You've decided to take the DELE and, doing the maths, you have two months ahead of you. And the usual question appears: is it enough? Can I do it without a teacher? Where do I start? Don't worry. To prepare for the EXAM, two months is plenty, but there's an important nuance worth clearing up from the very first line.

Having the level and passing the exam are not the same thing. One thing is managing in Spanish at the level of the DELE you want to certify (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 or C2). And quite another is passing the exam, which has its format, its timings, its criteria and its little traps. The first is built over months (or years) of Spanish. The second can be trained, and it can be trained in 8 weeks if you go about it with a method.

That's why, before diving into this plan, do one thing: the free level test. It's your step 0. If you confirm you already have the level of the exam you want to sit, this plan is for you. If you're short of the level, you'll need more time (and, honestly, a different structure: first raise your level, then prepare for the exam).

In this post I'm giving you an 8-week plan designed to prepare for the DELE EXAM, whatever the level. Some things change depending on the level (the A1 oral has 4 tasks, the A2 one has 3, the B2 texts are longer than the B1 ones), but the underlying method is the same. I'm telling you all this from an examiner's point of view, with honest advice in case you're doing it without a teacher.

Why two months is enough if you already have the level

When someone says to me "Mar, no me da tiempo" ("Mar, I don't have enough time"), the problem is almost never the exam; it's that they're trying to raise their level and prepare for the exam at the same time. And those are two different things.

If you already have the level, the exam is trainable. That is, there's a fixed format, tasks that repeat exam session after exam session, assessment criteria that are well known, and very tight timings. Learning that format, automating your templates and adjusting your speed is perfectly possible in 8 weeks with a routine of 1 hour to an hour and a half a day.

Learning the language, on the other hand, takes as long as it takes. The Instituto Cervantes talks about 180-200 teaching hours to reach A2 from scratch, another 200 to reach B1, and so on. If you're halfway along that path, no magic plan will save you those hours.

The good news is that, if you already have the level, in 8 weeks you can go from "I more or less know Spanish" to "I know exactly how this exam works and how I'm going to pass it". Which is exactly what's assessed.

Before you start: confirm your level

This is step 0 and, honestly, it's the one most people skip. And then what happens, happens.

There's not much point throwing yourself into an 8-week plan without knowing which level you're preparing. That's what the free test is for: https://nivel.aporeldele.com/

It helps you to:

Confirm the level you can sensibly sit.

Detect whether you're a little below it (in that case, it's better to postpone the exam session or change level).

Decide whether to go for A2, B1, B2 or whichever it may be, without relying on your intuition alone.

I'm going to be honest with you: if you take the test and discover you're one level below the one you wanted to sit, better to know now than on exam day. With two months ahead of you, you have time to readjust: either drop a level and go for a high mark, or postpone the exam session and raise your level first. Both are good decisions. What's not a good decision is sitting the exam without the level and "seeing what happens".

If the test confirms the level is yours, perfect. Close the browser, open the calendar and let's get on with the plan.

What the DELE exam is like

Whatever your level, the DELE always has four papers:

Prueba 1: Comprensión de lectura (reading comprehension).

Prueba 2: Comprensión auditiva (listening comprehension).

Prueba 3: Expresión e interacción escritas (written expression and interaction).

Prueba 4: Expresión e interacción orales (oral expression and interaction).

What changes between levels is the length, the number of tasks, the text types and the complexity. For example, the A1 oral has four tasks, the A2 one has three, the B1 one has four different ones, and the C1 and C2 orals bring in long monologue and debate tasks. The timings vary too: 25 minutes for the written paper at A1, 80 minutes at C2.

Even so, the pass rule is the same at every level. The papers are grouped into two blocks:

Group 1: reading + writing.

Group 2: listening + speaking.

To pass you need 60% (30 points out of 50) in each of the two groups. That is, within a group you can compensate (if you're weak in reading but you smash the writing, it works out). Between groups you can't.

This matters for the plan, because it means you can't abandon any skill, not even the one you're worst at.

8-week plan to prepare for the DELE exam

Here's the full plan. Each week has a main focus, but every skill always gets touched on a little. Allow between 1 hour and an hour and a half a day, 6 days a week. On the seventh, properly rest.

Week 1: exam format and first contact

This week you don't study content, you study the exam.

Download the exam guide and the candidate's manual for your level from the Instituto Cervantes website. Read it all. Calmly. Underline timings, number of tasks, assessment criteria and anything that sounds odd to you.

