Reading, listening and Sprachbausteine are marked against an answer key, while writing and speaking are assessed by two examiners against four criteria each - which is why those two are where results are actually decided.
The exam splits cleanly into parts marked objectively and parts marked by people.
Answer key - Leseverstehen, Sprachbausteine, Hörverstehen. 180 of the 300 points. Each item is right or wrong, all items within a section carry equal weight, and there is no negative marking. Never leave an item blank.
Criteria - Schriftlicher Ausdruck, Mündlicher Ausdruck. 120 points, assessed by two trained examiners working independently. Where their assessments diverge significantly, a third decides.
Task completion outweighs the rest in practice. A missing point costs more than several grammar errors.
The ranking is the useful part: accuracy is weighted least. A candidate who speaks fluently with mistakes scores above one who is careful but halting. Preparation that focuses only on grammatical correctness is optimising the criterion that matters least.
The objective sections have a ceiling on how much preparation helps: past a certain level of comprehension, you either understood the text or you did not. The criteria-marked sections are different - they respond to knowing what the examiners are looking for, and most candidates have never seen the criteria.
That asymmetry is why writing and speaking deserve more preparation than their share of the points suggests, and why the simulator reports which criterion cost you marks rather than returning a single score.
Results typically take four to six weeks. The certificate is issued by the centre that examined you. If you want a review of a marked paper, ask the centre immediately - the window is limited and varies.
Two trained examiners, independently, against four criteria. Where their assessments differ significantly, a third assessment decides. The multiple-choice sections are machine-marked against a key.
No. A wrong answer scores zero, never less, so there is no reason to leave an item blank. On true/false listening items a guess has an expected value of half a mark.
Typically four to six weeks, though it varies by centre and season. The centre that examined you issues the certificate, and that is who to ask about delays.
You can request a review through the exam centre within a limited period after results. Practice and deadlines vary by centre, so ask immediately rather than after thinking it over.
Sit a full simulation under exam timing and see exactly where your points go.