B1 German exam

[Psyk0jell0]

I have my B1 exam in Sept. Can someone please recommend the best Exam prep books for B1? I mainly need help with Hören i think. Also people who have already completed it, could you please let me know your experience with it :) Thanks

[jpawlin]

I think that you should try to be familiar with the B1 test structure (if you haven't done it yet).

In case of Goethe Institut exams (there are other B1 german exams like austrian ÖSD Zertifikat or TELC Deutsch B1) - in my personal opinion the most tricky part is Lesen. The short notes may look easy but there are some ambiguous possible answers, which can cause real distraction (from my personal experience from Goethe A2 exam).

You can try to make B1 mock tests from the websites:
http://www.goethe.de/lrn/prj/pba/bes/gzb/mat/de11108519.htm
https://www.telc.net/en/candidates/language-examinations/tests/detail/zertifikat-deutsch-telc-deutsch-b1.html#t=2

http://www.osd.at/default.aspx?SIid=32LAid=1ARid=388

and check if you have problems with any of the four parts of the exam.

I recommend to try to make the mock tests 'as real as possible' - each part of exam is timeboxed and the time management is very important during the real exam.

[Psyk0jell0]

Yeah I've been doing few model papers already.. not doing all that well in the "hören" section. Rest are ok for me. Thanks for the links I'll check them out :)

[ally.x]

If you need help mainly with Hören, books won't be of much help here. I would recommend you to dive into watching TV shows and movies in German. Do it every day and do it a lot and before September comes your listening comprehension will go through the ceiling :-) I did it years ago with English and recently with German. At first it feels very hard to watch in your new language but little by little you will start to pick up more words and get used to the way people pronounce things and the way sentences are created. The moral is: "stick with it even if it feels hard". To make it less frustrating at first pick something that you know in your own language.

[Psyk0jell0]

Thanks I'll try that. Do you have any recommendations of shows or movies for the B1 level that I could perhaps start with?

[ally.x]

"Normal" shows don't care about the level of language since they are for native speakers. I would recommend conversation comedies for the start, since they provide the common everyday language. I personally watched the whole 10 seasons of Friends :-) .. so as I said before, start with something that you know and enjoy.

[Psyk0jell0]

Thanks for the info :)

[Catia962407]

this is the best website to practice listening, I found: http://www.dw.com/en/learn-german/s-2469#

[Psyk0jell0]

Awesome thanks :)

[Lorel90]

Check out the B1 oral tests in youtube. The questions are almost expected. I agree with other commenters you need to listen to a lot of German. Take the mock tests in DW to get familiar with the horen format.

[Psyk0jell0]

Thank you, I will :)