Writing and speaking marking criteria: Goethe, telc and ÖSD compared at B1 and B2

In the German exams of Goethe, telc and ÖSD, your writing and speaking are marked by trained examiners against a fixed set of criteria, and all three publish their marking sheets with their sample papers. They ask the same questions everywhere: was the task done, does the text hang together, are vocabulary and grammar good enough. The differences sit in details that cost points: what makes a task worth nothing, whether word count matters, and how the examiners' marks are combined.

Writing criteria at Goethe, telc and ÖSD

Goethe-Zertifikat B1 and ÖSD Zertifikat B1 are the same exam. Its writing tasks are marked on four criteria: Erfüllung (task fulfilment), Kohärenz (coherence), Wortschatz (vocabulary) and Strukturen (grammar), each in bands A to E. In Teil 1 every criterion is worth up to 10 points. Goethe B2 keeps the same criteria and changes the weights: in Teil 1 fulfilment and coherence are worth 14 points each, vocabulary and grammar 16 each.^1–3

At B1 and B2, telc uses three criteria: Aufgabenbewältigung (task completion), Kommunikative Gestaltung (structure, register and range of vocabulary) and Formale Richtigkeit (accuracy). Bands A, B, C and D give 5, 3, 1 and 0 points, and the sum is multiplied by three.⁴

ÖSD has its own marking sheet for B2. Content earns no points there; it can only lose them, one to three points when the prompts are not fully covered. Points come from communicative appropriateness, text structure, vocabulary up to 5 and accuracy up to 5, a total of 15 per task.⁵

Vocabulary and grammar together make up half of a task's points in the shared B1 exam, a little more than half at Goethe B2 and two thirds at ÖSD B2. As a criterion of its own, telc marks only accuracy, one third, while vocabulary sits inside Kommunikative Gestaltung. Each band is explained in the articles on Goethe B1 Schreiben, Goethe B2 Schreiben and telc B1 Schreiben.

When a Goethe, telc or ÖSD writing task scores zero

The costliest mistakes are the ones that set a whole task to 0, and each provider has its own rules here. At Goethe B1 and B2, a text shorter than half the required length or off topic gets an E for fulfilment, which makes the whole task worth 0 points. For the B1 Teil 1 e-mail of about 80 words, that line is 40 words.^2·3

Above that line, length barely matters in this exam. The ÖSD criteria for the same B1 say length is only judged indirectly: a shorter text that handles every point properly gets full marks, and a longer one is not penalised. Phrases or whole sentences copied from the prompt do lose points.⁶

The telc criteria have no rule of their own on word count; the B2 task simply asks for at least 150 words. On topic, telc is stricter. A text that barely relates to the task counts as off topic and gets D on all three criteria, which is zero. If only the situation is wrong, just task completion gets a D and the language is marked as usual. At B1 one short sentence is enough to cover a point. At B2 a point needs more than a single complex sentence.^4·7

ÖSD B2 sets a task to 0 in three cases: 0 points on any criterion, the task rated «trifft kaum/nicht zu», or fewer than half the words in the second task. The prompts have to be covered in your own words, since quoted passages do not count. Both texts together need at least 15 of 30 points.⁵

ÖSD A2 marks length in word bands. From 40 words there is no deduction; 39 to 36 words lose one point, 35 to 31 lose two, 30 to 26 lose three, and under 26 words the task fails. Writing is passed with 3 of 15 points. At C1, ÖSD gives each of the two texts its own minimum of 7 out of 15.^8·9

How Goethe, telc and ÖSD combine two examiners' marks

Every text and every spoken performance is marked by two people, but their marks are combined in different ways. Goethe takes the average. In B1 writing a third marker reads the script when one mark is below 60, the other above, and the average stays under 60. Speaking also uses the average of both marks.¹⁰

ÖSD handles the same B1 exam differently. Its markers first judge the text independently, then agree on the final mark together; if they cannot agree, the exam manager marks it a third time. After the speaking exam the examiners agree on one score and, if their marks are far apart, listen to the recording. ÖSD B2 uses the same procedure.^11·12

At telc, two licensed markers rate every text, and where they differ the second mark overrides the first. In the speaking exam the examiners note their marks independently during the conversation and agree on a joint mark afterwards.⁴

Speaking criteria at Goethe, telc and ÖSD

In the shared Goethe and ÖSD B1 exam, each part is marked on fulfilment, interaction or coherence, vocabulary and grammar, with pronunciation marked once for all three parts. The presentation in Teil 2 carries the most points. The full scale is in the article on Goethe B1 Sprechen.²

The ÖSD criteria for this exam settle some common worries. In Teil 1 you do not have to cover every keyword on the task sheet. Full marks for interaction are possible even when your partner leads the conversation, and agreeing quickly does not cost points by itself. Nobody expects error-free speech or the absence of an accent. You lose points if in Teil 3 you defend a different opinion from your presentation without explaining why.¹³

At B1, telc marks each of the three parts on four criteria: Ausdrucksfähigkeit (expression), Aufgabenbewältigung (participation and fluency), Formale Richtigkeit (accuracy) and Aussprache und Intonation. Getting to know each other in Teil 1 is marked here, worth up to 15 points, and Teil 2 and Teil 3 up to 30 each. At telc B2 the short introduction at the start is not marked. Each of the three parts is worth 25 points: 7 each for the first three criteria and 4 for pronunciation.^4·7

ÖSD B2 gives only up to 3 points per task, for whether the communicative goal was reached. The rest is marked over the whole conversation: expression, intelligibility with pronunciation and fluency, and accuracy, 7 points each. Zero on any of these three means the whole speaking exam is failed. Marking at Goethe B2 is covered in the article on Goethe B2 Sprechen.¹⁴

Example: a B1 e-mail marked on the Goethe and ÖSD criteria

We wrote this task ourselves; it is not in the official materials.