Then get hold of a complete official practice paper (there are free ones on the Cervantes website) and look at it without answering. I repeat: WITHOUT ANSWERING. Just to see the real format of each paper, how the prompts are worded, what they're going to ask of you.

Quick tip: at the end of the week, make a list with three columns: "what I can already handle", "what scares me" and "what I don't even know what it is". That list will be your map for the rest of the plan.

Week 2: reading and listening with official practice papers

A week of immersion in the two receptive papers. There's no magic here: do tasks, correct them, repeat.

Reading: do two official practice papers of the complete reading paper, timed. Note down where your time goes, which type of task you find hardest and which vocabulary you don't understand. Write it in your notebook.

Listening: one official task every day. No tricks: listen, answer, correct, listen again with the transcript. If your level is B2 or above, alternate between Spanish and Latin American accents, because both come up.

Watch out for this: in the listening, what fails almost every time isn't your ear, it's your reading speed on the questions. Get used to reading the questions in the seconds before each audio. If you arrive at it cold, you're lost.

Week 3: the written paper with templates and a stopwatch

The written paper is one of the most trainable, because it has a very fixed format at every level. Letters, messages, essays, argumentative texts: each type has its structure.

Get out the official written tasks for your level. Identify the two or three text types that come up in each task. For each one, create yourself a template: greeting, opening sentence, connectors you're going to use, closing sentence, sign-off. Yes, a template. It's not cheating, it's training.

This week, write at least four timed texts. Time is half the battle. If you go over the word limit or the minutes at home, you're going to suffer in the exam.

My advice: once a week, ask someone (a teacher, a native-speaker friend, an online community) to correct one text. Self-correction at this stage has a ceiling.

Week 4: the oral with templates and recordings

The oral is scary, but it can be trained too. A lot.

Look at the format for your level: how many tasks, what's asked in each one, how many minutes of preparation. For each task, create a mental template: how I start, which connectors I use to organise my speech, how I close.

Then record yourself. Yes, it'll feel embarrassing at first. But listening to yourself is what makes you improve the most. Note down:

  • Which fillers you use too much.
  • Where you run out of words and go quiet.
  • Whether you use connectors or just string sentences together.
  • Whether you pronounce clearly or swallow your endings.

Watch out for this: in the DELE oral, the examiner isn't looking for perfection, they're looking for communication. Don't go silent. Rephrase, say "perdón, quiero decir…", make something up if you have to. That adds points, it doesn't take them away.

Week 5: first full mock exam

Halfway through the plan. Time to measure for real.

Do a complete official exam, in order, timed, without breaks (except the one the exam itself allows). Four papers. Allow between two and five hours depending on your level.

Afterwards, don't correct it in the heat of the moment. Rest for a day. And the next day, analyse it calmly:

  • Which tasks went well and why.
  • Which tasks you failed and why (vocabulary? you didn't understand the prompt? you ran out of time? you got nervous?).
  • Which type of mistake keeps repeating.
  • How your percentage looks in each group.

This mock exam gives you the map for the next three weeks. What failed here is what you need to reinforce.

Week 6: focused reinforcement

This isn't the time to move forward, it's the time to shore things up.

Take the weak points from the mock exam and dedicate the week to them. If it was the reading, three reading practice papers. If it was the oral in the monologue task, five recorded monologues. If it was the written paper in the argumentative task, four timed texts.

This is the least glamorous week of the plan, but it's where exam points are won.

Add 15-20 minutes a day of "passive input": a series in Spanish with subtitles, a podcast in your exam's accent, a short read. No pressure, no answering anything. Just exposure.

Week 7: second mock exam and polishing the oral

Repeat the full mock exam. Compare it with week 5's and see the improvement. If your percentage has gone up, you're on track. If not, identify which block is still underperforming and dedicate the rest of the week to that block.

This week, also dedicate two extra sessions just to the oral. It's the paper that benefits most from training in the final weeks, because the progress really shows. Template per task, recording, listening, adjusting, second recording. If you have someone to practise with, even better.

Quick tip: on exam day, you won't have time to think through the structure of each task. That's what the templates are for. If you've got them automated, your whole head is free for the content.

Week 8: partial mock exams and mental rest

A week for fine-tuning, not for learning new things.

  • Monday: one complete paper (the one that scares you most).
  • Tuesday: another complete paper.
  • Wednesday: light review of vocabulary, connectors, formulas and templates. Nothing new.
  • Thursday: oral mock. Last recording.
  • Friday: review of notes and templates. One hour maximum.
  • Saturday: rest. Read something in Spanish if you feel like it, but no pressure.
  • Sunday: properly rest. Don't open a book. Seriously.

