The Polish exam: telc or the state one
Which one to sit depends on what you need the certificate for. Below: where each is accepted, what it costs, and how it counts.
Start from what you need it for
The law asks for an official attestation of Polish. telc is not one.
The regulation of 31 May 2023 added telc to the accepted certificates.
The level for a degree taught in Polish is set by the regulation of 30 July 2025. A university may set its bar higher — check with its admissions office.
Where they differ
| telc | The state exam | |
|---|---|---|
| Issued by | telc GmbH, a private German body | The State Commission at NAWA |
| Levels | One set of tasks, graded B1 or B2 | A separate exam per level, A2 to C2 |
| Pass mark | The oral plus one other part at the level — a weak part can be carried | 50% of every part separately (60% from B2) — one weak part sinks the sitting |
| Written paper | 115 minutes, four blocks | Up to 190 minutes at B1, up to 250 at B2 |
| Cost | 800–1200 zł, depending on the centre | Up to 150 €, plus 20 € for the certificate |
| Sittings | Monthly at many centres; each centre sets its own dates | A few sittings a year, dates set by the Commission |
| Results | 4–6 weeks (telc's figure) | Marking and verification: usually 3–4 months, plus up to 30 days for the certificate |
Where the difficulty differs
The tasks are comparable. What differs is what happens to a weak part: on telc, strong reading rescues weak grammar, because the score is combined. On the state exam from B1 up, every part is counted on its own and one below the bar ends the sitting.
If your Polish is uneven and you have the choice, sit telc. If you do not — because you are going for citizenship — it only means the weakest part has to be levelled up before the sitting, rather than the total pulled up. That is what drilling a single module and a result broken into parts are for.
If you have a deadline, count on telc
The office is waiting for the document, not the result, and the document comes later. On the state exam the marking alone runs three to four months, and after that there are up to 30 days to issue the certificate. On telc the result comes in 4–6 weeks — telc's own figure — and the centre then has up to two weeks to hand over the certificate; each centre sets the exam date itself.
The whole cycle, step by stepYou can prepare for both here
One pass covers both: telc sets in the exam's format, and real tests from past sittings of the state exam, with the original recordings. Your score is always shown against the bar of the exam you chose, because the two count differently.
One click with Google, or one link from an email. No password to invent and no card.
Facts checked: 29 September 2026 · Source: certyfikatpolski.pl, telc.net