How telc, Goethe and the DTZ score writing, listening and speaking

Most learners prepare for a German exam by doing practice tests. Few read the scoring rules, although every exam body publishes them in full. I read the Goethe-Institut, telc and DTZ documents side by side.

Where the points sit

Each body adds up a result its own way. The rules decide where your effort pays.

• Goethe A1 has a catch. The written parts carry 75 of 100 points. Below 35 of them, even a perfect oral cannot reach 60.
• Goethe B1 and up is modular. Each module is scored, passed and repeated on its own.
• telc A2·B1 is different. 240 points, 25 percent per skill. B1 needs 70 percent overall and in three of the four skills.
• DTZ has no total. Each part gets a level. You cannot write your way to B1 while speaking at A2.

Listening: one point or nothing

Every listening item in all three exams is right or wrong.

• No partial credit. Half right is wrong.
• No extra weight. A hard item counts as much as an easy one.
• No penalty for guessing. A blank is a point given away.

Writing: how the criteria work

Two trained raters read each text and score it against published criteria, not against a model answer.

At telc B1, the first criterion counts Leitpunkte. One short sentence is enough at B1; at B2 a Leitpunkt needs more than one.

• The task comes first. Goethe: Erfüllung at E scores the task 0. telc: a text with no link to the prompt gets D in every criterion.
• Wrong text type, right topic. An invitation where an acceptance was asked for: D in Aufgabenbewältigung only. The language is still graded.
• Errors weigh by understanding. telc calls it the primacy of understandability: ending and gender errors weigh less than agreement errors.

Writing: what gets deducted

The Goethe A1 sample papers show what a deduction looks like.

At telc B1, Kommunikative Gestaltung gets no A if:

• No greeting or closing. Either one missing is enough.
• The register is wrong. Or it wavers between du and Sie.
• Unconnected Leitpunkte. They sit next to each other, not linked.
• Every sentence starts the same. Most begin with Ich or Wir.

Speaking: two examiners, one mark

Every oral exam here has two examiners in the room. How two opinions become one mark differs.

Goethe A1 states the standard plainly: what counts is whether you are understood, not the number of mistakes.

• Understood at once. Full marks, errors and all.
• Listener briefly thrown. Half.
• Question not understood. Zero.

What is the same, what differs

• Receptive is binary, productive is analytic. No half points in listening; no letter marked against a model answer.
• The task comes first. Miss it and the language does not save you, in all three.
• Errors weigh by understanding. Goethe, telc and the DTZ descriptors all turn on it.

Understandability, not the count of mistakes, is the standard in all three. That is a different thing to practise for than "no mistakes".

How MeisterPath marks Schreiben

Our marker covers the A1 Schreiben format that the Goethe-Institut and telc developed together as Start Deutsch 1. It follows the published rubric point by point instead of asking a model for a grade.

1. Part 1, the form One point per field. A slipped letter in a copied name is forgiven; a missing element is not.
2. Part 2, the message 3, 1.5 or 0 per content point. Herr in a du message: 1.5. A question where an answer was asked for, or the prompt's facts copied back: 0.
3. Kommunikative Gestaltung 1, 0.5 or 0. A missing greeting costs 0.5 here and the content point for the greeting, nothing else.
4. One mark back Both parts go in together and come back on the exam's own scale.

• Spelling. Penalised only where it blocks understanding, as in the rubric.
• German beyond the unit. Ich komme aus before kommen is taught gets full marks and a note, never a deduction. The rubric does not say; we decided.
• Your own country. Written in your own language or script, it is never wrong. You get the German name back as feedback.

If you are preparing

Sources: Goethe-Zertifikat A1, Prüfungsziele und Testbeschreibung; Goethe-Zertifikat B1, Übungssatz with Prüferblätter and the Durchführungsbestimmungen; telc Deutsch B1 and B2, Übungstest 1 (2019) and Tipps zur Prüfungsvorbereitung B2 (2020); telc Deutsch A2·B1, Übungstest 1 (2023); DTZ Prüfungshandbuch (2009) and the g.a.s.t. DTZ Übungssatz 1 (2024).