Start Deutsch 1 is the exam behind both the Goethe-Zertifikat A1 and telc Deutsch A1. It is 80 minutes long, it is passed at 60 points out of 100, and it is the single most common reason people who never intended to learn German find themselves learning German — because it stands between a couple and a family reunification visa.
It is also an exam people fail for entirely avoidable reasons. Not because A1 German is difficult, but because they prepared for the wrong thing: months of grammar exercises and almost no time speaking out loud. This is a plan that fixes that, with the hours it actually takes.
Goethe or telc: the same exam under two logos
The Goethe-Institut and telc developed Start Deutsch 1 together. The modules, the tasks, the timing and the scoring are identical. What differs is where you can sit it, what it costs, and how quickly the result comes back.
| Goethe-Zertifikat A1 | telc Deutsch A1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Exam | Start Deutsch 1 | Start Deutsch 1 — identical |
| Availability | More than 90 countries | Widespread inside Germany |
| Results | About 2 to 4 weeks | About 4 to 6 weeks |
| Named by embassies | Usually named specifically | Legally equivalent |
Who actually needs A1
A1 is a legal requirement for the spouse and family reunification route, where you must show basic German before entry. It is not required for a student visa on an English-taught programme, and it is not required for most skilled-worker routes.
- Spouses and family members joining someone in Germany — the main case
- Some au pair placements, depending on the agency and the mission
- Not required: student visas for English-taught degrees
- Exempt: EU and EEA spouses, and nationals who may enter Germany visa-free
- Exempt: spouses joining EU Blue Card holders, ICT card holders and recognised researchers
- Exempt: recognised hardship, illness or disability making learning unreasonable
The exam, module by module
Four modules, 15 raw points each, 60 raw points scaled to 100. There is no minimum per module and no separate pass in any one of them — the total is all that matters, which changes how you should spend your revision time.
| Module | Time | Parts | Raw points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hören (listening) | about 20 min | 3 | 15 |
| Lesen (reading) | about 25 min | 3 | 15 |
| Schreiben (writing) | about 20 min | 2 | 15 |
| Sprechen (speaking) | about 15 min, in a group | 3 | 15 |
| Scaled score | Grade |
|---|---|
| 90 – 100 | Very good |
| 80 – 89 | Good |
| 70 – 79 | Satisfactory |
| 60 – 69 | Pass |
| 0 – 59 | Fail |
Read those two tables together and the strategy is obvious. Speaking is worth exactly as much as reading, it is the most scripted part of the exam, and it is the part almost nobody practises. A candidate who rehearses the three speaking tasks properly walks in with a quarter of the marks close to banked.
How long it really takes
The Goethe-Institut's published estimate is 80 to 200 lessons of 45 minutes — roughly 60 to 150 clock hours. That is an honest range, and where you land in it depends mostly on whether you have learned another European language before.
Take 120 hours as a realistic middle for an adult learning German from scratch, and the only question left is what you can sustain each day.
Weeks to exam-ready at 120 hours of study
Assuming six study days a week. 120 hours sits in the middle of the official 60–150 hour range.
Derived from the Goethe-Institut's guidance of 80 to 200 lessons of 45 minutes to reach A1. Prior knowledge of another European language pulls the figure down; studying alone with no speaking partner pushes it up, because the hours spent are not the same as hours that count. The highlighted row is the pace the plan below is built on.
The twelve-week plan
Ninety minutes a day, six days a week. The shape matters more than the schedule: vocabulary and pronunciation from day one, grammar in the middle, and the exam format itself only in the last three weeks — practising exam papers before you have the language to answer them teaches you nothing except how to feel discouraged.
Twelve weeks to Start Deutsch 1
About 90 minutes a day, six days a week — roughly 110 hours in total. The milestones in gold are the ones people skip and then regret.
