telc B2 Listening Teil 3 (DTB B2): Presentation and Traps

How is Hören Teil 3 structured in the DTB B2?

The listening section of the telc B2 Beruf – officially the Deutsch-Test für den Beruf B2 (DTB B2) – takes 20 minutes and has four parts. In the test format, Teil 3 is called „Betriebsbezogene Informationen nachvollziehen“. It means texts like those you know from everyday work: a presentation to colleagues or a team meeting in which changes, procedures or plans are explained.

You mark the answers on the Antwortbogen S30 (the answer sheet). Wrong answers are not penalised, so no task should stay empty. The details on the structure come from the official Übungstest 1 for the DTB B2 (telc gGmbH, 2020, published by the BAMF); the strategy and traps are our own tips.

Whether you pass is decided by the whole exam: at least 144 of 240 points and at least 36 of 60 points in at least three of the four skills, where one weaker skill with 24–35 points is compensated. More in the guide telc B2 Beruf exam.

What makes Teil 3 difficult?

Teil 3 is one continuous text on one topic – unlike the separate conversations in Teil 1 and Teil 2 or the short messages in Teil 4, where every recording starts a new situation. Much of the information is similar: several departments, several dates, several options, of which perhaps only one has been decided.

Our tip: expect wrong answers to pick up a detail from the text that belongs to a different point, a different person or a different stage of planning, or to add something plausible that is never said. So the key question while listening is not "Did I hear the word?" but "Does the text say exactly this – and about what the task asks?"

• Structure: a presentation has sections. If you know which section you are in, it is easier to assign information correctly.
• Roles: in Übungstest 1, listeners ask questions in between. A question or a guess is not yet information.
• Status: „geplant“, „beschlossen“ and „wird noch geprüft“ ("planned", "decided" and "still being checked") are different statements – this is often exactly where two answers differ.

Which strategy helps before, during and after listening?

Before listening: one minute for a map

1. Look at the example: in the practice test, it clarifies who is speaking. You recognise the topic from the slide titles and from the tasks.
2. First read only the sentence beginnings of tasks 32–35. They show the four topics to watch for, such as „Die Kosten …“ ("The costs …") or „Neue Mitarbeitende …“ ("New employees …").
3. If titles are on the sheet, assign each task to a title. That way you are more likely to know while listening when a task is coming up.
4. If time is left: read the answers and mark how they differ: a person, a time, a word like „nur“, „sofort“ or „freiwillig“ ("only", "immediately", "voluntary").

While listening: follow the thread

1. Watch for structuring signals („zunächst“, „kommen wir nun zu“, „zum Schluss“ – "first", "now we come to", "finally"). They show that a new section is starting.
2. At the first fitting piece of information, make only a light mark. Decide when the presentation moves on to the next point – additions and restrictions sometimes only come afterwards.
3. With questions from the audience, listen closely to the answer. Only the answer contains the information that counts.
4. If you miss a task, move on to the next one at once. The text is not repeated.

When marking and after training

1. Mark each answer on the Antwortbogen S30 as the task instructions require. The Übungstest does not mention separate time for checking after the text.
2. For tasks you could not solve with certainty, mark the answer that best fits the section you heard – wrong answers cost no points.
3. After an exercise: look in the transcript for where each wrong answer comes from. Does it belong to a different point, or was it never said at all?

Our tip: do not write whole words while listening. An arrow for "later", a tick for "decided" and a question mark for "still open" are enough – that way you do not lose the thread.

What traps are there in Teil 3? Ten checking questions

The following questions help you decide between two plausible answers. LexDeutsch wrote all the examples itself.

Changed plans, swapped digits and the Konjunktiv II (subjunctive) are explained in the guide to Hören Teil 1; these patterns can appear in Teil 3 as well, just within a longer context.

Our own example: an excerpt from a presentation

Situation: the head of building services presents the move of a department to another building. Excerpt:

• Head of building services: „Kommen wir zum Zeitplan. Die Buchhaltung zieht in der zweiten Novemberwoche in den dritten Stock von Haus B. Ursprünglich war Oktober geplant, aber die Netzwerkkabel werden erst Ende Oktober verlegt.“ ("Let us come to the schedule. Accounting moves to the third floor of building B in the second week of November. October was originally planned, but the network cables will not be laid until the end of October.")
• An employee: „Müssen wir die Möbel selbst tragen?“ ("Do we have to carry the furniture ourselves?")
• Head of building services: „Nein, das übernimmt eine Umzugsfirma. Ihre persönlichen Sachen und Ordner packen Sie bitte bis zum Freitag davor in die Kisten, die wir Ihnen bringen.“ ("No, a removal company will do that. Please pack your personal belongings and folders into the boxes we will bring you by the Friday before.")

In both tasks, every answer appears in some form in the text. Only the one that fits the question is correct: the actual moving date and the employees' job. In the exam, wrong answers can also contain something that is never said.

Which signal words help in Teil 3?

In presentations and meetings, small words show how binding a piece of information is and which point it belongs to.

How do you practise Teil 3 with the LexDeutsch trainer?

In the trainer Hören Teil 3, you hear a workplace meeting and solve tasks 32–35 with a, b or c – the same task type as in the exam (in Übungstest 1 the text is a presentation). LexDeutsch wrote and recorded the texts and audio itself, in the exam format. You can open the transcript at any time; after checking, the trainer shows for most tasks the place in the transcript where the solution is. You can practise the first three versions of each Teil without registration; further versions are available with VIP.

1. Exam mode: read the tasks for exactly one minute before the start, play the recording without a pause and only once, and open the transcript only afterwards.
2. Review: for every mistake, find the place in the transcript and assign it to one of the ten checking questions. That shows you whether the same trap keeps catching you.
3. Training the structure: on your second run with the transcript, write down the sections of the meeting as keywords. This sharpens your eye for structure.

The other parts: matching statements in Hören Teil 2, phone messages in Hören Teil 4. You will find all four parts with sample tasks under Hören B2 Beruf.