DELF B1 reading: thirty answers in forty-five minutes
The DELF B1 reading paper gives you forty-five minutes, for 25 points. In the all-multiple-choice format this page covers, that means three exercises, six documents and thirty answers, and every answer is a tick. The official candidate manual says a second format is still in circulation, with two exercises and some written answers. The first exercise is a grid, not a text with questions: four short documents checked against four criteria, yes or no. Two press articles follow, each with three-option questions and true-or-false statements. This page shows where the points sit and works through two questions from our free B1 sample paper.
Updated 1 October 2026
Forty-five minutes, six documents, thirty answers
| Exercise | Documents | Questions | Question format | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CE-Ex1 | 4 texts | 16 | Yes or no | 8 |
| CE-Ex2 | 1 text | 7 | Multiple choice, three options, True or false | 8 |
| CE-Ex3 | 1 text | 7 | Multiple choice, three options, True or false | 9 |
| Total | 45 min | 30 | 25 |
Source · the official DELF B1 tout public format.
Reading to choose, then reading to understand
The paper asks for two kinds of reading, in a fixed order. Exercise 1 hands you four short documents of about a hundred words each. Under each document sit the same four criteria, and you answer oui or non to every one. Nobody asks what a text means as a whole. The question is narrower: does it say one precise thing, yes or no?
In one practice grid we wrote, four people describe working from home. One criterion asks whether the employer helps with the costs. The two texts that use the word employeur are the two no answers. The two yes answers speak of a company that refunded part of the equipment, and of a boss who covers some of the bills. Matching the word instead of the idea gets all four cells wrong.
Exercises 2 and 3 change the job. Each one is a single article of roughly three hundred to three hundred and fifty words, with four three-option questions and three true-or-false statements. Now you follow a thread: who did what, for what reason, and with what result. Our guide to the B1 level says what that kind of reading covers outside the exam room.
Sixteen half-point boxes, then two full articles
The grid is worth as much as a whole article. Sixteen cells at half a point come to eight points, which is what exercise 2 carries with its seven answers. Each cell is marked on its own: one misread criterion costs half a point.
The two articles are not weighted alike. The table below prints what each answer is worth in the official sample paper: a point or a point and a half. Three cells of the grid therefore weigh as much as the heaviest question on an article. Exercise 3 carries one point more than exercise 2, for the same number of answers. The examining body sets these values paper by paper, so they can shift a little from one session to the next.
That changes what a mistake costs. No single cell loses the exercise and no single cell saves it: the eight points are won sixteen times over. Ten correct cells are already worth the section floor of 5/25. Under that floor the exam is failed whatever the total, a rule the B1 overview explains alongside the pass mark.
| Exercise | Points | What each question is worth |
|---|---|---|
| CE-Ex1 | 8 | 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 · 0.5 |
| CE-Ex2 | 8 | 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 · 1.5 · 1.5 |
| CE-Ex3 | 9 | 1 · 1.5 · 1.5 · 1.5 · 1 · 1.5 · 1 |
| Total | 25 |
Pass mark: 50 out of 100 across the four papers.
Section floor: under 5 out of 25 in any one paper and the whole exam is failed.
Source · the official DELF B1 tout public format.
A press article and two of its questions, worked through
Le covoiturage séduit de plus en plus les jeunes actifs
Depuis deux ans, les plateformes de covoiturage enregistrent une hausse régulière des trajets domicile-travail. Pour beaucoup de jeunes salariés, partager sa voiture n’est plus seulement une question d’économies : c’est aussi un moyen de réduire son impact environnemental et de rendre le trajet plus agréable. Certaines entreprises encouragent désormais la pratique en réservant des places de parking aux covoitureurs ou en participant aux frais de carburant.
Léa, 26 ans, assistante commerciale à Nantes, a franchi le pas l’année dernière. « Au début, je voulais simplement dépenser moins, raconte-t-elle. Finalement, j’ai rencontré des collègues d’autres services et le trajet passe beaucoup plus vite. » Comme elle, près d’un jeune actif sur cinq déclare partager régulièrement sa voiture pour aller travailler, selon une enquête publiée au printemps.
1. Au départ, Léa a choisi le covoiturage pour…
- A rencontrer des collègues d’autres services.
- B répondre à une demande de son entreprise.
- C réduire ses dépenses.