Weeks 1 – 2
Sounds, alphabet, numbers, introductions
Learn to pronounce German before you learn to read it silently — ä ö ü, ei versus ie, sch, z, and the r. Master the alphabet properly: part one of the speaking exam asks you to spell your name aloud, and it is free marks. Add numbers to 100, days, months, and the sentences that introduce you.
Weeks 3 – 4
Present tense, sein and haben, articles
Regular verb endings, the two verbs everything else is built on, and der/die/das with ein/eine. Learn every new noun with its article and its plural from the first day — going back to add genders later costs far more time than doing it now.
Weeks 5 – 6
Accusative, negation, and the first 300 words
The accusative case as it actually appears at A1, plus nicht and kein — the distinction examiners listen for. Build vocabulary around the exam's own themes: family, home, food, shopping, transport, work, health, weather.
Week 6
Book the exam
Now, at the halfway point. Seats are released in batches and popular dates fill within hours, so a date six weeks out is realistic while a date you look for in week eleven usually is not. A booked date also ends the drift that kills most self-study plans.
Weeks 7 – 8
Modal verbs, word order, and writing
können, müssen, wollen, and where the second verb goes. Start the Schreiben work here: filling in forms, and short messages of 30 or so words. Write by hand, because that is what you will do on the day.
Weeks 9 – 10
Speaking, out loud, with another person
The three speaking tasks are scripted enough to rehearse: self-introduction, question-and-answer from word cards, requests from picture cards. Find a partner, a tutor or an online exchange and use German for at least half of every session. Recording yourself is the next best thing and still far better than silence.
Week 11
Full mock papers, under timed conditions
Only now. Sit the free model papers end to end with a clock running, mark them honestly, and spend the rest of the week on whatever the marking exposes rather than on what you enjoy revising.
Week 12
Consolidate, do not cram
Review your own error log, re-read the vocabulary you have got wrong repeatedly, and rehearse the speaking script until it is boring. Stop studying the day before. Confirm your documents: original passport, national ID where the centre requires it, and the printed booking confirmation.
Running short on time? Compress weeks 1 to 8 rather than 9 to 12. The exam rewards speaking and format familiarity far more than extra grammar.
What you actually have to learn
A1 is a genuinely small syllabus, which is the good news. Roughly 650 words on the official Goethe word list, and a grammar scope you could write on one page.
| Area | What A1 covers |
|---|---|
| Verbs | Present tense; sein, haben, werden; modal verbs; separable verbs |
| Articles and nouns | der/die/das, ein/eine, plurals, nominative and accusative |
| Pronouns | ich, du, er/sie/es … and mein, dein, sein |
| Sentences | Statements, yes/no questions, W-questions, verb in second position |
| Negation | nicht and kein, and when each is used |
| Prepositions | in, auf, unter, neben; um, am, im for time |
| Numbers | 0 to 100, plus ordinals and dates |
The themes are equally bounded: personal details, family, housing, food and drink, shopping, transport, free time, work, health and weather. Everything in the exam sits inside that list, which means vocabulary learned outside it is vocabulary learned for pleasure rather than for the exam.
How to practise speaking with nobody to speak to
This is the real problem for most candidates in Karachi, Dhaka, Colombo or Dubai, and it is the difference between a pass and a resit. The speaking exam is a quarter of the marks and the only part you cannot bluff.
- 1Rehearse the self-introduction until it is automatic. Name, age, country, languages, job, and spelling your name aloud. It is the same every time.
- 2Make your own word cards from the exam themes and answer them out loud, alone, on a timer. Speaking to an empty room feels foolish and works.
- 3Record yourself weekly and listen back. You will hear the hesitations and the English word order that you cannot hear while talking.
- 4Find one partner — an online exchange, a tutor for an hour a week, another candidate from your exam centre. One real conversation a week beats ten hours of listening.
- 5Practise being interrupted. In the group exam you respond to another candidate, not a script, and that is what unprepared candidates freeze on.
