Look inside
This page describes what you see on screen when you practise: the four modules in the format of the Goethe-Zertifikat B1 / B2, the review after you submit, the marking by Felix, our AI examiner, and around them the level test and the vocabulary trainer. The pictures are screenshots of the real exercises, taken with a demo account, in the German interface; where there is no screenshot yet, a sample drawn for this page shows how it goes. The real thing is in every free exercise.
5 Teile · 30 items · 65 minutes
Each exercise trains one Teil; each Modellprüfung (a full mock of the module) trains all five. The tasks look the way the exam sets them — except that afterwards you learn why an answer is right.
Teil 1 runs for 18 minutes, Teile 2 to 4 for 12 each, Teil 5 for 6 — the times the paper suggests. When time is up, the exercise asks whether you want five more minutes or to hand in. A Modellprüfung runs 65 minutes in one go and hands itself in at zero, like the exam.
In Teil 1 the four forum posts stand in full above the nine statements, and one person may fit more than once. In Teile 4 and 5 the example is marked and can no longer be chosen. In Teil 2 you pick the sentence right in the gap; the eight sentences stand below the text, and two are left over.
Your answers and the time left are kept in your browser. When you come back, you choose whether to continue or start again.
4 Teile · 30 items · about 40 minutes
The player follows the rules of the exam: how often you hear a text is decided by the Teil, not by you. That is exactly what the exercises train.
You hear Teile 1 and 3 once, Teile 2 and 4 twice. Before the recording, the reading time counts down — 90 seconds before Teile 2 and 4, for example. There is no pause, no rewinding and no starting over.
A narrator reads the instructions, announces each text in Teil 1 and closes every Teil. Above the Teil 1 items stand “Text 1” to “Text 5”, as on the exam paper.
In an exercise, the usual player controls appear once the last play has ended, so you can go back to the sentence you missed. A Modellprüfung does not offer them.
Below the review you can open the full transcript, every turn with the name of the person speaking, with the player beside it.
2 tasks · 75 minutes
Two tasks as in the exam: a Forumsbeitrag of about 150 words and a Nachricht of about 100, each with the four Inhaltspunkte (content points) you have to cover.
At the top, the situation and the four Inhaltspunkte, numbered. Below, a plain text box — without the browser’s spell check and without suggestions.
Under your text the words are counted against the target, “circa 150” or “circa 100”. Well under or far over it, the number turns amber. Under half, it turns red, with a note that the task then scores 0 — which is how the exam marks a text that short.
At the top, the suggested time counts down: 50 minutes for the Forumsbeitrag, 25 for the Nachricht. Five minutes before the end it turns amber, then keeps counting in red — you can still write and hand in.
Your text is kept in the browser, even if you reload the page or sign in halfway through. It goes to marking once each task has at least 20 words.
Example — written for this page
2 Teile · about 15 minutes · 15 minutes’ preparation
You answer out loud — your browser’s speech recognition writes down what you say, in German — or you type. Either way you can correct the text before you send it, and either way it is marked.
Each topic comes with the three points of the task sheet; the third always asks for advantages and disadvantages and your own evaluation.
A countdown and a notes box. Ready sooner? Start yourself; at zero the talk begins on its own — the way you would be called in on exam day.
A ring shows the time, and your notes can be opened beside it. Unlike the exam, the exercise does not cut you off at zero: you can add a minute.
You answer the questions on your topic and ask a question yourself, as the exam expects you to.
Felix plays the other person: he holds a view of his own or agrees only in part, answers what you actually said in one to three sentences, and speaks out loud — you can mute him. In the last minute he sums up his position and asks for yours. Without signing in, you practise your side alone, spoken or typed; the conversation with Felix comes with the passes that include AI marking.
Example — written for this page
Sollte es ein Recht auf Homeoffice geben?
YouIch bin dafür. Wer zu Hause arbeitet, spart sich den langen Weg ins Büro und kann sich oft besser konzentrieren.
FelixDa haben Sie teilweise recht, aber nicht jede Arbeit lässt sich von zu Hause erledigen. Wäre so ein Recht nicht ungerecht gegenüber allen anderen?
