Exams & Certification
Exams & Certification
The CLIL4U Language Pre-Course is intended to prepare teachers with language knowledge and practice to feel more confident in, and to improve, their English. It is not a comprehensive exam preparation course.
However, many content teachers who teach English through CLIL might want to show their level of proficiency in English. Doing this course will improve your Grammar Knowledge, your Listening and Pronunciation and your Reading and Vocabulary.
If you follow our CLIL4U Main course, you will continue to develop your Reading and Vocabulary, and attendance on the Face-to-Face component of this course will ensure you get Speaking and Listening Practice.
In some countries, tests of English are set by the local educational authorities, and you will need to explore what is available locally in your country.
Alternatively, there are a number of international exams which test a candidate’s level of English. For any exam preparation, familiarization with the exam, and the learning of strategies for the exam, require some dedicated time exploring the chosen exam.
All exams have their own kind of question types, and different areas of English covered by the exam. So the first step is to find your current level, and then choose which exam suits your needs.
You can do this by clicking here and taking the Vocabulary & Grammar test, and the Listening test, to find out your level.
You can then compare which exams are offered at your level here.
Keep in mind that some exams require you to sit for more than one paper to get a score.
Below you will find an overview of what papers the exams below set.
1. IELTS – This test consists of 4 papers – Reading (R), Writing (Wr), Listening (L), Speaking (Sp).
You will need to sit for all exams to get a global score. The good thing is that you sit for one exam, and you do not pass or fail. You simply get a score from 0 to 9.
You can also choose to do a General English Module or an Academic Module (which is what universities require students to have).
Read more about IELTS and take some practice tests here.
2. Cambridge Exams – These tests consist of 3 to 5 papers depending on level. You will need to sit for all the papers to get a score.
For the lower levels, only Reading/Writing, Listening & Speaking are tested.
For the upper levels, there are 5 papers:
R, Wr, L, Sp & Use of English (Grammar & Vocabulary)
For these exams, you sit for an exam at a certain level which you aim for, and you either pass or fail the exam.
Read more about the Cambridge Exams and take some practice tests here.
The Cambridge ESOL Exams homepage.
3. TOEIC – In this test, you can choose to do R & L (together) or Wr & Sp (together) or both.
Like IELTS, there is just one exam, where you do not fail – you simply get a score (level) for your performance.
Read more about TOEIC and take some practice tests here.
4. TOEFL – This is an exam which is greatly favoured by American Universities, whereas the other exams above are favoured by Europe and Australia.
TOEFL tests have these papers - R, Wr, L & Sp.
Like IELTS and TOEIC, there is just one multilevel exam, where you do not fail – you simply get a score (level) for your performance.
Read more about TOEFL and take some practice tests here.
5. Pearson Tests – These consist of 2 different exams:
The Academic Exam (R, Wr, L & Sp) which like IELTS, TOEIC and TOEFL, is a multilevel exam.
The General English Exam consists of only a written paper and a speaking interview.
However, it is set at 6 different levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, so once you choose a level, you either pass or fail.
Read more about Pearson Tests and take some practice tests here.
6. LCCI Exams – These are another branch of Pearson Tests.
This exam can be taken separately, that is, a candidate can choose whichever exams to take from R, Wr, L & Sp, and a score will be given for each paper taken. Like in IELTS, there is a scale, so no pass or fail. You achieve a score based on your performance for each paper you take.
Read more about LCCI ELSA English Exams here (see Page 19).