Author's test to determine the level of English. English language levels: from A1 to C2, from Beginner to Proficiency. Frequently asked questions about the English level test

Do you want to take an English level test right now and find out your level of language proficiency? What are your strengths and what still needs to be learned? We invite you to take a free test online (no registration or email required), consisting of 60 questions. You will receive the result immediately as soon as you answer the last question.

English level test - instructions

The test determines the level of knowledge of the English language and divides students into 5 groups - from initial (elementary) level to advanced.

The test tests knowledge of language structures (36 questions) and vocabulary (24 questions). In total, you need to answer 60 questions, each of which is given a choice of one of four answers. If you do not know the correct answer to a question and do not mark anything, then the answer to it will be considered incorrect.

There is no time limit for taking the test, but try to keep it within 40-45 minutes - this is the time for which this test is designed. For a more accurate assessment of knowledge, it is better not to use dictionaries and textbooks.

Determining your English level

You can determine the result yourself in accordance with the table below, depending on the number of points you score. Read also our articles on how to prepare and pass international tests: and.

Please note that the English level test provides only approximate scores and cannot be used for admission to educational institutions. In addition, this test does not assess your writing, reading or speaking skills.

CEFR level ( Common European Framework of Reference (level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is a unified system for assessing language knowledge, using which you can compare even the knowledge of different languages, for example, your English is at level B1, and Chinese is at level A2.

So, let's take the test.

TEST (60 questions)

Choose the most appropriate word or phrase for each question

Or during courses, you will definitely come across the concept of “levels of English” or “levels of English proficiency”, as well as such incomprehensible designations as A1, B2, and the more understandable Beginner, Intermediate and so on. From this article you will learn what these formulations mean and what levels of language proficiency are distinguished, as well as how to determine your level of English.

Levels of the English language were invented so that language learners could be divided into groups with approximately similar knowledge and skills in reading, writing, speaking and writing, as well as to simplify testing procedures, examinations, for various purposes related to emigration, study abroad and employment. This classification helps in recruiting students into a group and preparing teaching aids, methods, and language teaching programs.

Of course, there is no clear boundary between the levels; this division is quite arbitrary, needed not so much by students as by teachers. In total, there are 6 levels of language proficiency, there are two types of division:

• Levels A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2,
• Levels Beginner, Elementary, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, Advanced, Proficiency.

Essentially they are just two different names for the same thing. These 6 levels are divided into three groups.

Table: English language proficiency levels

The classification was developed in the late eighties - early nineties of the last century, it is completely called the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (abbr. CERF).

English language levels: detailed description

Beginner level (A1)

At this level you can:

• Understand and use familiar everyday expressions and simple phrases aimed at solving specific problems.
• Introduce yourself, introduce other people, ask simple personal questions, for example, “Where do you live?”, “Where are you from?”, be able to answer such questions.
• Maintain a simple conversation if the other person speaks slowly, clearly and helps you.

Many who studied English at school speak the language at approximately the Beginner level. From the vocabulary only elementary mother, father, help me, my name is, London is the capital. You can understand well-known words and expressions by ear if they speak very clearly and without accent, as in the audio lessons for the textbook. You understand texts like the “Exit” sign, and in a conversation with the help of gestures, using individual words, you can express the simplest thoughts.

Level Elementary (A2)

At this level you can:

• Understand common expressions on general topics such as family, shopping, work, etc.
• Talk about simple everyday topics using simple phrases.
• Talk about yourself in simple terms, describe simple situations.

If you got a 4 or 5 in English at school, but after that you didn’t use English for some time, then most likely you speak the language at the Elementary level. TV programs in English will not be understandable, except for individual words, but the interlocutor, if he speaks clearly, in simple phrases of 2-3 words, will generally understand. You can also incoherently and with long pauses for reflection tell the simplest information about yourself, say that the sky is blue and the weather is clear, express a simple wish, place an order at McDonald's.

The Beginner – Elementary levels can be called a “survival level”, Survival English. It is enough to “survive” during a trip to a country where the main language is English.

