How does telc B1 exam day run?

First **Leseverstehen + Sprachbausteine (90 min)**, then **Hörverstehen (~30 min)** and **Schriftlicher Ausdruck (30 min)**. The oral exam takes about 15 minutes after 20 minutes of preparation, and **many centres schedule it on a separate day**.

What are the answer-sheet rules?

Only **clearly marked fields on the Antwortbogen S30** are captured for assessment. The oval fields and the personal-data fields should be filled in with **a soft pencil**. The Fachnummer and Testversion for page 1 are in the bottom-left corner of the Aufgabenheft S10 and on the board.

What is allowed in the preparation room?

You may take notes only on the **stamped preparation sheet** you are given. **Writing on the task sheet is not allowed**, and phones and dictionaries may not be used. Reading your notes aloud in the exam also costs points.

Valid **photo ID**, your registration confirmation and **several soft pencils plus an eraser**. Confirm with your centre which ID document they accept.

telc B1 Exam Day: Order, Answer Sheet and Rules

Q: Can I transfer my listening answers afterwards?

No. In Hörverstehen you mark **directly on the answer sheet**, and **no separate transfer time** is given at the end. Any answer you fail to transfer scores zero.

Level:B1Duration:~2.5 h + 15 minFee:~€150Validity:UnlimitedFormat:Written + Oral

Last updated: August 2026 · 7 min read

Most points lost on exam day have nothing to do with German: they are lost to a badly filled answer sheet, answers never transferred, or a misread rubric. This article walks through the official sequence and rules of a telc B1 exam day from start to finish.

The sequence

Part	Items	Time
Leseverstehen + Sprachbausteine	1–40	90 min (shared)
Hörverstehen	41–60	~30 min
Schriftlicher Ausdruck	1 email	30 min
Mündlicher Ausdruck	3 parts	~15 min (+20 min preparation)

The oral exam may not be on the same day. Many centres schedule it separately — confirm the exact date and time with your centre in advance.

Antwortbogen S30: where the points actually count

In telc exams the result comes from the answer sheet, not the question booklet. The official wording is unambiguous: only clearly marked fields on the Antwortbogen S30 are captured and feed into the overall assessment. What you need to know:

The answer sheet is a thin booklet of perforated pages onto which you transfer your solutions.
Page 1 has a field for the Fachnummer and Testversion. You find that information in the bottom-left corner of the Aufgabenheft S10 and on the board.
The oval answer fields and the personal and exam data fields should be filled in with a soft pencil.
The personal-data fields appear in all telc languages, while the subtests are shown as pictograms.
Examiners mark the oral result on page 4 and raters mark the writing assessment on page 6 — those pages are not yours to fill in.

Source: telc gGmbH, telc Deutsch B1 Übungstest 1 — "Markierungen auf dem Antwortbogen S30".

The most critical rule: no transfer time in the listening test

In Leseverstehen and Sprachbausteine you must reserve the last few of the 90 minutes for the transfer. But in Hörverstehen you mark directly on the answer sheet, and no separate transfer time is given at the end of the part. Marking the booklet and planning to copy later is a direct loss of points here.

The oral exam and the preparation room

The oral exam is usually taken in pairs (Paarprüfung). Beforehand you get 20 minutes of preparation, and the rules of that room are strict:

You may take notes only on the stamped preparation sheet you are given.
Writing on the task sheet is not allowed.
Phones, dictionaries and similar aids may not be used.
Reading your notes aloud in the exam costs points; notes support your speaking, they do not replace it.

Two examiners are present: the Interlokutor, who runs the conversation, and the Assessor, who only assesses.

What to bring

Valid photo ID (passport or identity card) — confirm with your centre which document they accept.
Your registration confirmation / invitation letter.
Several soft pencils and an eraser — required for the answer sheet.
Water and a small snack, subject to your centre's rules.

A plan for the day

Arrive early. ID checks, room allocation and filling in the answer sheet details all take time.
Split the first 90 minutes: ~65 min Leseverstehen, ~20 min Sprachbausteine, last 5 min for the transfer.
Mark immediately during the listening test. Mark something even when unsure — a blank is a guaranteed zero.
Spend the first 5 minutes of the writing task planning: number the four Leitpunkte and fix the form of address (du/Sie).
Turn towards your partner in the oral exam. Asking them questions and reacting to their suggestions is scored positively.

Rehearse it

The only way to reduce exam-day surprise is to have lived the format already. Work through the reading, listening and Sprachbausteine exercises on Zertifly under real timing.

After the exam

Marking is done centrally at telc gGmbH in Frankfurt: the answer sheet is scanned and compared electronically against the stored key. Your writing is read by two licensed raters. How long the result takes to reach you depends on your exam centre — ask when you register.

Conclusion

Three things to memorise for exam day: the answer sheet is everything, there is no transfer time in the listening test, and in the preparation room you may write only on the stamped sheet. Walking in knowing these is worth more than a few extra hours of study.

For the common mistakes see our mistakes article, and for scoring our scoring article.