Useful links

Information about exams

• certyfikatpolski.pl - official website for certification exams. Registration, schedule, available exam centers, but also information on the exam structure, sample tests, evaluation criteria and description of each section (look up zbiory zadań), exams from previous years - everything.



Free learning resources

• Polski na wynos - powerful hub of learning materials. It's mostly materials intended for teachers to print and use in the classroom, but you can really get a lot out of it as an independent learner as well: grammar tables, vocabulary, exercises (some of them interactive), texts for comprehension practice.


• Polski z kulturą - absolutely brilliant series of textbooks (I especially appreciate how much attention was paid to subgroups within conjugation types - this way, when learning the patterns, you avoid being confused by verbs that strangely don't fit with the rest). Mainly aimed at Slavic learners. For for beginners with a different language background the vocabulary may feel slightly challenging, but if you are around A2 level, give it a try.
  
  
  Available series:
  “Przez przypadki” (A2/B1) - declension practice
  “Przez osoby” (A2/B1) - verb paradigms
  “Leksyka” (A2/B1) - vocabulary
  “Dyskusja” (B1/B1+) - basically also vocabulary, with an emphasis on expressing and arguing one's own opinions and formulating longer statements


• Po polsku po Polsce - interactive A1-A2 course with the most basic and useful vocabulary. It has tons of audio content and self-checking exercises, great for individual practice for beginners.


• Materials provided by Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców - a set of textbooks with audio files:
  
  
  “Polski na dobry start” Anna Mijas, Beata Katarzyna Jędryka, Marta Buława (2019) - A1 level
  “Z językiem polskim każdego dnia” Paula Mandziej (2020) - A2-B1 level
  “Z językiem polskim każdego dnia [part 2]” Paula Mandziej (2023) - B1-B2 level
  
  To download the textbook, find the file marked as "podręcznik".
  
  
• A to polski właśnie! - textbook aimed at East Slavic teenagers. Contains a lot of dialogues in contemporary, spoken Polish.


• B1 textbook for Ukrainian children and teenagers (Vol. III) - short chapters, content aimed at, well, children, but still solid material - you can use it if you're looking for additional grammar exercises on a topic that interests you.



youtube channels:

• Polish with Monika
• Polish with Dorota
  - grammar explanations and useful phrases.


• Easy Polish - street interviews with subtitles. Useful for listening practice - pure exposure to spoken Polish, minimal to no grammar explanation (though they also have some separate videos on some grammatical cases or pronouns, but there's no separate playlist for that, you have to browse a bit).



Other recommended resources (non-free but worth it)

• "Setka Na Mówienie. 100 zestawów, 300 zadań dla poziomu B1", Jolanta Kiełbas, Monika Siembida (2020) - detailed breakdown of speaking task types that may appear in Mówienie section of B1 exam. Includes instructions, useful phrases, and sample model answers.


• "Pisz po polsku! Poradnik, ćwiczenia i przygotowanie do egzaminu B1", Małgorzata Januszewicz (2021) - and this one is for Pisanie section. Covers every possible text type required at B1 level, with examples, instructions, and exercises, as well as a handful of useful tips on writing the exam itself (what to avoid, what to remember, etc.).


• "Gramopedia. Gramatyka na B1. Kurs przygotowujący do egzaminu certyfikatowego", Magdalena Herrera-Nowak (2023) - structured collection of easy-to-read grammar tables, explanations, and exercises aligned with the B1 exam scope. Essentially a complete grammar reference set for this level.



Language learning tools

This section is somewhat half-assed, as I haven't conducted any large-scale comparison of different digital language-learning utilities. So what you see here is simply a list of things that I personally use for language learning and, presumably, that may make learning Polish easier for you as well.

• Translate Selected Text addon - firefox addon that translates selected text. It works quickly, seems more responsive than standard google translate-based extensions, and the quality is pretty decent imho.


• Read Aloud for firefox and chrome - simple and quick text-to-speech addon, works on selected text and allows you to adjust the speed and other things in the settings.


• Lexilize - flashcard app based on spaced repetition. It's super easy to import your own vocabulary lists from excel and it has built-in text-to-speech, so you don't have to manually add audios. Another advantage is that it requires you to actually type words from memory letter by letter (or at least autosuggestion by letter, oh well) instead of just clicking on a word already presented.
  Personally, I recommend it for learning grammar as well - it may happen that the drill and frequent repetition are the only way to memorize some topics (like when you are not a Slav and you want to remember the inflection pattern in conjugation subgroups of -ę,-esz type, for example: ja idę, ty idziesz, on idzie..., but then oni idą again), you can throw the conjugation forms of more difficult verbs there and repeat them until they become automatic.


• Glosbe.com - dictionary with usage examples collected from books and other texts. Also includes native-speaker audio recordings and inflection tables.