Goethe B1 Forumsbeitrag: write it without losing points

The task gives you a TV programme's topic and one comment from its online guestbook, for example: „Kinder sollten schon in der Grundschule eine Fremdsprache lernen". You write your own Beitrag: state your opinion, back it up, and, where possible, give an example from your own experience. Aim for around 80 words. It is scored against four criteria — task fulfilment, coherence, vocabulary, grammar — up to 10 points each.

Eighty words is five or six sentences. The simplest approach is a plan where each sentence has its own job:

1. Link to the topic. One sentence saying the question is topical, or that you know it from experience.
2. Opinion. State it directly: „Ich finde, …" / „Meiner Meinung nach …".
3. Argument. Why you think so.
4. Example. From your own life, family, or work. This is what separates an 8-point text from a 5-point one.
5. Concession or conclusion. „Natürlich …, aber …" or a short wrap-up.

Paragraphs are not required, but one break after the opinion visibly improves coherence in the examiner's eyes.

For the opinion: „Ich bin der Meinung, dass …", „Ich finde es wichtig, dass …", „Aus meiner Sicht …".

For the argument: „Der Grund dafür ist, dass …", „Das liegt daran, dass …", „Dadurch …".

For the example: „Bei mir war es so: …", „Meine Tochter zum Beispiel …", „Ich habe selbst erlebt, dass …".

For the concession: „Natürlich kostet das Zeit, aber …", „Es stimmt, dass …, trotzdem …".

For the conclusion: „Deshalb finde ich, …", „Insgesamt glaube ich, dass …".

You do not need all of them. Three or four different constructions already make good coherence; ten identical „Ich finde"s do not.

Topic: „Kinder sollten schon in der Grundschule eine Fremdsprache lernen".

Ich finde, dass Kinder schon in der Grundschule eine Fremdsprache lernen sollten. In diesem Alter lernen sie Sprachen viel leichter als Erwachsene. Meine Tochter zum Beispiel hat mit sechs Jahren Englisch angefangen und spricht heute ohne Angst mit ihren Freunden aus anderen Ländern. Natürlich braucht das Zeit und gute Lehrer. Trotzdem glaube ich, dass eine zweite Sprache später im Beruf und beim Reisen sehr hilft. Deshalb sollte jede Grundschule das anbieten.

What is working here, by criterion:

• Task fulfilment: there is an opinion, an argument, a personal example, and a conclusion. The topic is not swapped for another.
• Coherence: „zum Beispiel", „natürlich … trotzdem", „deshalb" — the text reads as reasoning, not a list.
• Vocabulary: „ohne Angst", „anbieten", „im Beruf" — B1 level without straining to sound advanced.
• Grammar: dass-clauses, the Perfekt, the comparative, word order after „trotzdem" — everything B1 tests for, shown without errors.

• No opinion of your own. The text describes the problem but never says whether the writer is for or against it. That is a hit to task fulfilment, the most heavily weighted criterion.
• No example. „Ich finde das gut, weil es wichtig ist" is an argument with no content. One concrete real-life case lifts the score on two criteria at once.
• Restating the prompt instead of answering it. The first sentence quotes the topic, the second does too, and only two are left for the actual opinion.
• Under 60 words. There is no formal limit, but a short text usually does not leave room to cover the task.
• Everything joined with „und". Five sentences strung together with „und" is a lower coherence score on its own.
• Drifting off topic. The question is about a foreign language at school, and the text is about how hard it is for an adult to learn German. Close, but not it.

Three minutes for a plan: opinion, argument, example, three words each in the margin. Fifteen minutes to write. Five minutes to check: verb in second position, verb at the end after „dass" and „weil", capitalised nouns, commas before subordinate clauses. Two minutes to spare.

Practise this task against a timer, and check it against the same four criteria as the exam. With doch!, you can write an answer to a Schreiben task for free and, within seconds, see a score out of 40, corrections in the text, and exactly what to fix — against the same criteria used in the exam.