The DELE B1 oral exam lasts 15 minutes and has four tasks: a short prepared presentation, a conversation about it, describing a photograph, and a role-play based on that photograph. You get 15 minutes beforehand to prepare the first two only. It is worth 25% of the exam, and it is marked on four scales — coherence, fluency, accuracy and range.
📋 Table of Contents
- The format: four tasks in fifteen minutes
- The fifteen minutes of preparation
- Two examiners in the room
- How the B1 oral is marked
- The jump from A2 to B1 is bigger than people expect
- What we see go wrong
- How to prepare for the DELE B1 oral
- Preparing with an official exam centre
- Frequently asked questions
- Prepare with people who mark the exam
The format is straightforward once you know it. What catches candidates out is something else, and we come to it below: the gap between A2 and B1 is wider than most people think.
The format: four tasks in fifteen minutes
Task 1 — Give a short presentation (2 to 3 minutes)
You choose one of two topics and give a short prepared monologue about it, guided by a set of questions on the card. You might be asked for your opinion, for an experience of your own, or for what you would like to happen.
This is the only task you deliver on your own, and the only one you have fully prepared.
Task 2 — Take part in a conversation (3 to 4 minutes)
The examiner asks you about the topic you have just presented: your opinion, your own experience, something you mentioned in passing.
It is the longest task of the four. It is also where a prepared presentation stops helping you, because the questions follow what you actually said.
Task 3 — Describe a photograph and discuss it (2 to 3 minutes)
You are offered two photographs and choose one. You describe the situation it shows, following the prompts on the card, and then answer questions that connect the image to your own life.
This one is not prepared. You see the photographs for the first time during the exam.
Task 4 — Role-play a situation (2 to 3 minutes)
A simulated everyday situation, built from the same photograph you have just described. You and the examiner act it out.
Also unprepared, and the task where candidates most often fall back into their first language or go silent.
The fifteen minutes of preparation
You get 15 minutes, alone, before the exam. They cover Tasks 1 and 2 only. You can take notes and write an outline, and you may consult them during the test.
Half the exam is unprepared. That is worth repeating, because candidates often spend all their practice on the presentation — the one part they can control — and then meet Tasks 3 and 4 cold.
And as with every level: notes are prompts, not a script. A candidate reading aloud is audible, and it costs marks on fluency.
Two examiners in the room
This surprises people, so it is worth saying in advance.
There are two examiners. One is the interviewer: they talk to you, ask the questions and manage the conversation. The other is the marker, and they do not take part at all. They sit, listen and score.
The silent one is not being unfriendly. That is the role.
The exam also opens with a few informal warm-up questions that are not marked — they exist to settle you before Task 1 starts.
How the B1 oral is marked
Two things are happening at once:
- A holistic mark for your performance across all four tasks — 40% of the oral score.
- Two analytic marks — 60% — one covering Tasks 1 and 2, the other covering Tasks 3 and 4, each worth half.
That second point matters: the unprepared half of the exam carries the same weight as the prepared half.
The analytic scale has four categories:
| Scale | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Coherence | Whether your ideas connect — linked sequences of short sentences, held together with everyday connectors |
| Fluency | Whether you keep going, and whether you are clearly intelligible |
| Accuracy | Grammatical control across a repertoire of simple structures |
| Range | Whether your Spanish stretches far enough to handle everyday situations and say what you think |
Each category is scored from 0 to 3. Band 2 is the description of B1. Band 3 means you are comfortably above it; band 1 means the level was not reached.
The full descriptors are in the official DELE B1 exam guide from the Instituto Cervantes. They are the clearest statement of what B1 actually is, and they are worth reading before you decide you are ready.
The jump from A2 to B1 is bigger than people expect
This is the thing we see most often, and it is the reason candidates are surprised by their result.
People treat B1 as “A2 plus a bit more”. It is not. It is the level where Spanish changes character: you stop producing memorised exchanges and start handling conversation you did not plan. The official descriptor for B1 talks about describing experiences, explaining opinions and coping independently — not about completing transactions.
