Reading
(1 hour)

3 parts/30 questions

20%

Students need to be able to understand a range of texts, including how they are organised and the opinions and attitudes expressed in them. The texts will be from sources familiar to school-aged learners such as magazines, articles, fiction and advertisements, but targeted at the interests of students.

Writing
(1 hour 20 minutes)

2 parts

20%

Students are required to produce two pieces of writing. The first piece is compulsory and will be a letter or email of between 120–150 words. For the second, they may choose from an article, essay, letter, report, review or short story of between 120–180 words.

Use of English
(45 minutes)

4 parts/42 questions

20%

Students’ use of English will be tested by tasks which show how well they can control their grammar and vocabulary.

Listening
(about 40 minutes)

4 parts/30 questions

20%

Requires being able to follow and understand a range of familiar spoken materials such as news programmes, public announcements and other sources but targeted at the interests of school-aged learners.

Speaking
(14 minutes per pair of candidates)

4 parts

20%

A face-to-face test taken with one or two other candidates and an examiner. Students have to show how well they can produce spontaneous spoken language, talking with either the examiner, the other candidate(s), or by themselves.