Polish B1 State Certificate Exam exam-day guide
Polish B1 State Certificate Exam · Prepare for the day ahead.
Your checklist
Original photo ID (passport or Polish identity card)
Bring the original document, never a copy or a picture on your phone, and check that the name and spelling match your registration. Ask the exam centre in advance which documents it accepts from foreign candidates: practice at individual centres varies, so get the answer in writing from the centre you registered with.
Registration confirmation and proof of payment
Print or download the confirmation you received from the centre, plus the bank transfer confirmation for the exam fee. Administrative mismatches are common and a printout resolves them at the door in two minutes instead of twenty.
Two black or blue ballpoint pens you have already tested
All written parts are transferred onto an answer sheet (karta odpowiedzi), so a pen that smudges or runs out is a real risk. Ask the centre whether pencil is permitted for any part of the sheet before you rely on one.
A plain wristwatch (no smart functions)
Phones must be switched off and stored, so a simple watch is your only reliable way to pace the timed parts. Smartwatches and fitness bands are treated as electronic devices and will have to be handed in or left outside the room.
The centre's written instructions: arrival time, building, room, order of parts
Re-read the message from your centre and write down the address, entrance and room number. Speaking tests (część ustna) are sometimes scheduled in a different slot or on a different day from the written parts, so confirm your personal timetable.
Passport-format photographs if your centre requires them
Some centres ask for a photo at registration or on the day for the certificate itself. Check what your centre requested and carry two spare photos if the instructions are ambiguous.
Water in a transparent bottle and a quiet snack
The written session is long, with a break between parts. Confirm whether drinks are allowed at the desk in your room; if not, leave the bottle in your bag and drink during the break.
A one-page personal error sheet, for the last day only
Not for the exam room. Write down your five most frequent mistakes in Polish (case endings, verb aspect, word order, prepositions) and the fixed phrases you need for short functional texts such as an e-mail, note or announcement.
A plan for your phone and bag
Decide in advance where your phone, watch box and bag will go. Everything must be switched off and stored as the invigilators instruct; keeping a phone in your pocket is the single most common way candidates create a problem for themselves.
A confirmed travel route with a backup
Check the transport timetable the day before and add a 30-minute buffer. Aim to be at the building well before the reporting time rather than at the reporting time; late arrival rules are set by the centre, so do not test them.
Sleep and food arranged for the two nights before
The exam tests sustained attention across five components. Trading sleep for last-minute grammar drilling reliably costs more points than it earns.
Plan the day
Switch from learning to verifying. Confirm with the centre: arrival time, address and room, accepted ID documents, whether the speaking test is on the same day, whether drinks are allowed at the desk, and the payment deadline. Print the confirmation and payment proof. Then do one full timed rehearsal of the written components in the published order, without a dictionary and with the phone off, and note where you ran out of time rather than which items you got wrong.
Work only on format, not new material. Re-read the instructions (polecenia) for each task type so that the Polish rubric wording is familiar: what to choose, how many words to write, whether one or more answers are correct. Practise transferring answers onto a separate answer sheet under time pressure if your centre uses one. Prepare clothes in layers, since exam rooms are often either cold or stuffy.
Light review of your own error sheet only: case endings you repeatedly miss, aspect pairs, the connective phrases you will need for the writing tasks (najpierw, następnie, dlatego, chociaż, moim zdaniem), and a set of spoken phrases for describing a picture, giving an opinion and handling a role-play. Pack the bag with ID, confirmations, pens, watch, water and photos. No new grammar, no full mock. Go to bed at your normal time, avoid alcohol, and set two alarms.
Eat a proper breakfast and take the route you checked, arriving early enough to find the room calmly. Do not revise in the corridor; instead read or listen to a few minutes of ordinary Polish to warm up your ear before the listening part. Switch the phone off before you enter the building and put your ID in the hand you will use to show it.
Listen to the invigilators' instructions in Polish, check that your name and candidate number on the answer sheet are correct, and ask immediately if something is unclear. Fill in the answer sheet exactly as instructed, and check whether a wrong answer costs you anything before you decide to guess - if there is no penalty, never leave a blank.
Read the Polish rubric twice and underline the task verb (wybierz, uzupełnij, napisz, zaznacz). Pace yourself against the clock and leave the last few minutes for transferring and checking answers. In the writing part, plan for two minutes, watch the word limit, cover every bullet point in the prompt, and leave two minutes to check endings and spelling.
Speak Polish from the first greeting, even if you are nervous; examiners assess communicative effectiveness, not perfection. If you do not understand a question, ask in Polish for repetition or rephrasing rather than falling silent. Keep going after a mistake, use the picture or role-play card as your structure, and expand answers with a reason or example rather than one-word replies.
Note down what surprised you while it is fresh, keep your candidate number, and check the centre's or commission's published timetable for results and certificate collection. Ask how and within what deadline results can be queried or a component retaken - the rules are set by the certification body, not by the individual centre.
Rules to check
Identity: the exam is taken under your registered name and you must show a valid original photo ID at the start of each part. Copies, expired documents and documents that do not match the registration are normally not accepted; confirm the accepted list with your centre before the exam day.
Electronic devices: phones, smartwatches and any other connected devices must be switched off and stored as instructed. Using or even holding a device during a part is treated as a breach of exam regulations and can end your exam, so hand everything over at the start.
No unauthorised materials: dictionaries, notes, grammar tables, headphones and written aids are not allowed in the exam room. The allowed stationery is set by the centre; ask before the day rather than argue during it.
Timing and late arrival: each part is timed and papers are collected at the end of the allotted time. Whether latecomers are admitted at all is decided by the centre, so treat the reporting time as a hard deadline and confirm the rule in advance.
Breaks: you may leave the room between parts when the invigilators say so, usually accompanied. Once a part has started you normally cannot leave and return, so use the break deliberately, even if it means losing a minute of revision.
Scoring: the certificate exam has five components - listening (rozumienie ze słuchu), reading (rozumienie tekstów pisanych), grammatical accuracy (poprawność gramatyczna), writing (pisanie) and speaking (mówienie) - and, as published, a candidate must reach the pass threshold in every component, not just on average. Verify the current threshold and pass rule on the certification body's official page, because a strong performance in four parts does not compensate for one weak part.
Language of the exam: all rubrics are given in Polish and answers must be written in Polish. Asking invigilators for clarification of procedure is fine; asking for help with the language of a task is not.
Results and certificates: results, certificate issue and any procedure for querying a result are handled by the state certification body through your centre. Keep your candidate number and follow only the official channel; do not rely on informal information from other candidates.