exam guide · Spanish

DELE A2, B1 and B2: the Spanish exam explained

The DELE (Diplomas de Español como Lengua Extranjera) are the official Spanish language exam of the Instituto Cervantes, issued in the name of Spain's Ministry of Education and valid for life. This page covers the three levels wspell prepares you for — A2, B1 and B2 — how each paper is built, how it is scored, and how to prepare.

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at a glance

Provider
Instituto Cervantes, which awards the diplomas in the name of Spain's Ministry of Education and runs the exam through its own centres and accredited institutions worldwide.
Levels on this page
A2, B1 and B2 of six CEFR levels (A1 to C2). Every level is an independent exam; you can sit any of them without having passed the one below.
Parts (pruebas)
Comprensión de lectura (reading), Comprensión auditiva (listening), Expresión e interacción escritas (writing) and Expresión e interacción orales (speaking, face to face with an examiner). Each is worth 25 points.
Duration
A2: reading 60 min, listening 40, writing 45, speaking 12 (plus 12 preparation). B1: 70 / 40 / 60 / 15 (plus 15). B2: 70 / 40 / 80 / 20 (plus 20). The speaking test may be scheduled on a day next to the written papers.
Pass rule
100 points in total, but you pass by groups: at least 30 of 50 in group 1 (reading + writing) and at least 30 of 50 in group 2 (listening + speaking). 60 points overall is not enough on its own. The result is Apto or No apto.
Validity
Indefinite, with official validity in Spain and international recognition.
Official uses
Spanish nationality by residence asks for two Instituto Cervantes tests: a DELE A2 or higher and the CCSE, on Spain's Constitution and society (Ley 19/2015). Nationals of countries or territories where Spanish is an official language are exempt from the language test, and applicants under 18 from both.
Who can register
Anyone, of any nationality; no course and no previous DELE are required.
Where and when
The Instituto Cervantes sets one calendar for every centre: the written papers are sat on the same day worldwide, though not every centre runs every session, and your centre sets the day of your oral. In Spain you register online at tienda.cervantes.org; elsewhere, at the exam centre. The fee depends on the level and the country where you register (Spain, 2026: A2 €138, B1 €173, B2 €204).
Results
About two months after the written papers — about three for the May and November sessions — in your Instituto Cervantes account; if you pass, the diploma comes by email in digital form with the certificate of grades. If the result is No apto you sit the whole exam again.

What the DELE is and who takes it

DELE stands for Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language — the official diplomas awarded by the Instituto Cervantes in the name of Spain's Ministry of Education. The diplomas have official validity, no expiry date, and are recognised by universities, employers and chambers of commerce internationally.

The typical candidate at A2 needs the paper for Spanish nationality by residence, which asks for a DELE A2 or higher together with the CCSE, the Instituto Cervantes' test on Spain's Constitution and society; nationals of Spanish-speaking countries are exempt from the language test. B1 and B2 candidates are mostly working, studying or moving to a Spanish-speaking country and want a level-specific proof that never expires. Any coherent standard variety of Spanish is accepted in your own production, and the Instituto Cervantes says the exam integrates the varieties of Spanish, especially from B1 upward.

Structure per level

Every level has the same four parts and the same answer logic: in reading and listening you only ever select — three-option multiple choice or matching, marked on a separate answer sheet — and you write only in the writing paper. Every recording is played twice. There is no true/false and no typed gap-fill anywhere in DELE A2 to B2.