YouDas stimmt. Deshalb sollte es nur für Tätigkeiten gelten, die man am Computer erledigen kann.
Last minute: time to sum up
FelixFür mich bleibt es dabei, dass der Betrieb das entscheiden sollte. Und wie ist Ihr Fazit?
Lesen and Hören
After you submit, you see your score and percentage, and right below it the whole Teil again, marked item by item. For the free exercises, a free account is all it takes.
Every item is marked green or red; after a mistake, the correct answer stands right below it.
Every item has an explanation in German, usually quoting the words in the text that carry the answer.
If you chose a wrong option, you see at once which trap it held — a statement that belongs to another person or another time in the text, for example. The notes on the other wrong options open on request.
Schreiben and Sprechen
Felix marks on the exam’s criteria, one grade from A to E for each, and works out the points from them. The result is an estimate for your practice, not an official exam result.
The full marking comes with Exam Prep and Complete Prep. Without a pass, an account with a confirmed email address gets one preview per module: the real marking, blurred except for the colours on your own text and two criteria.
At the top: your points — out of 60 for a Forumsbeitrag, out of 40 for a Nachricht — and whether you are over the 60 % line. If not, how many points are missing.
Erfüllung, Kohärenz, Wortschatz and Strukturen, each with a grade from A to E and the points from the exam’s own table — in a Forumsbeitrag, 16, 12, 8, 4 or 0 for Wortschatz. If Erfüllung is E, the task scores 0, as in the exam.
For each of the four Inhaltspunkte you see whether you covered it, only touched on it or left it out. Then the form: salutation and sign-off in a Nachricht, for instance.
Mistakes in red with the correction, weak wording in amber with a stronger version, what works in green — numbered and explained underneath. The corrections are German; the explanations come in the language you use the site in.
A short comment, what went well, what to improve and — when you hand in both tasks — the mistakes that repeat. A model text with phrases worth reusing opens on request. Rewrite your text, and the next result shows how your points have changed.
For Sprechen, Felix marks the transcript: Teil 1 on Erfüllung, Kohärenz, Wortschatz, Strukturen and Fragen/Antworten, Teil 2 on Erfüllung, Interaktion, Wortschatz and Strukturen. Spelling does not count there. Aussprache — 16 of the 100 points — cannot be heard in a transcript; instead, the result of a Modellprüfung tells you how many of those points you would still need for 60. Under “Say it better” you find your own sentences in a stronger version.
Einstufungstest · Wortschatz
Two things around the modules: a free placement test that tells you honestly how far away Goethe B2 is, and a vocabulary trainer with flashcards on the exam’s topics.
13 Lesen items in 14 minutes, then — once a third of them are right — 13 Hören items in 17 minutes, all taken from real exercises in the exam’s format. The result is one of five bands from “Under B1” to “B2+”, with your score in each Teil and the one to train first.
B2 here means seven in ten right, under time — a little above the 60 % at which a module is passed. The result states the distance to the exam in plain words and promises nothing. Signed in, it is kept in your history.
22 decks on the exam’s topics and with Redemittel for Schreiben and Sprechen, 1,159 cards in all; the first two decks of each kind are free. Every card explains the word in German, with an example sentence, often a note on how it is used — and the English translation.
Up to 15 new cards a session. “Knew it” moves a card up a box, “Didn’t know” sends it back to the first — and it comes round again at the end of the session. Box 1 is due every session, box 2 every second, box 3 every fourth. Your progress stays in your browser.
The first two exercises of every Teil are free, and so is the first Modellprüfung of each module — right now 54 of 1,005 exercises and 8 of 120 Modellprüfungen. Everything else opens with a pass: paid once, nothing renews.
DeutschCertPrep is an independent preparation service. We are not affiliated with, authorised by or endorsed by the Goethe-Institut, telc gGmbH, ÖSD or the BAMF, and we do not issue certificates. “Goethe-Zertifikat”, “telc” and “ÖSD” are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only to name the exams our material prepares for. Felix’s marking is a practice estimate, not an official exam result.