The day before the exam: no studying. Go for a walk, sleep, get your ID, your registration slip, water and a blue pen ready. Arrive early. And breathe.

Advice for self-taught students

Preparing for the exam without a teacher is entirely possible, but you have to be honest with yourself. Here's what works best for me with students who study on their own.

ALWAYS use official practice papers. The Instituto Cervantes publishes free practice papers on its website, and there are official books with more of them. Those are your reference. Don't trust the "DELE-style" exams floating around the internet without an official stamp: they change the format, the criteria and the timings, and they train you badly.

Get external correction at least a couple of times. The oral and the written papers are the hardest to assess on your own. A single in-depth correction of one text and one recording will change your plan. If you don't have a teacher, look for a Spanish-learning community or a one-off service.

Always time yourself. From week 1. Speed is half the battle, and if you train without a clock, you arrive at the exam without reflexes.

Don't skip the oral. It's the paper that scares home learners the most, and that's why so many leave it until the end. Bad move. Speak out loud from week 1, even if it's alone in front of the mirror or recording yourself with your phone.

Set a routine and stick to it. Better 1 hour every day than 6 hours on Saturday. Exam reflexes are built through regular exposure, not cramming.

And measure. Every two weeks, a mini check-in: what have I learnt, what's still resisting me, what do I change for the next two weeks.

Recommended materials

You don't need much. In fact, buying ten books is usually worse than mastering three. This is my minimum list:

A basic Spanish grammar book for the level you're preparing (any of the big manuals for the level will do).

Official practice papers from the Instituto Cervantes (free on their website).

My books, if they suit you: "DELE A2: 4 modelos de examen" and my B1 book. For other levels, you can drop by the general page: https://www.aporeldele.com/libros

My online courses by level, with task-by-task explanations, corrected mock exams and an oral section. There's one for each level:

If you want to see the full list: https://aporeldele.com/cursos

A vocabulary notebook made by you, not bought.

A podcast in the accent of the exam you're sitting (peninsular Spanish for most practice papers, Latin American if you prefer it and your level can handle it).

A flashcard app like Anki or Quizlet for spaced review.

With that, and with discipline, you'll get there. Truly.

Frequently asked questions

How long do you need to prepare for the DELE exam?

To prepare for the EXAM (not to raise your level), 8 weeks is enough if you already have the level of the DELE you're sitting. If you're short of the level, first work out the time needed to raise it (180-200 teaching hours per step, according to the Cervantes) and then add these 8 weeks for the exam.

How do I confirm my level before starting?

With a level test. There's a free one here: https://nivel.aporeldele.com/. It's step 0 before committing to an 8-week plan. If the test confirms your level, perfect. If it warns you that you're one step below, better to know now.

Can you prepare for the DELE without a teacher?

Yes, you can. Students manage it every year. That said, it's worth having someone correct your written and oral papers at least a couple of times before the exam, because from A2 upwards the mistakes are subtler and slip past your own ear.

How much does the DELE cost?

It depends on the level, the exam centre and the country. In Spain, the fees usually range from around 110 euros for the lower levels to around 220 euros for the C2. It's worth checking the Instituto Cervantes' official exam session information for the country and level where you're sitting the exam.

Do you have to study grammar or is speaking enough?

Both. But careful: if you already have the level, you're not "studying grammar" to learn it, you're polishing what you already handle and learning to apply it to the specific tasks of the exam. "Knowing the subjunctive" is not the same as "using it well in a timed B2 essay".

What if I fail one of the papers?

It doesn't work paper by paper, but by groups: reading+writing and listening+speaking. If you're weak in reading but you smash the writing, the group can still work out. Same with listening and speaking. That's why it pays to reinforce the whole block, not just one paper.

The essentials

  • Having the level and passing the exam are not the same thing. The first is learnt, the second is trained.
  • Before starting the plan, confirm your level with the free test: https://nivel.aporeldele.com/
  • If you already have the level, 8 weeks is plenty to prepare for the exam sensibly.
  • If you're short of the level, first raise your level, then prepare for the exam. Not both at once.
  • Always work on all four skills, without skipping the oral.
  • Use official practice papers from the Instituto Cervantes, not pirate exams.
  • Time yourself from week 1. Speed is half the battle.
  • If you study on your own, get external correction at least a couple of times.
  • On exam day, communicating matters more than being perfect.

If you still don't know which level is right for you or where to start, take the free level test first to get your bearings.

And if you'd like to receive free resources, study templates and useful reminders before each exam session, you can sign up to the newsletter.