2. Selon l’enquête citée, le covoiturage régulier concerne…
- A environ 20 % des jeunes actifs.
- B la moitié des salariés.
- C surtout les habitants des centres-villes.
Answer +
Trap: meeting colleagues is what she discovered “finalement” (in the end), not her starting reason.
Trap: “half” hugely overstates “one in five”; convert the fraction (1 in 5 = 20%) before choosing.
Text written for our B1 sample paper, in the format of a regional press article.
The first key turns on two time markers. Léa says what she wanted au début (at first), then what she found finalement (in the end). Meeting colleagues is true, but it is the outcome, not the starting reason the question asks for. The second key restates a figure in another form: one in five becomes about twenty per cent. The figure is invented for the exercise and says nothing about France. What transfers is the move from a proportion to a percentage.
This example is a press article with three-option questions, which is the format of exercises 2 and 3. On the real paper, each article also carries three true-or-false statements, and the paper opens with the yes-or-no grid. Neither appears here. The page shows the first two of the article’s four paragraphs, and even in full it is shorter than an exam article. For the grid, the free lesson further down works through four rows, cell by cell.
Sharing forty-five minutes between three exercises
Official timing
- CE-Ex18 points
- CE-Ex28 points
- CE-Ex39 points
Source · the official DELF B1 tout public format.
A workable split
- CE-Ex113 min
- CE-Ex213 min
- CE-Ex314 min
- Checking your answers5 min
One split that works. It is our arithmetic rather than an official figure, and the free lesson below proposes another.
DELF B1 reading practice, exercise by exercise
Train the two kinds of reading separately, because they go wrong in different ways. On the grid, the risk is speed without checking: a tick lands on the wrong side over a price, a day or a condition. On the articles it is the reverse: you read the whole text twice and reach the last questions with no time left.
Know which format you are training for. The all-multiple-choice papers have been coming into sessions since 2020, and reading has lasted ten minutes longer since then, whatever the format. The earlier format has not gone: the official candidate manual of July 2026 still says both are in circulation. It has two exercises, short written answers, and true-or-false items you justify by copying the passage. Our practice covers the multiple-choice format only, so work through the other official sample paper once as well.
- 1Time a first attempt before you revise anything: practise B1 reading against the clock, and note which of the three exercises you left unfinished.
- 2For the grid, read the four criteria first and put each one in your own words. Then take one document at a time and answer all four before moving on.
- 3Check every wrong cell against the text. Write down the word that misled you and the phrase that really answered the criterion: they are rarely the same.
- 4On an article, treat each true-or-false statement as a claim to verify. Find the line it restates or contradicts before you tick.
- 5When the three exercises hold up separately, sit them in a row: start a full B1 mock and see which one the clock squeezed.
A free lesson on the order to work in
Free lesson · study guide
The DELF B1 reading paper game plan
Forty-five minutes, three exercises, 25 points. The order to work in, how each box is scored, and where your minutes should go.
Reading paper questions, answered plainly
How many documents does the reading paper have?+
Six, across three exercises, in the all-multiple-choice format. Exercise 1 has four short documents of about a hundred words each. Exercises 2 and 3 have one article each, about three times as long. The format table at the top of the page gives the count for each exercise.
What is the yes or no grid in exercise 1?+
Four short documents, and the same four criteria under each. For every document you tick oui or non against every criterion, which makes sixteen cells. You are not picking the best document, and there are no three options. Each cell is a separate decision worth half a point.
Do the true or false items need a justification?+
It depends on the format you are given. In the all-multiple-choice format, no: you tick vrai or faux and move on, and nothing on the reading paper is written out. In the other format still in circulation, yes: you copy the passage that proves your answer, and the mark is all or nothing. The instruction above the item tells you which case you are in.
Do all the answers score the same?+
No. In the official sample paper, a cell of the grid is worth half a point. On the two articles, an answer is worth a point or a point and a half, and the points table above shows which. No answer on the paper weighs more than three grid cells.
How is B1 reading different from B2 reading?+
In the same multiple-choice format, the B2 paper lasts an hour, for five documents and twenty answers. It has no yes-or-no grid and no true-or-false statements. Its third exercise asks you to match viewpoints to the people who hold them. In the official sample paper its weights are also steeper, from half a point to two and a half. The B2 reading page sets it out.
Keep reading
The other B1 pages
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