Nobody fails A1 because the German was too hard. They fail because the first time they spoke a German sentence to another human being was in the exam room.
Resources worth your time
- The Goethe-Institut's free model papers and practice materials — the only practice that is guaranteed to match the real format
- The official A1 Wortliste, which tells you exactly which words are examinable
- Deutsche Welle's free A1 courses, which are properly made and cost nothing
- One coursebook worked through in order — Menschen, Schritte International or Netzwerk are the usual choices
- A spaced-repetition app for vocabulary, used daily in short sessions rather than weekly in long ones
- A notebook for an error log: every mistake you make twice, written down once
Booking, exam day, and after
Registration is online and competitive. Seats open on an announced date and the popular sittings fill the same day, so book in week six rather than week eleven. Take the original passport, whatever national ID your centre requires, and the printed confirmation — centres do turn candidates away for missing documents.
The written modules run back to back in about 65 minutes; the speaking exam is scheduled separately, often the same day, in a group of up to four. Results take roughly two to four weeks with Goethe and four to six with telc, because telc marks centrally in Frankfurt. Build that wait into any visa timeline — it is dead time you cannot compress.
If you fail, you may retake the whole exam as often as you like. What you cannot do at A1 is resit a single module, so a retake means the full exam and the full fee. That is the argument for booking the date you will be ready for rather than the first one you can get.
The mistakes that cost people the exam
- 1Never speaking German aloud before exam day. A quarter of the marks, and the one part that cannot be crammed.
- 2Learning nouns without their articles. Retrofitting genders onto 400 words in week ten is miserable and slow.
- 3Doing mock papers in week two. You cannot practise a format you do not yet have the language for; it teaches discouragement, not German.
- 4Booking the exam late. Seats fill in hours, and the date you need is rarely the date that is free.
- 5Collecting resources instead of finishing one.
- 6Sitting the exam a year before the visa application. Missions expect a recent certificate, and too early is its own kind of wasted.
- 7Assuming a course attendance certificate will do. It will not.
Is twelve weeks right for you?
Twelve weeks at ninety minutes a day suits an adult in full-time work, starting from no German, who can find one speaking partner. If you already read another European language, ten weeks is realistic. If you can only manage half an hour a day, be honest and plan for six months rather than discovering the gap in week eleven.
And if the visa appointment is four weeks away, do not stretch this plan to fit — book an intensive course instead. A1 is small enough to be learned quickly with a teacher and a room full of people to talk to, and almost impossible to learn quickly alone.
Where to sit the exam
Start Deutsch 1 must be taken at an authorised centre — there is no remote option, and no course certificate substitutes for it. These are the centres applicants from our markets normally use. Seats are released in batches and the popular dates fill within hours, so book before you feel ready rather than after.
Applying from Pakistan
Exam centres: Goethe-Institut Karachi, the Annemarie-Schimmel-Haus in Lahore, and NUML in Islamabad.
- Booking is online only and it is competitive — registration for a given sitting opens on a published date and time, and the popular slots go quickly. Put the opening time in your calendar.
- Bring the original passport, the original CNIC and your printed booking confirmation. Afghan nationals present the original Tazkara with an English translation instead of the CNIC.
- Candidates who study at the institute may be eligible for a reduced exam price, so ask before you book as an external candidate.
Applying from India
Exam centres: Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune, plus Goethe-Zentrum partners in Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Kochi and Trivandrum.
- India has the densest network of any market we work in, so you are rarely more than one city away from a sitting.
- If you are also applying to a German university, remember that A1 and the APS certificate are entirely separate processes on separate clocks. Neither waits for the other.
Applying from United Arab Emirates
Exam centres: Goethe-Institut Gulf Region, which runs exams in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and across the Gulf in Muscat, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
- For Gulf residents this is the most convenient route available — all levels from A1 to C1 are offered locally.
- Dates and prices are not always published in full online. Write to the exam coordinator rather than assuming a sitting does not exist.
