How Good Is My English? How Long Is A Piece Of String?

Look at this conversation…

Harry: I remember I was quite a good student. Far better than my brother. I got 9 straight As at GCSE and stuck out the whole thing until I got a masters.
Mary: Harry, you’re getting old. They’ve changed the system. It’s all numbers now. I got 7s at GCSE, except for maths, I got a 4 in that.
Nataly: What’s a GCSE?
Harry: The exams you do before you leave school; when you’re about 16 years old. You know, the ones you resent because you’d rather be going to
parties and chasing girls.
Nataly: Oh, those were the days! I remember I got 84 for most of my subjects at the end of school. Having said that, 84 in my State would be an 80 in other parts of the USA.

Confused? Of course, you are!

Explaining educational qualifications from your country isn’t easy. Luckily, though, reminiscing about school whilst having a quiet drink with friends on a Friday night isn´t going to make or break your career. What would make or break your career, however, is applying for a job at a big multinational and nobody understanding what level of English you have.

Think how many people claim to be the best at English and have a level 5, whilst many others claim to be the best yet have a 10. Of course, neither are lying. They’re just using a different grading system. The world needs a measuring stick—a framework that every immigration department, every university, and every company understand and use.

Fortunately, we have that measuring stick. It’s called the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). It happens to be called European as it was created in Europe. However, the whole world recognizes and uses it for measuring a person’s language level.

With the CEFR we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, so to speak.

Levels of English

The CEFR has three bands—A (basic), B (intermediate), and C (proficient).
Each band is divided into two:

A1 = lower basic
A2 = upper basic
B1 = lower intermediate
B2 = upper intermediate
C1 = lower proficient
C2 = proficient.

With CEFR, both the people I mentioned earlier could say “I’ve level C2” instead of “level 5” or “level 10,” and there’d be no ambiguity.

More Than Just English

The CEFR is used for many languages, not just English. It’s applied to French, German, Chinese, and many other languages. And remember, it’s recognized all over the world, not just in Europe.

A company such as Telefonica, opening offices in Angola for example, may demand level C1 English and B2 Portuguese. To study engineering at a German university, you’d probably need level C1 English as many of their universities teach in English. To get Canadian residency, you’d need level B2 English. To work in France, you’d need C1 French, and so on.

Each language has its own official exams that correspond to CEFR. Let’s look at the English exams…

English Exams

For children there are lots of exams, but for our purposes we’re going to look at the exams for adults. Cambridge runs a variety of EFL (English Foreign language) exams…

IELTS—this exam is multilevel. If you don’t get many questions correct, your level will be A1. On the contrary, you’ll be C1. There are two types of IELTS exams, the General and the Academic. The General is used for immigration, and the Academic is required by universities. And like I said, it isn’t just British universities that demand IELTS. A lot of foreign universities teach in English. I know of somebody who’s studying at a Chinese university, but he studies in English.

Cambridge Proficiency Exam (CPE)—this exam isn’t multilevel, like the IELTS. The entire exam is at the same level: C2. If you pass, you prove you’re at level C2. If you fail, you don’t prove what level you are at; you just prove it isn’t C2. It is a general English test; not specifically business English for example.

Cambridge Advanced Exam (CAE)—this exam isn’t multilevel either and is also a general English test. It is level C1.

Cambridge First Certificate (CFC)—this a general English, B2 exam.

Preliminary English Test (PET)—this is a general English, B1 exam.

Key English Test (PET)—this is a general English, A2 exam.

People often say that IELTS certificates expire after one or two years and that CAE and CFE, etc. don’t. This is not accurate. Often, the institutions that accept the IELTS certificate demand that the certificate was gained within 12 months.

Lastly, Cambridge have a new exam that allows you to demonstrate your level of English in terms of your profession…

LINGUASKIL—and you’d better watch this space, as I’ll soon be offering it here in Panama!

Professional institutions across the entire World use CEFR. If you don’t have your CEFR level written on your CV, you should have. Writing something like “level 4” doesn’t mean a thing for most people, especially in multinational companies. I even categorize my YouTube videos according to the CEFR because as a teacher, I know exactly what grammar and vocabulary my students should have in order to meet the requirements of each CEFR level.

Give us a shout here if you want to do any of these exams and prove your level according to CEFR.