Intermediate level (B1)

At this level you can:

• Understand the general meaning of clear speech on common, familiar topics related to everyday life (work, study, etc.)
• Cope with the most typical situations while traveling (at the airport, in a hotel, etc.)
• Compose simple, coherent text on general or personally familiar topics.
• Retell events, describe hopes, dreams, ambitions, be able to briefly talk about plans and explain your point of view.

Vocabulary and knowledge of grammar are enough to write simple essays about yourself, describe incidents from life, write a letter to a friend. But in most cases, oral speech lags behind written speech, you confuse tenses, think about a phrase, pause to find a preposition (to or for?), but you can communicate more or less, especially if there is no shyness or fear of making mistakes.

Understanding your interlocutor is much more difficult, and if it is a native speaker, and even with fast speech and a bizarre accent, then it is almost impossible. However, simple, clear speech is understandable well, provided the words and expressions are familiar. You generally understand if the text is not very complex, and with some difficulty you understand the general meaning without subtitles.

Upper Intermediate level (B2)

At this level you can:

• Understand the general meaning of complex text on concrete and abstract topics, including technical (specialized) topics in your profile.
• Speak quickly enough so that communication with a native speaker occurs without long pauses.
• Compose clear, detailed text on various topics, explain points of view, give arguments for and against various points of view on the topic.

Upper Intermediate is already a good, solid, confident command of the language. If you are talking on a well-known topic with a person whose pronunciation you understand well, then the conversation will go quickly, easily, naturally. An outside observer will say that you are fluent in English. However, you may be confused by words and expressions related to topics that you do not understand well, all sorts of jokes, sarcasm, hints, slang.

You are asked to answer 36 questions to test your listening, writing, speaking and grammar skills.

It is noteworthy that to test listening comprehension, they do not use phrases recorded by the speaker like “London is the capital”, but short excerpts from films (Puzzle English specializes in learning English from films and TV series). In English-language films, the characters' speech is close to how people speak in real life, so the test can seem harsh.

Chandler from Friends doesn't have the best pronunciation.

To check a letter, you need to translate several phrases from English into Russian and from Russian into English. The program provides several translation options for each phrase. To test your knowledge of grammar, a completely ordinary test is used, where you need to choose one option from several proposed ones.

But you're probably wondering how the program can test your speaking skills? Of course, an online English test will not test your speech like a human, but the test developers have come up with an original solution. In the task you need to listen to a phrase from the film and choose a line suitable for continuing the dialogue.

Talking is not enough, you also need to understand your interlocutor!

The ability to speak English consists of two skills: listening to the speech of your interlocutor and expressing your thoughts. This task, although in a simplified form, tests how you cope with both tasks.

At the end of the test, you will be shown a complete list of questions with the correct answers, and you will find out where you made mistakes. And of course, you will see a chart with an assessment of your level on a scale from Beginner to Upper Intermediate.

2. Test to determine the level of English with a teacher

To get a professional, “live” (and not automated, as in tests) assessment of the level of the English language, you need English teacher, which will test you with tasks and an interview in English.

This consultation can be done free of charge. Firstly, there may be a language school in your city that offers free language testing and even a trial lesson. This is now a common practice.

In short, I signed up for a trial lesson-test, got in touch on Skype at the appointed time, and teacher Alexandra and I had a lesson during which she “tortured” me in every possible way with various tasks. All communication was in English.

My trial lesson on SkyEng. We check your knowledge of grammar.

At the end of the lesson, the teacher explained to me in detail in which direction I should develop my English, what problems I have, and a little later she sent me a letter with a detailed description of the level of language skills (with ratings on a 5-point scale) and methodological recommendations.

This method took some time: three days passed from submitting the application to the lesson, and the lesson itself lasted about 40 minutes. But this is much more interesting than any online test.

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Beginner. It is also called initial. This is the level of knowledge of a student who starts learning English from scratch. At this level, they study the alphabet, basic grammar and elementary vocabulary, and the features of pronunciation of sounds. Your vocabulary is about 500 words and phrases.

Elementary. This level assumes that you can discuss basic topics in English. You can express your thoughts in typical daily situations. You can also tell about yourself, you understand simple texts in English, signs and simple content. Have basic knowledge of grammar. Vocabulary ranges from 1000 to 1500 words. This level is also called the “required minimum” level.

