telc B1 Schreiben Beispiel: A Full Sample Letter Explained

You want to know what a passing telc B1 letter actually looks like before you write your own — not vague tips, but a real example with points and word count you can measure yourself against. That’s exactly what this article gives you.

Most candidates lose points not because their German is bad, but because they don’t know what the examiner is checking for. Once you see the structure and the four Leitpunkte (guiding points) laid out, the task stops feeling mysterious. Let’s walk through the real format, then look at a full sample answer you can study line by line.

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What the telc B1 Writing Exam Actually Looks Like

The telc B1 exam is administered by telc, and the writing section (Schriftlicher Ausdruck) is one part of a 135-minute written exam that also includes reading and listening. For the writing task specifically, you get 30 minutes. You’re given a choice between two topics — pick the one you find easier — and you write one letter (a personal email, a note to a friend, or a semi-formal message, depending on the topic).

The letter must address four Leitpunkte, guiding points printed directly under the prompt. This is the single most important fact about this exam: examiners are checking whether you’ve covered all four points, not just whether your grammar is clean. Skip one point, and you lose marks regardless of how fluent your sentences are.

Grading covers three areas:

• Content / task fulfillment — did you address all four Leitpunkte with relevant, sufficient information?
• Communicative design — is the letter appropriately structured, with a greeting, body, and closing that match the tone of the situation?
• Formal correctness — grammar, vocabulary range, spelling, and sentence connectors.

A typical answer runs somewhere between 100 and 150 words. You don’t need literary German — you need clear, correct sentences that hit every point on the list.

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A Full telc B1 Schreiben Beispiel You Can Study

Here’s a realistic prompt, followed by a complete model answer.

Prompt: Ihre Freundin Lisa schreibt Ihnen, dass sie in eine andere Stadt zieht. Schreiben Sie ihr eine E-Mail. Gehen Sie auf folgende Punkte ein:

• Wie haben Sie auf die Nachricht reagiert?
• Warum ist ein Umzug für Sie persönlich schwierig vorzustellen?
• Bieten Sie Ihre Hilfe beim Umzug an.
• Schlagen Sie einen Termin vor, um sich zu treffen.

Model answer:

Liebe Lisa,

vielen Dank für deine Nachricht! Ehrlich gesagt war ich zuerst ziemlich überrascht, denn ich hätte nie gedacht, dass du wirklich umziehst. Ein Umzug in eine andere Stadt wäre für mich persönlich sehr schwierig, weil ich meine Familie und Freunde hier nicht einfach zurücklassen könnte.

Trotzdem freue ich mich für dich und möchte dir gerne helfen. Wenn du willst, kann ich am Wochenende vorbeikommen und beim Packen helfen. Ich habe außerdem ein Auto, falls du etwas transportieren musst.

Lass uns doch vorher noch etwas trinken gehen, bevor du wegziehst. Hast du am Samstagnachmittag Zeit? Dann können wir in Ruhe reden und uns verabschieden.

Ich freue mich auf deine Antwort!

Liebe Grüße Anna

That’s 118 words — comfortably in range, and every Leitpunkt is addressed in order.

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Breaking Down Why This Answer Works

Look at how directly each paragraph maps to a guiding point. The first paragraph handles reaction and personal difficulty together, since they’re closely related. The second paragraph offers concrete help — not just “I’ll help you,” but two specific ideas (packing, transport), which strengthens the content score. The third paragraph proposes an actual day (Samstagnachmittag), which is what “schlagen Sie einen Termin vor” requires — a vague “let’s meet soon” wouldn’t fully satisfy this point.

Notice also the connectors doing quiet work: trotzdem, außerdem, falls, bevor. These aren’t advanced vocabulary — they’re B1-level words used correctly, which is exactly what raises your formal correctness score without requiring you to reach for grammar you’re not confident with. If you’re still building this kind of connector vocabulary, our guide to the telc B1 German exam breaks down the reading and listening sections in the same level of detail.

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How the telc Format Compares to Goethe, ÖSD, and ECL

If you’ve prepared with other materials, be careful — the writing formats are not interchangeable across exam providers, and this trips up a lot of candidates who assume “B1 writing” means the same task everywhere.

Goethe’s B1 writing section, for example, typically asks for a forum post or informal text responding to a discussion topic, with a slightly different points system and often a semi-formal register requirement. If you’re comparing the two, our breakdown of the Goethe B1 exam shows exactly how the tasks and timing diverge. At B2, Goethe shifts toward argumentative writing — expressing and defending an opinion — which is a different skill entirely from telc’s point-by-point letter, and it’s worth reading about in our Goethe B2 exam overview if you’re deciding which exam to target.

ÖSD’s writing tasks lean toward structured personal correspondence too, but the number of guiding points and expected word count differ from telc’s. ECL, meanwhile, often incorporates more general-purpose composition prompts rather than a fixed letter format. The practical takeaway: don’t practice with “generic B1 writing prompts” from random sources and assume they’ll transfer directly. Practice with the actual task type your exam provider uses.

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Useful Redemittel for Your Own Letter

Having a small bank of fixed phrases ready means you spend your 30 minutes thinking about content, not hunting for the right opening.

Opening a personal letter:

• Liebe/r [Name], ich habe mich sehr über deine Nachricht gefreut.
• Vielen Dank für deine E-Mail / deinen Brief.

Reacting to news:

• Ich war ziemlich überrascht, als ich gehört habe, dass …
• Das freut mich sehr für dich!

Offering help or suggestions:

• Wenn du möchtest, kann ich dir dabei helfen.
• Ich würde vorschlagen, dass wir …

Suggesting a time or date:

• Hättest du am [Tag] Zeit?
• Wie wäre es, wenn wir uns am … treffen?

Closing:

• Ich freue mich auf deine Antwort.
• Liebe Grüße / Bis bald

Memorize five or six of these and you’ll never stare at a blank first line during the actual exam.

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A Simple Checklist Before You Hand In Your Letter

Before your 30 minutes are up, run through this quickly:

• Have you addressed all four Leitpunkte, in any order, but clearly?
• Does your word count sit roughly between 100 and 150 words?
• Do you have a greeting and a closing that match the tone (personal vs. semi-formal)?
• Did you check verb conjugations and word order in subordinate clauses (weil, dass, wenn)?
• Did you use at least two or three connectors to link ideas smoothly?

This checklist alone catches most of the small errors that cost points under time pressure.

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Try It Yourself With Papagei

Reading a model answer is a good start, but the real test is writing your own letter under the same time pressure and getting honest feedback on whether you’ve hit all four points. Papagei’s free diagnostic test gives you a Readiness Score that shows exactly where your writing stands right now — content coverage, structure, and grammar — so you know precisely what to fix before exam day. Try the diagnostic test in the Papagei app and see your Readiness Score in minutes.