  • A2 — Reading: 4 tasks, 25 items in 60 min (a personal email, eight short notices, three texts to match statements to, a narrative). Listening: 4 tasks, 25 items in 40 min (short conversations with picture options, radio messages, a conversation to attribute statements to him, her or neither, seven messages to match against a bank of ten). Writing: 2 tasks in 45 min, about 130–150 words in total (a reply message, then a short composition from a choice of two). Speaking: 3 tasks in 12 min after 12 min preparation — a prepared monologue, a photo description, a conversation based on the photo.
  • B1 — Reading: 5 tasks, 30 items in 70 min, adding two shapes: reconstruct a text by choosing six fragments from eight, and a three-option cloze on a letter. Listening: 5 tasks, 30 items in 40 min (messages, a long monologue, a news bulletin, six speakers to match to statements, a conversation to attribute). Writing: 2 tasks in 60 min (a letter or forum reply of 100–120 words, then a composition of 130–150 words from a choice of two). Speaking: 4 tasks in 15 min after 15 min preparation — a presentation, a conversation about it, a photo description, a role-play from the photo.
  • B2 — Reading: 4 tasks, 36 items in 70 min (a complex informative text, four texts against ten statements, a six-fragment reconstruction, a 14-gap three-option cloze). Listening: 5 tasks, 30 items in 40 min (short conversations, a conversation whose ideas you attribute to the man, the woman or neither, an interview, six speakers to match to statements from a bank of nine, a lecture). Writing: 2 tasks in 80 min, 150–180 words each — the first written from notes you take on an audio, the second an opinion article or a comment on a graph, from a choice of two. Speaking: 3 tasks in 20 min after 20 min preparation, including weighing proposals to solve a problem and giving an opinion on survey data.

How the DELE is scored

Comprehension items score one point each, with no penalty for a wrong answer, and are scaled to 25 per part. The writing and speaking papers are rated by trained examiners on band scales and scaled to 25 as well: at B1 and B2 each combines a holistic and an analytic mark, while at A2 each writing task gets a holistic mark from two raters, and speaking a global mark from the interviewer plus a second examiner's mark for each task. The four parts make 100 points.

The pass rule is the part people miss. The papers are paired into two groups — reading with writing, listening with speaking — and you need at least 30 of the 50 points in each group. A strong reader who freezes in the oral can fail with 65 overall; a candidate with 30 and 30 passes with 60. The diploma is either Apto or No apto, and there is no partial pass: to try again you retake all four papers and pay again.

How to register

In Spain you register online at tienda.cervantes.org (the Instituto Cervantes shop); outside Spain you register at the exam centre where you will sit, which confirms the exact place and time and schedules your oral. The Instituto Cervantes publishes the calendar with each session's registration deadline and the levels it offers. The 2026 sessions: A2 on 13 February, 17 April (Spain only), 23 May, 17 October and 13 November; B1 and B2 on 23 May, 16 October and 14 November — registration for the October and November sessions closed on 2 and 30 September. The 2027 sessions, open for registration from 18 November 2026: A2 on 12 February, 2 April, 22 May, 9 July, 10 September, 15 October and 13 November; B1 and B2 on 2 April, 22 May, 9 July, 15 October and 13 November. The fee depends on the level and the country where you register, from the Instituto Cervantes' price table; you have 14 calendar days from registration to ask for a refund.

Anyone can register regardless of nationality; you need no previous DELE, no course and no minimum level. Bring your ID to the exam. Results arrive about two months after the written papers — about three for the May and November sessions: your certificate of grades is in your account, and if you pass, the diploma comes by email in digital form with it.

How to prepare for the DELE

Take the official exam guide (guía del examen) and the free sample papers on examenes.cervantes.es and sit one full paper timed before you study anything. The DELE has a lot of clock — B2 is 70 + 40 + 80 minutes — and the first thing a sample paper tells you is whether you run out of it. Then work by group: the pass rule means your weakest group, not your weakest skill, decides the result.

  • Every multiple-choice reading question has three options. Read the question first, find the sentence in the text that answers it, and eliminate the two options that paraphrase something the text does not say. At B1 and B2 the fragment-reconstruction task is won on connectors and pronoun reference, so drill those.
  • Listening plays twice: use the first pass to locate, the second to decide. Speaker-attribution tasks (él / ella / ninguno — he / she / neither) are about who said it, not what was said — note the speaker next to each idea as you hear it.
  • Writing has word ranges and a task to fulfil, and examiners mark task fulfilment separately from language. Cover every point the prompt asks for, stay inside the range, and at B2 practise writing from audio notes, because that shape appears nowhere else.
  • Speaking is face to face with an examiner and mixes short monologues with conversation. Prepare flexible material about your work, your city and your opinions that you can turn toward any photo or topic, and rehearse describing a photo for two minutes out loud.