Sie laufen seit drei Wochen in einem Laufclub. Ihre Freundin Jana fragt per E-Mail, was Sie in Ihrer Freizeit machen.

• Erzählen Sie, wie das Training ist.
• Fragen Sie Jana, welchen Sport sie macht.
• Laden Sie Jana zu einem gemeinsamen Lauf ein.

Schreiben Sie eine E-Mail (circa 80 Wörter).

The answer, 60 words:

Liebe Jana,

danke für deine E-Mail! Seit drei Wochen laufe ich in einem Laufclub. Wir treffen uns jeden Mittwoch im Stadtpark. Die Runden sind lang. Die Gruppe ist sehr nett. Am Anfang war ich langsam. Jetzt kann ich zehn Kilometer laufen. Am Sonntag bin ich mit dem Club an einem Wettbewerb teilgenommen. Welchen Sport machst du eigentlich?

Viele Grüße Sofia

This is how we would mark it on the Teil 1 scale, where bands A, B, C and D are worth 10, 7.5, 5 and 2.5 points.²

1. Erfüllung: B, 7.5 points. The training is described and the question is asked, but the invitation is missing. Two of three language functions handled properly give a B.
2. Kohärenz: B, 7.5 points. Greeting, opening and sign-off are in place. The sentences stand side by side without linking words: «Die Runden sind lang. Die Gruppe ist sehr nett.» needs an «aber». On the scale, linking that is «überwiegend angemessen» is a B.
3. Wortschatz: A, 10 points. The words fit the topic and are used correctly.
4. Strukturen: A, 10 points. One error: it should be «habe … teilgenommen». Band A allows isolated slips that do not get in the way of understanding.²

That makes 35 of 40. Length is not the problem: 60 words is more than half of 80. Under the ÖSD criteria a shorter text loses nothing once it handles all the language functions. This one still lacks the invitation, and the rule applies once it is added. Two changes win the 5 points back: a closing invitation («Komm doch am Mittwoch mit, wir laufen um sieben!») and linking words between the short sentences («Die Runden sind lang, aber die Gruppe ist sehr nett.»).⁶

Checking your own text before Goethe, telc or ÖSD

1. Download the official sample of your exam with its marking sheet: the Modellsatz for Goethe, the Übungstest for telc, the Modellsatz and Auswertungsbogen on osd.at for ÖSD. One exam's rules do not carry over to another.
2. Write the task against the clock and check the zero rules first: topic, situation and length under your exam's rules. telc B1 sets no word count, while ÖSD A2 counts every word.
3. Mark every point of the task in your text. At telc B2 each needs more than one sentence, at ÖSD B2 your own words.
4. Then read your sentence openings and linking words, and only at the end look for errors that get in the way of meaning.
5. Before the speaking exam, find out what yours marks: at telc B1 the introductions already earn points, and at ÖSD B2 a zero on any of the three overall criteria fails the speaking exam.

How many points each exam needs for a pass is collected in the article on pass marks at Goethe, telc and ÖSD.

Источники

· 14 проверены 08.11.2026

1. 1ÖSD Zertifikat B1, Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch
2. 2Goethe-Zertifikat B1: Modellsatz Erwachsene, Goethe-Institut und ÖSD
3. 3Goethe-Zertifikat B2: Modellsatz Erwachsene, Goethe-Institut
4. 4telc Deutsch B1: Übungstest 1, telc gGmbH
5. 5ÖSD Zertifikat B2: Auswertungsbogen Schriftliche Prüfung, Vers. 7.0, Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch
6. 6ÖSD Zertifikat B1: Bewertungskriterien Schreiben (Fokuspunkte), Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch
7. 7telc Deutsch B2: Übungstest 1, telc gGmbH
8. 8ÖSD Zertifikat A2: Auswertungsbogen Schriftliche Prüfung, Vers. 4.0, Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch
9. 9ÖSD Zertifikat C1: Gesamtbogen, Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch
10. 10Goethe-Zertifikat B1: Durchführungsbestimmungen, Goethe-Institut · от 01.09.2025
11. 11ÖSD Zertifikat B1: Durchführungsbestimmungen, ÖSD · от 01.10.2023
12. 12ÖSD Zertifikat B2: Durchführungsbestimmungen, ÖSD
13. 13ÖSD Zertifikat B1: Bewertungskriterien Sprechen (Fokuspunkte), Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch
14. 14ÖSD Zertifikat B2: Auswertungsbogen Mündliche Prüfung, Vers. 4.0, Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch