⁨Bądź na B1⁩ review — practice tests for the B1 Polish certificate exam

What this book is

Bądź na B1 ("Be at B1") is a collection of exercises and sample certificate tests for the B1 Polish exam, published by Universitas in Kraków. It first came out in 2009, was revised in 2012 and is still in print. For many years it was the main book written specifically for B1 candidates, and university Polish courses still put it on their reading lists.

It is a practice book, not a course: it checks and trains what you know rather than teaching grammar from the beginning. In June 2026 Universitas published a new, separate collection by the same team, Bądź na B1! Trening czyni mistrza (160 pages), which has no reviews yet.

Who it suits best

• Learners who have finished a course at roughly B1 and want more full tests under exam timing.
• Self-learners who need an answer key and transcripts so they can check themselves.
• Anyone on a budget: it is one of the cheapest exam books on this list.

Who should pick something else

• Beginners and A2 learners who still need explanations — there are almost none.
• People buying the e-book: the electronic edition comes without the audio, so the listening part cannot be done. Buy the printed edition, which links to an MP3 download.
• Learners who want feedback on writing and speaking — the book gives tasks but cannot assess your answers.

What's inside

• Part I — skill exercises, grouped like the exam: listening, grammar and sentence transformations, reading, writing, and speaking (describing a photo, situational dialogues).
• Part II — three complete sample tests with the timings of the real exam.
• Answer key and transcripts of the recordings.
• Audio as MP3 files to download (CDs are no longer included).
• About 184 pages, A4.

The tests are older than the current official sample papers, so treat them as extra practice rather than a perfect copy of today's exam.

What learners and teachers say

This is a well-known title with plenty of ratings: 4.9 out of 5 from about 60 ratings on Empik, 4.6 from 11 on Amazon and 4.6 from 5 on Goodreads (checked October 2026). Most shop reviews are short ("a very good book"), but two learners describe how it worked for them in detail. One writes: "I credit my successfully passing the exam to working through the book"; another found the tasks harder than the real exam — "if you feel safe enough going through the book, the exam won't be a problem". A forum user adds that after the first two volumes of Hurra!!! Po polsku you should be close to the level this book tests.

The criticisms are practical. Some buyers received the set without the CD — the audio is now an MP3 download — and the e-book has no recordings at all (one shop review gave it 1 out of 6 for that reason). A learner who passed the exam wrote on a learner blog that it was "ok and cheap", but that the free tests on the official exam website do much the same job. And it does not teach grammar: pair it with a course or a grammar book. In an academic review of B1 materials (Banach, 2022) it is described as the most representative title written for B1 candidates for over a decade.

Our verdict

A good, inexpensive supplement for the final weeks: three full tests with a key and audio. Do the free official sample tests first, then this book — or choose the newer Polski na B1, which has seven complete mock exams. If you want instant practice by module, our free B1 practice tests let you train one part at a time.