telc B1 Hörverstehen: format, points and free practice

How is Hörverstehen structured?

In about 30 minutes you hear five short statements (Globalverstehen), an interview or conversation (Detailverstehen) and five everyday announcements (Selektives Verstehen). Every recording plays exactly once, and you mark each statement Richtig or Falsch. Everything is spoken in standard German at natural speed, sometimes with a light regional coloring.

Teil 1: Globalverstehen, five short statements

You hear five short texts from five different speakers, such as opinions or brief reports from everyday life. For each text there is one statement on your task sheet, and you decide: Richtig or Falsch? This part tests Globalverstehen, the main message. Every correct answer brings five points.

The statements summarize or generalize. A speaker may mention plenty of details, but the statement only asks whether the overall direction is right. So focus on the speaker's stance and tendency, not on individual numbers or subclauses.

Teil 2: Detailverstehen, the long conversation

The core of the second part is a longer interview or conversation, often in radio format, with ten statements about its content. Again you decide Richtig or Falsch for each statement, at 2.5 points each. The statements follow the order of the conversation, and that order is your most important anchor.

Read all ten statements during the announced pause, then listen with your finger on the current statement. If an answer stays unclear, decide immediately and move on, otherwise you miss the passage for the next statement.

Teil 3: Selektives Verstehen, five announcements

Finally you hear five short announcements of the everyday kind: answering machines, station announcements, radio notices. Each comes with one statement, again Richtig or Falsch, at five points each. Selektives Verstehen means you are listening for one specific piece of information, such as a time, a platform or an address.

Read the statement carefully before each announcement and decide which detail you need to catch. The rest of the announcement is distraction. Often several numbers or places are mentioned, and only one of them answers the question.

A worked example

The statement reads: "Der Zug nach Hamburg fährt heute von Gleis 7." (The train to Hamburg leaves from platform 7 today.) In the announcement you hear: "Der Intercity nach Hamburg, planmäßige Abfahrt 14:32 Uhr, fährt heute abweichend von Gleis 12. Bitte beachten Sie die Änderung."

If you are only waiting for "Hamburg" and "Gleis", you hear two platform numbers and have to guess. The reasoning: the statement says platform 7, the announcement says "abweichend von Gleis 12", departing from platform 12 instead. So the statement is false. Changes and corrections like this are the exam's favorite pattern.

Memorize signal words like "abweichend" (deviating), "statt" (instead of), "leider" (unfortunately), "doch nicht" (not after all) and "ursprünglich" (originally). They almost always announce that a first-mentioned or expected piece of information is about to be corrected.

How to use the 30 minutes and the pauses

In Hörverstehen you cannot budget the time yourself; the recording sets the pace. Your only controllable resource is the announced pauses before and between the parts. Use them exclusively to read the upcoming statements, not to brood over past items.

Always answer immediately, even when unsure. Every recording plays exactly once, there is no rewinding, and with Richtig or Falsch even a pure guess is right half the time. At the end you transfer your answers to the answer sheet, as in every part.

Typical mistakes in Hörverstehen

The most expensive mistake is dwelling: whoever hangs on to a missed statement also misses the next one, and one mistake becomes three. The second most common is the echo problem: a statement gets marked Richtig just because the same words appeared in the audio, although the meaning was different.

So train under real conditions: every recording once only, no pause button, with pressure to answer. If you rewind three times while practicing, you are rehearsing an exam that does not exist and will be surprised by the pace on exam day.