Pre-Intermediate. Those with knowledge of English at this level are oriented in standard concepts, but also do not get lost in new topics, and also know how to maintain a short conversation in an “unusual” situation. You understand fairly complex texts, such as magazine or newspaper articles, tourist guides. Your vocabulary is about 2000 words and phrases.

Intermediate. This level assumes that you can understand and communicate with native speakers in everyday speech with little difficulty. It is also called “average”. With this level of knowledge, you can conduct friendly or business correspondence in English, read adapted literature and watch films in English with subtitles without any difficulties. You have a good vocabulary, about 3000 words, but you are not always confident in using it.

Upper-Intermediate. This level is called “above average”. You understand spoken language very well and communicate in English on a wide range of topics without preparation. This level assumes the ability to read non-adapted literature and understand complex content in English. Your vocabulary is 3500-4000 words and phrases. You master complex grammatical structures, but sometimes make lexical and grammatical errors.

Advanced. This is an advanced level of language proficiency. You can communicate on any, even the most complex topics, understand complex texts and retell English-language content or someone else’s speech without losing the meaning, although sometimes you have to resort to subtitles when watching movies. Your vocabulary can reach up to 6,000 words and phrases. You know a large number of idioms, set expressions, and abbreviations. In conversation, you use complex grammatical structures and use all tenses.

If you want to take a more in-depth test of your English level, namely: listening comprehension of English, your spoken English, we offer you to take a free lesson with one of our school’s methodologists.

Determining your level of English language proficiency online is usually not enough. Your restless curiosity must be eager to find out what your result means. Below you can read what this or that level of English means. Ready? Then go ahead!

• 60-70 points. If you score from 60 to 70 points, then you have reached the level Advanced (Advanced) in my English teaching. This is a very high level, which means that you can easily communicate in English in almost any situation. You perfectly understand almost any text, enjoy watching films and TV series in English, sometimes even forgetting what language you watched them in, and calmly read books in the original. Although the Advanced level is undoubtedly a great achievement, it is not the highest level of English proficiency. There is also a level Proficiency (Professional), which covers absolutely all areas of knowledge and makes it possible to use English as a native language. Therefore, do not give up, the goal is already close!

• 48-59 points indicates a level called Upper-intermediate (Above average). As a rule, this level is indicated as the minimum for admission to a university and employment in an international company. Knowledge of English at this level implies that you have a good vocabulary to express your thoughts and opinions about some issue or problem. You can competently construct sentences using complex structures. You understand most English songs you hear on the radio, usually without taking into account slang and different dialects. If we compare this level with human age, then in English you are entering the phase of an adult at about 20-23 years old. Your English is already seemingly independent, but is not always confident and has not acquired life wisdom. You think in English, although sometimes with errors.

• 36-47 points is the level Intermediate (Average). At this level, a person already has a good understanding of the system of grammatical tenses and constructions, and knows the words of basic everyday topics. Willingly enters into conversation and can express his thoughts in most everyday situations. He can already watch films in English, but at the same time he experiences obvious difficulties due to the lack of passive vocabulary, that is, words that a person can recognize in a text or conversation and translate. With the Intermediate level you can already travel safely. You will definitely understand the locals of non-English-speaking countries and will be able to have a lively conversation with them.

• 24-35 points. Level Pre-Intermediate (Below the average) indicates that your period of “childhood” in the English language is over. You've already seen some of the many complex grammatical structures with your own eyes, and you can even apply some of them. You have already learned a couple of bulky, creepy words and, in all likelihood, you can find synonyms for some expressions. Orientation in simple language situations (in a restaurant, hotel, store, airport) does not cause you a shock, because you can already cope with it. You can read the first adapted books “in the original”, but sometimes you still feel horror before unadapted films. Pre-intermediate is an excellent level after which a lot of interesting things await you. Therefore, do not deviate from the intended path!

• 11-23 points – Elementary(Base). If you learned English “at school a long time ago,” then in 90% of cases your residual knowledge just reaches the Elementary level. And this is already a positive thing, since you already have some kind of base and will not have to “raise virgin soil.” At this level, you can already read, count to 100 and know (you can find out in the text) up to 500 words. You are familiar with the basic tenses, you have even heard or know the 3 forms of irregular verbs (do-did-done). While constructing a proposal, you still feel unsure, but you can already order lunch at a restaurant and ask for directions. Don't be discouraged, the most interesting things are yet to come.

