My B1 Goethe Speaking Exam Experience — Teil 2: Presentation & Q&A

Continuing from my post about the B1 Goethe Speaking Teil 1 experience, this post covers Teil 2. In the waiting room, I found out my exam partner would be someone from Cuba — she'd been in Germany for over 8 years and was taking the B1 exam to apply for citizenship. Since she'd lived in Germany a long time and her husband is German, her German was quite solid.

Before entering the exam room, we were each given a prompt sheet and a sheet of scratch paper for notes. We had 15 minutes total to prepare for both Teil 1 and Teil 2. I chose to outline my Teil 2 points first, then switched to Teil 1 — this gave me more control over my time.

There were two examiners in the room, both very kind. The older male examiner had a clear, warm voice and smiled a lot. The younger female examiner was a bit quieter and more serious.

After the introductions, the male examiner noticed my Cuban exam partner had lived in Germany a long time and spoke fairly fluent German, while I had only been in Germany for 5 months and wasn't speaking very smoothly yet. He asked her to speak slowly and calmly so I could follow — I was really grateful for that moment.

I got through Teil 1 fairly smoothly — thanks to preparing carefully based on my Teil 1 experience I shared earlier.

For Teil 2, I'd practiced closely at home. I listed out all the common B1 Teil 2 topics and learned vocabulary by topic — not memorizing sample essays or "spot-guessing" specific prompts, just focusing on vocabulary and sentence structures so I could speak on whatever topic came up.

For the personal experience and Vietnam-context parts, I spoke honestly based on my own experience and what I'd observed. At home, I practiced presenting within the actual time limit — concise, without rambling, but still covering all the points.

My exam partner spoke quite well but didn't pay attention to the intro–body–conclusion structure the way I did, so her structure was a bit disorganized. The examiners asked follow-up questions to help her add more, and she still completed the Teil 2 content.

During the Q&A round, I listened carefully to my partner's presentation. At home, I'd practiced the reflex of asking questions — I usually opened with: „Vielen Dank für deine Präsentation. Es hat mir gefallen, weil sie sehr strukturiert war." — then asked an "easy" follow-up question, like: „Was ist deiner Meinung nach der beste Weg, die Umwelt zu schützen?"

When my partner asked me questions back, I listened closely for keywords like Was, Wer, Wie, Wo, Wann... to catch the exact meaning of the question and answer on point.

The whole speaking exam ended smoothly. A week later, I got my results — passed all four skills, with a solid score for speaking too.

If you're preparing for B1, treat Teil 1 and Teil 2 as separate skills when practicing: Teil 1 needs paired-conversation reflexes, Teil 2 needs presentation structure and topic-based vocabulary. Read my Teil 1 post — I think that combo helped me feel a lot more confident before exam day.

For regular speaking practice with peers at your level, see the B1 Speaking program.

I hope this helps you prepare better for your upcoming B1 exam.