DELE B2 reading

Spain's official diploma, A1 to C2, valid for life. A2 is the language requirement for Spanish nationality; C1 or C2 for medical residency.

Official exam page

B2 is the DELE level most often asked for by employers and by universities as a starting point, and it is where the reading paper stops being about understanding a text and starts being about understanding a writer.

The reading section

Reading time
70 minutesSource
Scored reading items
36Source
Texts or passages
not published
Approximate words
not published
CEFR level
B2–B2Source
Published annual volume
137 000 per yearSource
Awarding body
Instituto Cervantes, on behalf of Spain's Ministerio de Educación, Formación Profesional y Deportes

What that means in practice

Instituto Cervantes publishes the task and item counts per level but not a per-task question typology — the item formats live in the official Especificaciones and Modelo de examen PDFs linked from each level page.

Every figure on this page was checked against the awarding body on that date. Exam formats change; check the official page before you book.

How well reading practice fits this exam

A full reading section

Reading is a complete, separately scored section with real passages. Training it moves a number that appears on your result.

LingoRead trains reading. It does not prepare a speaking or writing paper, it does not mark free-text answers, and it does not issue or predict an official result.

Practise reading for this exam

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What changes between B1 and B2

The published item count goes up while the published duration does not, which is the clearest signal of what B2 demands: the same hour of attention spread across more decisions. Both figures are printed on this page with their source. The texts themselves carry more implication and less explicit statement, so answers stop being findable by keyword.

As at B1, Instituto Cervantes does not publish a per-task typology on the level page. The official Modelo de examen is the reference for the shapes, and this page links to it rather than describing tasks we have not verified.

Reading for stance, not just for content

The habit that moves a B2 reading score is asking, after every Spanish text, what the writer is arguing and which sentence commits them to it. Doing that daily on short texts is more useful than doing it occasionally on long ones, because the skill is recognition speed rather than analytical depth.

LingoRead generates a Spanish passage at your level daily with comprehension questions on it. Choosing a work or university reason pushes the register towards the argumentative and semi-formal texts B2 uses.

Honest scope

One paper of four, and DELE requires a pass profile across the grouped papers rather than a single reading mark. LingoRead trains reading; the listening, writing and oral papers are outside it.

Questions people ask

Free tools that help

Our four free tools are English-only for now, so there is no matching tool for this exam. They are still worth a look if you also read in English.

See the free tools

Other levels of DELE

  • A1
  • A2
  • B1
  • C1
  • C2

No dedicated page — the research did not show enough search demand for it.

Other exams in this language

DELE B2 reading: format, timing and practice | LingoRead