free Übungstest (practice test) as a downloadable PDF, with the accompanying MP3 audio for the listening section, for its main exams, including telc Deutsch B1, B2, and C1, plus the vocational and dual-level variants like B1·B2 Beruf and the A2·B1 test used for integration courses.
Each free Übungstest is a complete exam in the real format: the reading, the Sprachbausteine (the grammar-and-vocabulary section that's distinctive to telc), the listening, the writing task, and the speaking prompts, with the answer key and evaluation sheet. The listening audio comes as separate MP3 files so you can run the section exactly as it plays on exam day.
telc's free download library, including complete mock examinations (Übungstests) with audio for levels A2 through C1. Each is a full sample exam in the real telc format, with the Sprachbausteine section, answer key and marking sheet. The reference for anyone sitting a telc Deutsch exam, from the organization that writes it.
telc typically makes at least one Übungstest per level available for free, with additional versions (Übungstest 2, and so on) sold through the telc shop as PDFs or printed booklets, often for a few euros. If you're going to buy anything, a second telc Übungstest for a couple of euros is a far better use of money than a subscription to a generic mock-test app, because it's the real format from the source.
Don't confuse telc's exam-specific Übungstests with the "free downloads" that support telc's textbooks (series like Auf jeden Fall! and Einfach besser!). Both live in the same free-downloads area. The textbook worksheets are useful for building skills, but the thing you want for exam rehearsal is the standalone Übungstest for your exact certificate and level. Check the title says "Übungstest" and names your certificate.
How to actually use a free practice test
Downloading the PDF is the easy part. Getting value out of it takes a little discipline.
Do the first one for diagnosis, under real conditions. Print it or open it, set a timer for the real section lengths, and don't pause. No dictionary, no looking things up. The point is to feel where time runs out and which module wobbles. Then mark it honestly against the answer key.
For the writing and speaking, use the marking criteria, not your gut. This is where the official material earns its place. Goethe and telc both publish the grid examiners score against: how points are awarded for completing the task, for coherence, for vocabulary range, for grammar. Write your answer, then score it against that grid the way an examiner would. If you can, get a teacher or a proficient speaker to mark it too, because the productive skills are the hardest to self-assess. (For the writing section specifically, our guide to writing a formal German letter or email breaks down the exact conventions the rubric rewards.)
Save one full set for a proper dress rehearsal near the end. If a level has a Modellsatz and an Übungssatz, or telc gives you two Übungstests, use one early for diagnosis and keep one clean for a final timed run a week or two out. Doing every practice test the moment you get it means you have nothing left to simulate the real day with.
Rehearse the speaking out loud, with a partner if you can. The Goethe speaking exams are paired, so practising alone in your head misses half the task. Grab a study partner, use the exam's speaking prompts, and time yourselves. Our walkthrough of what actually happens in the Goethe B2 speaking exam shows how predictable that module is once you've rehearsed the structure.
Free extras worth adding around the official sets
The official practice tests rehearse the exam. To build the underlying skills, a few genuinely free resources are worth stacking on top:
- Deutsche Welle's Nicos Weg is a complete free A1–B1 course from a public broadcaster, with a placement test, and its news-based B2/C1 listening (including the slow-spoken news) is excellent free listening input. It won't give you the exam format, but it builds the base the exam tests.
- Reputable free third-party model tests exist too. A few well-established language schools publish their own free telc and Goethe model tests online. They can be useful for extra volume, but treat them as supplementary. Verify anything they claim against the official Modellsatz or Übungstest, since only the exam body's version is guaranteed current.
For choosing between the two exams in the first place, and where each is accepted, see Goethe vs. telc: which German exam should you take. And if the practice tests reveal you're not quite ready, it's worth knowing what happens if you fail before you book, because both exams let you resit only the part you missed.
The short version
For the Goethe-Zertifikat, go to the Goethe-Institut's exam pages and download the free Modellsatz for your level, or use the interactive online model test. For telc, download the free Übungstest with its MP3 audio from the telc free-downloads area. Both give you a complete exam in the real format, with the answer key and the marking criteria examiners use. That's the highest-quality practice material in existence for these exams, and it costs nothing. Work through it properly before you spend a cent on anything else.