How wspell's course maps to the paper

Each DELE level on wspell is a free practice bank of four sets of roughly 150 items each: Reading (notes, ads, letters and short articles, each with one question and three options, as in the DELE's multiple-choice tasks), Listening (conversations, radio messages and news items as transcripts with a question, so you can drill the item logic before adding audio), Grammar (the structures the cloze and the writing scale test — ser and estar, past tenses, subjunctive triggers, pronouns) and Vocabulary for the level, with four options a question. Every item is a single question on one short text or sentence, and every item explains why the answer is right. That trains what the papers test, not the tareas' own formats: the matching tasks, the cloze, the text reconstruction and the long texts with several questions are not in the bank yet, so practise those on the official sample papers.

What the course does not do: it does not grade your writing or your speaking. Those are marked by examiners in the real exam and wspell does not score them. Use the bank for the reading and listening papers and for the language they test, and pair it with the official sample papers, someone to correct your writing and someone to talk to.

Grammar charts and cheat sheets

The grammar as tables you can take in at a glance — verb tenses, case endings, declensions, prepositions — each on one page to read, print and share.

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frequently asked questions

Which DELE do I need for Spanish nationality?

A DELE A2 or higher — and that is only half of it: Spanish nationality by residence asks for two Instituto Cervantes tests, the DELE A2 or higher and the CCSE on Spain's Constitution and society (Ley 19/2015). Nationals of countries or territories where Spanish is an official language are exempt from the language test, and applicants under 18 from both; confirm any other exemption with the Ministry of Justice before you book.

How long is a DELE diploma valid?

Indefinitely. The DELE has no expiry date, which is the main reason people choose it over a test with a validity period.

What is the DELE pass mark?

At least 30 of 50 points in each of the two groups: group 1 is reading plus writing, group 2 is listening plus speaking. Each part is worth 25, the total is 100, and a 60 spread unevenly can still be No apto.

Can I retake only one prueba?

No. To be Apto you must sit all four papers in one session, and if the result is No apto you register and pay for the whole exam again.

When do I get the results?

The Instituto Cervantes gives about two months after the written papers, and about three months for the May and November sessions. Your certificate of grades appears in your account, and if you pass, the diploma is emailed to you in digital form with it.

DELE or SIELE?

Both come from the Instituto Cervantes — SIELE together with UNAM, the University of Salamanca and the University of Buenos Aires. The DELE is a diploma at a fixed level, sat on paper at an exam centre on set dates, with indefinite validity; SIELE is taken on a computer at an exam centre, booked through the year, places you on a scale from A1 to C1, and its certificate is valid for five years. If you need a permanent, level-specific diploma, take the DELE.

Do I need B1 before I can take B2?

No. Each DELE level is an independent exam and anyone can register for any level without a previous diploma or course.

How long does it take to prepare from A1?

The Instituto Cervantes does not publish a number of hours, and it depends on how close your first language is to Spanish. A better yardstick than hours is a timed official sample paper: if you clear 30 in both groups with time to spare, book; if one group is short, put your weeks there.

sources

about this guide

The Instituto Cervantes awards the diplomas in the name of Spain's Ministry of Education; wspell holds no licence from it. The questions and passages in wspell's practice bank are original — written for wspell, not taken from any real or sample paper. The authoritative exam guides, dates and registration are at examenes.cervantes.es.

The information here summarises official sources at the date shown and can change — confirm dates, fees and rules on the provider's official pages before you register.

facts verified on October 13, 2026 against the sources above