Online Croatian test preparation courses for the Croaticum test and ECL

Croatian as a foreign language has no widely used standard test comparable to TOEFL for English or DELE for Spanish. Two exams based on the CEFR are common, the Common European Framework of Reference with six levels from A1 to C2. For citizenship, Croatia requires a certificate of its own. Which exam you take therefore depends on the body that asks for proof.

Croaticum is the Centre for Croatian as a Second and Foreign Language at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb. The ECL Consortium is a European network of exam centres, with its contact office at the Foreign Language Centre of the University of Pécs in Hungary.

The right exam follows from your goal and from the requirements of the body that asks for proof. Croaticum is the centre for Croatian at the University of Zagreb, ECL is the exam of a European consortium of exam centres, and both follow the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

According to Study in Croatia, international applicants may be required to take the standardised Croatian test at level B2 for some programmes. B2 is the fourth of the six CEFR levels.

According to the Croatian government, anyone applying for Croatian citizenship on the basis of residence must show knowledge of the Croatian language and the Latin script. People over 60 are exempt from this requirement.

The language test of Croaticum, the Centre for Croatian as a Second and Foreign Language at the University of Zagreb, follows the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). It covers five areas, namely listening comprehension, reading comprehension, grammatical structures, writing and speaking.

The tests take place at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb or at Macquarie University in Sydney, and you choose the location yourself. The Sydney option gives learners in Australia and New Zealand a closer choice. Contact the Croaticum office at least ten days before the test, bring a passport or other ID, and note that your application is complete only once you submit the payment confirmation. Croaticum publishes the fees for the test and for extra copies of the certificate separately.

For preparation, Croaticum provides a sample test for level B1. An online course uses such tasks mainly to train the grammatical structures part, in which cases and verb forms count.

The exam of the ECL Consortium, a European network of exam centres, is available at levels A2, B1, B2 and C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference. It tests reading, writing, listening and speaking. You can take all four skills in one exam or take individual skills separately in any combination.

Since August 2026 you need at least 60 percent in each module. A strong skill therefore cannot make up for a weak one. For your preparation this means training your weakest module on purpose, for example writing, where every case ending counts.

Standard Croatian counts in exams. Four sources of error are typical for Croatian, and a preparation course trains them on purpose.

1. Wrong case endings. Croatian has seven cases, and each ending shows the role of the word in the sentence.
2. Confusing č and ć or dž and đ. In writing they change meaning and stand out at once.
3. Serbian words and forms, such as hleb instead of kruh or mleko instead of mlijeko. They are understood but count as departures from the Croatian standard.
4. Regional forms from family or holidays. Heritage speakers, who learned Croatian at home, therefore check which of their forms belong to the standard language.

Preparation starts with the question of how far you are from the target level. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI), the language school of the US Department of State, expects about 1,000 class hours for Croatian to reach a professional working level, so plan generously.

1. Ask the target institution which exam and which level it requires.
2. Have your level assessed on the CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference with six levels from A1 to C2.
3. Close gaps with a general course, starting with the free courses A1.HR and A2.HR.
4. Practise the exam's task types, for example with the B1 sample test of Croaticum at the University of Zagreb.
5. Register in time, for the Croaticum test at least ten days ahead.

You can practise reading and listening alone, because the answers there are clearly right or wrong. For writing and speaking you need a teacher of Croatian as a foreign language who corrects your texts against the standard.