Here’s how I reached German B1 in around 6 months
4 years. It was 4 years ago when I first accidentally played one German song and started learning German language for fun. At the start of 2022 I finally decided to finalise my “fun” and this summer I finally passed B1 level at Goethe-Institut e.V. and got 99/100 Points on Writing.
1. Dedication
As you see, I started learning 4 years ago with no real target or weekly hours, but ended up learning everything needed in 6 months this year. I spend around 3 hours daily learning German. Weekends included. You need to just get into the flow.
2. Smart learning hours
I noticed that 2 lessons by 1.5h was more than enough. 2h lessons were frying my brains. Try to find the best time for you. From here also follows that you need private lessons instead of going to courses.
3. Sports, Health and Schedule
At the start of 2022, I was going to gym or jogging at least every other day. Take your vitamins, try to take L-glutamine, Omega-3. Or don’t, I would say jogging was primarily source of my alertness. And especially important to have schedule, go to sleep at the same time every day and wake up, you won’t feel tired.
4. Study the exam material
You may know German on B1, and fail at exam at the same time. Study every step of the exam, every part of every exercise. It’ll pay off. When I was passing writing, it was too easy because behind my head there were tens of prepared statements on how to greet, explain the situation and finish the email.
5. Take separate exams
It’ll be more expansive, but your brain will thank you. You can prepare specifically for a single exam. I had the next sequence: Reading, Listening, 2-week pause, Writing, 2-week pause, Speaking. In every 2-week pause, I was preparing for every next exam.
6. Learn Anki cards
Just google “B1 Wortliste DTZ Goethe”, a lot of words. Commuting to work — learn, Working from home — go commute somewhere randomly and learn.
7. Start your journal in German
You can try dayoneapp.com or whatever works for you, every day write something about your day in German. Even if you don’t speak well, as long as you’re expressing something, it’ll be beneficial.
I started to learn German by some random audiobook, and I clearly remember winter nights where I was enabling this audiobook and going shopping. 20 minutes to shopping mall, cold weather and “der die das” in my headphones. After that, I travelled to Germany and wanted to learn more about this awesome culture, where I ended up relocating at 2020.
