DELF, Goethe, JLPT
DELF, Goethe and JLPT test three different languages, but they all work the same way: you’re aiming for a level-based certificate, not a ranked score. You register for one level, on a scale running from a beginner’s survival language up to near-native command, and you either meet that level’s standard or you don’t. There is no rank against anyone else in the room, and landing one level short earns nothing — there’s no partial credit.
All three test more than one skill, so two different tools sit inside the same exam. Reading and listening are checked against a key or a scheme. Speaking and writing are judged by a trained rater, against a published standard for that level.
One of the three will fail you for a single weak skill, even if your total across every skill clears the bar. The skills are never pooled, so the weakest one can sink an otherwise strong sitting — don’t let any one skill coast on the others’ strength.
Prepare each skill against that level’s own published descriptors and past papers, not a general grammar course, and time every practice piece to the level’s own clock. The exact levels on offer, each level’s structure and its pass rule sit in the box below — these three bodies revise their own syllabuses and formats on their own separate schedules, so check it fresh before you plan around it.
Pick the level you are aiming for and open that body’s own current descriptors for one skill. Read what the rater is told to check for. Then record yourself doing that skill and mark it against the same descriptors, honestly, before anyone else sees it.
Spreading my practice evenly across every skill feels slower than polishing the one I am already strong at.
One weak skill can fail the whole level however high your total runs elsewhere, so an unpractised skill costs you the certificate, not just a few marks. Time spent lifting the weakest skill to its own floor pays for itself; time spent on an already-strong skill does not move the result at all.
DELF, Goethe, JLPT: check the current notice
As read on 14 September 2026. Only the Japan Foundation’s own JLPT pages were reachable this session; DELF, DALF and the Goethe exams stay unverified, since both bodies’ own pages were blocked. The bodies revise their pages; the shape does not change with them. Confirm in the current notice: DELF’s, DALF’s and the Goethe exams’ current level lists, structures and pass marks, and the JLPT’s own pass marks for your specific level and sitting. Confirm also the fees and dates for all three.