DELE C2 exam
The DELE C2 diploma certifies that you can:
- understand virtually everything you hear or read, whatever its length, complexity or level of abstraction
- express yourself spontaneously, with great fluency and precision of meaning and grammar
- tell apart fine shades of meaning even in highly specialised academic and professional fields
What the exam consists of
The exam has 3 papers and the net examination time is 275 minutes. The papers follow the order in which the Instituto Cervantes numbers them, and each one is scored separately.
| Paper | Length | Tasks | Items | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 Use of language, reading and listening comprehension Uso de la lengua, comprensión de lectura y auditiva | 105 min | 7 | 52 | 33.33 |
| Paper 2 Writing, mediation and written interaction Expresión, mediación e interacción escritas | 150 min | 3 | – | 33.33 |
| Paper 3 Speaking, mediation and spoken interaction Expresión, mediación e interacción orales | 20 min | 3 | – | 33.34 |
How the exam is marked
There are no groups of papers here. Each paper is marked separately and the minimum has to be reached in every one of them.
To be apto (pass) you need at least 20 points in every paper. The result is apto or no apto — no grade is given.
The Instituto Cervantes publishes the results within 3 months of the exam.
What the exam day looks like
- You arrive at the time you are given. The day, the time and the place are in the convocatoria you receive from the examination centre. The written papers are administered from 9 a.m. at the earliest in examination centres all over the world.
- You show three documents. Your registration receipt (resguardo de inscripción), the original photo ID you registered with or your passport, and the convocatoria oficial from the examination centre. Photocopies are not accepted and nobody is let into the room without them.
- You go through identification. Before the start, the examination centre checks your documents and takes your photograph. It is for identity control and the photo is kept with your exam.
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You sit the written papers in one block, in this order:
- Use of language, reading and listening comprehension 105 min
- Writing, mediation and written interaction 150 min
- The oral paper is usually separate. Speaking, mediation and spoken interaction may be held on the same day as the written papers, or on the day before or after — the convocatoria of the examination centre decides. Each candidate has their own time.
- No aids are allowed. You may not use a dictionary or any other aid in any of the papers.
With us you sit the exam in Brno, where we are an Instituto Cervantes examination centre. Dates and fees are on the exams page. DELE exams
We will get you ready for C2
DELE preparation with us is one-to-one with a certified teacher, not a group course. It works through repeated mock exams with feedback: you find out how the exam is marked, how the examiners think, and you build a strategy for the written and the oral papers.
Not sure whether C2 is the right level? Take our level analysis for the DELE exam — it shows which level to aim for and what you still need to study.
Where these figures come from
The DELE exam is issued by the Instituto Cervantes: the structure, the timings and the marking are its figures and we only reproduce them. The sources are the Guía del examen for each level, the model exams and the pages of Instituto Cervantes examination centres. Anything we could not verify in them is not on this page.
What the Instituto Cervantes says always prevails. If anything is unclear, write to us at dele@hispanica.cz.
