B2 First or DELF B2 in Year 4: which to take and when

In September, in Year 4 of Italian high school, the circular arrives: the school is collecting sign-ups for language certificates. Two boxes to tick, often in the same week — English B2 First and French DELF B2 — and a question that nobody at home knows how to answer: which of the two, or both?

In my experience, students who take both in the same school year pass one well and the other badly. Not because they cannot do it, but because the school calendar makes the two preparations overlap, and the second language ends up as a stopgap. I will explain how to think about the choice and — something almost nobody tells students in time — why the decision has to be made now, not in spring.

The real window is October, not the month of the exam

This is the point that costs the most missed registrations. Students think “the exam is in May, I’ll think about it in March”. But the school collects sign-ups for the spring sessions between October and November, because it has to close the numbers with the exam centre and, where there is one, organise the afternoon booster course.

The tightest case is French. The November 2026 DELF session closes registration by 2 October 2026 (written papers in the first half of November, oral exams spread across the whole month: your exam centre fixes the exact day). The next session, February 2027, closes registration in early December: you will find the precise date on the website of the nearest Institut français or Alliance française. The DELF runs four sessions a year — November, February, May, June — but at the time of writing the published calendar only goes as far as February: the May and June 2027 sessions are not yet official, so do not count on them as if they were already there.

Cambridge is more flexible: the 2027 B2 First calendar is already published and there are many national dates, spread from the end of February to December, about one or two a month in spring. Be careful, though: the national date exists, availability at your centre does not. Each exam centre activates only some of those dates, and decides whether they are paper-based or digital. The number to look for is not the one on the Cambridge website: it is the one for the centre where you would sit the exam.

So the first thing to do is not to study. It is to open the website of the nearest exam centre, see which dates it really offers, and cross-check them with the school circular.

What the two exams ask (and they are not the same thing)

Both certificates attest the same level of the Common European Framework, B2, but they measure it with different logic. This table is the first thing I get my students to look at.

Three practical differences that change the preparation.

Pure grammar. B2 First has a section, Use of English, that the DELF does not have: four parts out of seven in the first paper are transformations, word formation, key word transformations. It is the part that makes the difference between a 158 and a 165, and you train it with targeted exercises, not by reading.

The paired speaking test. This is the surprise that frightens most students. In the third and fourth parts of B2 First you discuss with the other candidate, and the mark takes into account how much you interact: if you always interrupt them you lose marks, and if you wait in silence you lose just as many. The DELF, on the other hand, is an argued monologue in front of the examiner, built in 30 minutes of preparation on a short document: it is an exercise in structure, not in dialogue.

The cut-off threshold. In the DELF you can score 22/25 in three papers and 4/25 in the fourth and you fail, even if the total is over 50. B2 First averages on the scale, so an unbalanced profile still passes if the average holds. If you have a clear hole in a single skill — typically written production in French — the DELF punishes you more.

How I choose, if you take only one

I do not look at the school report grade. I look at what the certificate is for over the next three years.

1. You want it to count for an Italian university. Almost all three-year degree courses ask for an English proficiency pass at B1 or B2, which can be taken from the first year at the university language centre (the Centro Linguistico di Ateneo, CLA). Many universities accept an external certificate obtained in the last two or three years in place of the CLA test — but which certificates and how recent is decided by each individual university, and you have to read it on the CLA website. If this is the main reason, English wins: it is the language they always ask for, French almost never.
2. You want a foreign university or a year abroad. Here the language of the destination counts more than your “strong” language. For Erasmus many destinations ask for B1 or B2 in the language of the country, not only English: if your goal is France or Belgium, the DELF B2 is the right document and is worth more than a B2 First. Erasmus application deadlines are not uniform: you read them on your own university’s call, typically between November and January. If instead you are looking at the United Kingdom or Australia, the conversation is a different one and concerns IELTS: I wrote about it in IELTS or Cambridge, which certificate to choose.
3. You want the credit for your CV and for a job interview. In Italy, in a company, “B2 First” is a name that people reading CVs recognise at a glance; DELF B2 is recognised by whoever is specifically looking for French. If French is your second language and not your flagship, English pays more.
4. You want the certificate you are most likely to get this year. A practical and legitimate reason. If in English you are a full B2 who could reach grade A and in French you are a high B1 who risks 48/100, take English in Year 4 and move French to Year 5. Getting two certificates in two years is better than risking two in one.

The one case in which I say do both in the same year is this: DELF in November or February, B2 First in May or June. Four months apart, with two preparations that do not touch each other. This is why the November DELF session, which seems too early, is in fact the one that frees up the calendar.