The oral is where that shows up immediately, because half of it is unscripted.
A candidate who is comfortably A2 can usually deliver Task 1 well. The presentation was prepared, the topic is familiar, the sentences were rehearsed. Then Task 2 asks a question they did not anticipate, Task 3 puts an unseen photograph in front of them, and Task 4 asks them to improvise — and the gap becomes visible in about thirty seconds.
If you are deciding which level to register for, our guide to the Spanish language levels sets out what each one means. Registering for B1 when you are a solid A2 is one of the most common and most avoidable mistakes we see.
What we see go wrong
The subjunctive is missing. The subjunctive is introduced at B1, and the exam gives you several openings for it — opinion, wishes, hypothesis. Candidates who never use it are showing the marker a performance below the level, whatever else they do well.
Grammar that survives because communication works. Gender agreement, verb endings, prepositions. Errors that never stopped anyone understanding them, so nobody ever corrected them. They are marked under accuracy.
No connectors. Short correct sentences delivered one after another, with nothing joining them. At B1 the descriptor is explicit about linked sequences held together with everyday connectors — es que, por eso, además. Coherence is scored separately, and this is its most visible evidence.
All the preparation went into Task 1. The presentation is polished and the other three tasks are not. It is an understandable instinct and it costs 50% of the analytic mark.
Freezing in the role-play. Task 4 asks you to behave like a person in a situation, not like a candidate answering questions. Candidates who have never practised that format tend to stall.
How to prepare for the DELE B1 oral
Read the scales first. They are in the official guide linked above. Knowing that coherence and range are marked separately from fluency changes what you work on.
Practise the unprepared half. Describe random photographs out loud. Have someone throw you a situation and role-play it with no warning. That is the half most candidates neglect and it carries the same weight.
Use the subjunctive deliberately until it stops being a decision. The same goes for connectors.
Practise the 15 minutes of preparation with a timer. Learn what you can realistically write down and how to use notes without reading them.
Speak to a person. Solo practice builds fluency but not interaction, which is the gap we see most in self-taught candidates — we go into that here. For what does work alone between sessions, see how to practise speaking Spanish.
Get a mock oral marked against the real bands. Not “was that all right?” but “which band, in each of the four categories, and why?”
For the scoring system across the whole exam, and how the oral groups with the listening paper, see how to prepare for the DELE exam. If you are aiming higher, the B2 oral has a different structure and different demands.
Preparing with an official exam centre
Hispanic Horizons is an official DELE exam centre in Mumbai, and our DELE preparation courses are taught by certified DELE examiners.
For the oral, that is the part hardest to replace. Someone who applies the official bands can tell you which one your performance sits in and what would move it up — and, just as usefully, whether you should be registering for B1 at all this session.
Courses run online as well as in person. Dates and registration are on our DELE exams page.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the DELE B1 oral exam?
Fifteen minutes across four tasks, plus 15 minutes of preparation beforehand for the first two tasks only.
Which parts of the DELE B1 oral can I prepare?
Only Tasks 1 and 2 — the presentation and the conversation that follows it. Task 3 (the photograph) and Task 4 (the role-play) are unseen, and together they carry half the analytic mark.
Can I take notes into the DELE B1 oral?
Yes. You may write an outline during the 15 minutes of preparation and consult it during the exam. Reading from it costs marks on fluency.
Why are there two examiners?
One interviews you and manages the conversation. The other marks and does not take part. The silent examiner is doing their job, not judging you unfavourably.
Do I need the subjunctive for the DELE B1 oral?
The subjunctive is part of B1 content and the tasks create openings for it. A candidate who avoids it entirely is likely to be marked down on range.
Should I take the B1 or stay at A2?
If you can only manage prepared speech, you are not ready for B1, because half the oral is unprepared. A placement assessment settles it in one conversation, and it is cheaper than a failed registration.
Prepare with people who mark the exam
The B1 oral rewards preparation more than any other paper, and feedback from someone who applies the official bands is the part you cannot get on your own.
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