Goethe B1 in 2027: exam format, pass mark and vocabulary
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- 0:00Goethe B1 is the German certificate that many people take for citizenship, a settlement permit, training or work.
- 0:09It has four separate modules, and you can sit them together or one at a time.
- 0:15In five minutes you will see each module, what it takes to pass, how to find a date, and the words that decide your marks.
- 0:23There are four modules: three written ones, about two hours and forty-five minutes in all, and fifteen minutes of speaking.
- 0:32Reading is sixty-five minutes: five parts and thirty items, from a blog post to a set of rules.
- 0:39Listening is about forty minutes: four parts and thirty items, from announcements to a radio discussion.
- 0:46Writing is sixty minutes for three texts: an informal e-mail and a forum post of about eighty words each, and a formal e-mail of about forty.
- 0:57Speaking is about fifteen minutes in pairs, after fifteen minutes to prepare: you plan something together, present a topic and respond to your partner.
- 1:07Each module is marked out of one hundred, and the pass mark is sixty in each.
- 1:12The modules are never added together: a strong reading score cannot rescue a weak writing score.
- 1:19In writing, a task with under half the asked-for words, or off the topic, scores zero, so count your words.
- 1:28If you miss one module, you resit only that module, as many times as you like, and combine the certificates.
- 1:35Before you split it, check that your office accepts modules from different dates.
- 1:41There is no national calendar: each institute and licensed exam centre sets its own dates, fees and deadline.
- 1:49Deadlines vary too: in Germany some institutes take bookings until a few days before, while abroad registration may open on only a few set days.
- 2:00So look up your centre on the official exam site, note its deadline, and start on the words about four months before.
- 2:07Fees are local too: at the last check, two hundred fifty-nine euros at the institutes in Germany and seven hundred seventy zloty in Warsaw.
- 2:18Results in Germany take up to two weeks; the certificate never expires, but many offices want one under two years old.
- 2:27There is no vocabulary module.
- 2:30Vocabulary is tested in all four, and in two ways.
- 2:34Reading and listening reward breadth: everyday topics like housing, work, health, offices, travel and the media.
- 2:44The official B1 word list has about two thousand four hundred entries that you should at least understand.
- 2:51Writing and speaking reward something narrower, and easier to learn: connectors, the phrases each task expects, fixed word combinations, and the formal and informal you.
- 3:04Vocabulary has its own marks in writing and in speaking, so points are easiest to lose here, and to win back.
- 3:12Here are four cards from our kit, with the trap each one hides.
- 3:17A connector for the informal e-mail.
- 3:25It takes the first place, so the verb comes straight after it, before the subject.
- 3:31The opening of the short formal e-mail.
- 3:39Its ending follows the reader: one form for a man, another for a woman.
- 3:45A phrase for agreeing while you plan together.
- 3:51German uses to have here, never to be, as English does.
- 3:55And one word combination.
- 4:00German meets a decision; making one is copied from English, and it costs points.
- 4:06So how many words do you need for B1?
- 4:10We counted the official word lists from A1 to B1: about three thousand two hundred words.
- 4:17Our German B1 kit holds three thousand eight hundred eighty-one cards: about three thousand three hundred topic words, plus connectors, phrases and grammar.
- 4:28If you started from zero with four months to go, that would be thirty-seven new cards a day, about thirty minutes.
- 4:36Almost nobody starts from zero.
- 4:39The free check tells you how many of these words you already know, and the plan shrinks to the ones you do not.
- 4:46Check your B1 words for free: the link is below.
- 4:50If it shows gaps, the full kit has every card with audio, the phrases for each task, and a plan that ends before your exam.
- 4:58Good luck with your exam.
A five-minute video guide to the Goethe-Zertifikat B1: the four modules and how long each takes, the pass mark of 60 in every module, how to find a date, a fee and a registration deadline at your exam centre, and the words that decide your marks in writing and speaking.