The mistakes that cost you the certificate

They are always the same five, and they are not grammar mistakes.

Writing that does not answer the task. In both exams the writing is also marked on task achievement: if the essay asks you to argue in favour and you describe, the rest counts for little. In the DELF B2 the production écrite is almost always an argued position — a formal letter, an article, a forum contribution — with a specific reader and a register to respect. In B2 First, Part 1 is always an essay and it is compulsory: the 140–190 words required are to be spent on the two points given plus one of your own, not on three points of your own.

The listening heard once. In B2 First the recordings are played twice; in the compréhension de l’oral of the DELF B2 only some documents are heard twice, others once. Students who always train with the double listening panic at the first single-play document. The last four weeks of DELF preparation must include single-play listening, pen in hand.

The speaking test learnt by heart. In the DELF the 30 minutes of preparation are for building a skeleton — thesis, three arguments, one example each, one concession — not for writing the text. Whoever writes the text reads it, and reading lowers the mark for fluency. In B2 First there is no preparation: you train reactivity, not content.

False friends at the wrong moment. Under pressure they all come back. Actually for Italian attualmente (“currently”), eventually for eventualmente (“possibly”), sensible for sensibile (“sensitive”): in a B2 essay marked on vocabulary these three cost real marks. I made a full list in English-Italian false friends, and I have students go over it the week before the exam, not in September.

The right grammar at the wrong level. At B2 you do not need emphatic inversion: you need reported speech, second and third conditionals, the passive and phrasal verbs, which are exactly the four things Use of English goes after. If you are exposed on phrasal verbs, this guide covers the ones that really come up, and on present perfect and past simple — the Italian mistake par excellence — there is a dedicated post.

A 14-week plan, not a 6-week one

If you register in October for a spring session you have plenty of time. The way to waste it is to study “English” instead of studying the exam. This is the scheme I use.

Weeks 1–2: diagnosis. One complete, timed paper, with no help, marked with the real criteria. You need a starting number for each skill, not an impression. Almost always an unbalanced profile comes out: reading at 170, writing at 150. From there you decide where the time goes.

Weeks 3–8: the weakest skill, three times a week. If it is writing, you write one text a week and rewrite the same text after the correction — the rewriting is the part that teaches, the first draft is not. If it is listening, you do 20 minutes a day of active listening with a transcript of the bits you missed. The other skills are maintained, not abandoned.

Weeks 9–12: format. Complete papers every other week, always timed, always in the real order of the papers. Here you work on timing: in B2 First, Part 7 of the reading is the one left uncovered if you have spent too long on the key word transformations; in the DELF the production écrite is the last of the group papers and whoever has rushed through the compréhension arrives tired.

Weeks 13–14: polishing, not new material. Review of the collected mistakes, thematic vocabulary for the recurring topics (environment, technology, school, work, media), a speaking simulation with someone who is not your mother. No new topics: two weeks before the exam, introducing new grammar makes the result worse.

How we work in lessons

In preparation lessons the first hour is almost always a diagnostic paper marked together, because it is the only way to tell whether the problem is the language or the format — and in half of the cases it is the format. Then we build the weekly plan on the real calendar of the chosen session, first checking the dates your exam centre actually offers.

From there the work runs at two speeds: in the lesson we do what needs a marker or someone to talk to — writing corrected line by line, a simulated speaking test, the DELF oral with a stopwatch on the 30 minutes of preparation — and at home what you can do on your own, that is reading, listening and grammar drills. There is no point spending an hour of lesson doing Use of English exercises in silence.

Lessons are online, one to one, with a tutor who follows that language: the rates (single lesson or 10-hour package) are always on the pricing page. Payment is always offline — bank transfer, Satispay, PayPal or Revolut — after the lesson, not before. If you want to see how the English lessons are organised, the English language page describes them in detail.

In practice, this week

Three things, in this order:

1. Read the school circular and note the sign-up deadline. If French is involved, check whether the school is aiming for the November session: in that case the deadline is 2 October and there is no margin.
2. Open the exam centre’s website and look at which dates it offers, for the exam you are interested in and in the version (paper or digital) you are interested in.
3. Do one complete, timed paper at the level you want to certify. The number that comes out decides whether the spring session is realistic or whether it is better to aim for the next one — and this decision, taken in September, is the one that saves you a wasted registration.

If you have chosen B2 First, the most treacherous paper is the first: in the post on Use of English you will find the four parts one by one. To train reading and writing against the clock, in general, there is also the site’s English second paper practice test for the maturità (Italy’s school-leaving exam).

If you want a second opinion on the number you got, or you do not know which of the two certificates makes sense in your case, write to us from the contact page: the first chat to work out the starting point is free.