Applying from Bangladesh
Exam centres: Goethe-Institut Bangladesh in Dhaka.
- Registration opens online in announced batches and closes when the sitting is full.
- If the exam is for a spouse visa, sit it early: the certificate is one of the documents the embassy in Dhaka expects at the appointment, and appointments there are already scarce.
Applying from Sri Lanka
Exam centres: Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka in Colombo.
- A single centre serves the country, so sittings are less frequent than in India. Plan around the exam calendar rather than expecting a date to be available when you are ready.
Applying from Nepal
Exam centres: Goethe-Zentrum Kathmandu.
- The German Embassy in Kathmandu expects language certificates from recognised providers — the Goethe-Zentrum, a VHS or telc — and wants them presented with the visa application itself rather than sent afterwards.
- Build the certificate into your visa timeline, not after it. Results take weeks, and a sitting you miss can push the whole application into the next intake.
Centres, fees and registration windows change, and some venues are hosted by partner institutions rather than the Goethe-Institut itself. Confirm dates, price and ID requirements on the centre's own website before you pay, and check which certificate your German mission names before you book.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Both are Start Deutsch 1, developed jointly by the Goethe-Institut and telc, with identical modules, tasks, timing and scoring. The difference is the logo on the certificate, where you can sit it and what it costs. Goethe runs exams in more than 90 countries, which is why applicants outside Germany almost always take the Goethe version; telc is widespread inside Germany through the Volkshochschulen. Both are legally recognised, but German missions most often name the Goethe-Zertifikat A1 by name, so confirm what your embassy accepts before booking.
60 out of 100 points. The four modules contribute 15 raw points each, 60 raw points in total, scaled to 100. There is no minimum score per module, so a weak Schreiben can be carried by a strong Hören — but you must attempt every part of the exam for the result to count. Scores of 90 to 100 are graded very good, 80 to 89 good, 70 to 79 satisfactory, and 60 to 69 a pass.
The Goethe-Institut's own estimate is 80 to 200 lessons of 45 minutes, which is roughly 60 to 150 clock hours. The spread depends on whether you have studied another European language, how much time you can give it each day, and how much of that time is spent speaking rather than reading. At about 1.5 hours a day, six days a week, most adults sitting their first German exam are ready in twelve to fourteen weeks.
Only on an intensive course. One month gets you to the bottom of the official range — 60 hours — if you study four hours a day, five days a week, with a teacher and other learners to speak to. Self-study alone at that pace almost always produces someone who can read A1 German and cannot speak it, which is precisely what the exam tests. If the deadline is genuinely four weeks away, book an intensive course rather than trying to compress self-study.
The certificate itself does not carry an expiry date. German missions, however, generally expect a language certificate to be recent — commonly no more than about a year old at the time of the visa application. Sitting the exam far in advance of a visa you have not yet prepared for is a common and avoidable waste.
The main one is the spouse and family reunification visa. Several groups are exempt, including EU and EEA spouses, nationals of countries whose citizens may enter Germany without a visa, spouses joining EU Blue Card holders, ICT card holders and recognised researchers, and cases of recognised hardship. Student visas do not require A1 for an English-taught programme — though German is what makes the years afterwards work.
It runs about 15 minutes in a group of up to four candidates, and you speak with the other candidates rather than only with the examiners. There are three parts: introduce yourself and spell your name or give a number when asked; draw word cards and ask and answer simple questions on an everyday topic; then draw picture cards and make and respond to simple requests. It is scripted enough to rehearse, which is why it is the cheapest marks in the exam and the ones most candidates leave on the table.
You can retake it as often as you like — there is no limit and no waiting period beyond the next available sitting. What you cannot do at A1 is retake a single module: Start Deutsch 1 is scored as a whole, so a resit means the whole exam and the whole fee again. That is the practical argument for booking the date you are ready for rather than the earliest one available.