If you use it correctly—focusing on chunks, paraphrasing, and strategic skipping—you will leave the exam hall not with a feeling of fluency, but with a feeling of control . And for the intermediate learner, control is far more valuable than confidence.
It works because it understands that the B1 exam is not a test of German. It is a test of test-taking strategy in German. The book decouples these two things: your actual language ability and your ability to demonstrate it under 60 minutes of pressure.
The book’s genius is not in its explanations—it’s in its . For example, when teaching Lesen Teil 1 (matching people to texts), the book doesn’t just give you a text. It instructs you to first underline keywords in the person’s description, then scan the ads for paraphrases (not exact words). mit erfolg zum zertifikat deutsch b1
There is a peculiar moment in every language learner’s journey. It happens right between finishing the A2 grammar tables and staring at a B1 Telefonnotiz (phone message note) covered in unfamiliar abbreviations. You have the vocabulary. You have the verb conjugations. Yet, the text in front of you feels like a coded puzzle rather than a German message.
This is the B1 Threshold . And for thousands of learners, the bridge across this gap is a single, unassuming workbook: . If you use it correctly—focusing on chunks, paraphrasing,
Mit Erfolg includes these, but its deeper value is in its . You are asked to listen to a dialogue and mark where the speaker hesitates ("äh"), corrects themselves ("also, ich meine..."), or uses filler words ("ja, also").
But is this just another test prep book? Or is it a hidden curriculum in how German actually works? After spending months dissecting its pages, I believe it is the latter. Here is the deep truth about what this book teaches you—and what it deliberately leaves out. Most textbooks separate grammar ( Grammatik ) from reading ( Lesen ). Mit Erfolg does something subversive: it atomizes the exam into four discrete Fertigkeiten (Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking) and then forces you to fail productively. It is a test of test-taking strategy in German
Have you used Mit Erfolg for Telc or Goethe B1? What section surprised you the most?