• 0-10 points indicates the level Beginner (Beginning). You're still a complete beginner in English, but you definitely won't give up. It is so?

How to check your level of spoken English?

In order to most accurately determine your level of knowledge of the English language online, it is advisable to take an oral test. After all, knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary does not guarantee that you have good speech skills and decent pronunciation. Unfortunately, there are also cases when a person passes the test with 90%, but can hardly construct a sentence orally. Or when written skills are head and shoulders ahead of oral ones. Such situations occur when a well-motivated person worked long and hard on his own, read a large number of books, redid hundreds of exercises, but did not have the opportunity or desire to put his skills into practice and talk with someone in a foreign language. It turns out that there is knowledge, but it is impossible to say that a person speaks English. Therefore, if you want to accurately determine your level of knowledge of the English language and get recommendations from a specialist on how to improve it, sign up for free oral testing.

In English, just like in any other language, there are so-called levels of proficiency. These levels of proficiency indicate how and to what extent a person speaks a particular language.

The classic system for measuring language knowledge is considered to be “CEFR” (Common European Framework of Reference; Common European Framework of Reference for Foreign Languages).

To determine the level in the English language, it is customary to use a test like “IELTS”, however, in addition to it, for the English language, more precisely to determine its level, several other types of tests have been developed, but “IELTS” is still considered the reference.

What do language proficiency levels show?

Language proficiency levels show your direct knowledge of the language and your ability to use this knowledge. It is worth distinguishing between the knowledge necessary to survive in an English-speaking environment and the knowledge required to work, say, with technical documentation written in English.

For such purposes, systems for assessing language knowledge and language proficiency levels were developed. According to an official study by English First for 2014, Russia is in 29th place in the ranking of countries in the world in terms of proficiency in English as a non-native language.

On the one hand, the result may seem excellent, but in fact, such studies are conducted at the “Elementary” level of proficiency, which means initial language proficiency, a little more than knowledge of the alphabet and pronunciation of 400-1500 words.

What are the different levels of English?

For the English language, unlike most European ones, there is a double system for assessing proficiency levels: the classic “CEFR” and a special test system for determining the quality of English language proficiency “IELTS”.

Below is a comparison of the level of proficiency in the IELTS system with the CEFR:

1. Beginner(Elementary)/A1 – the so-called “survival level”. At this level, your vocabulary is within 2000 words. You can communicate on non-complex topics that are familiar to you. You can express yourself in simple everyday situations and know how to write simple sentences.
2. Pre-Intermediate/A2 – pre-threshold level. You can carry on simple conversations, talk about yourself, understand simple journalistic texts, understand standard advertising inscriptions.
3. Intermediate/B1 – threshold level of proficiency. At this level of proficiency, you can live in English-speaking countries. At level B1, knowledge allows you to have active conversations; if necessary, you will be able to justify your opinion; in dialogue you can express your attitude to a specific event or phenomenon. You can retell the contents of texts that you have read earlier, and if necessary, you can conduct personal correspondence.
4. Upper-Intermediate/B2 – threshold advanced level. This level of English proficiency presupposes free communication in English. You can maintain any conversations on a very wide list of conversational topics, without preparation to enter into verbal contacts with native speakers, and in the event of a dispute or conflict situation, present your arguments for and against. This level of proficiency is considered, in the case of migration, recommended for rapid adaptation to the English-speaking environment.
5. Advanced/C2 – advanced level of language proficiency. At this level, you have the ability to carry on conversations on professional topics without difficulty finding words. You can express your opinion using various speech formulations and do not experience difficulties in everyday and friendly conversations with native speakers. Your speech is filled with various speech patterns, and you are able to express yourself in almost any situation of communication with native speakers.

   Upon reaching the Advanced level in an English-speaking environment, the so-called “Russian accent” almost completely disappears - the pronunciation of English words and phrases, with a calm, Russian, pace of communication, speech is filled with English intensifications and lower tones of pronunciation of words.

6. Proficiency/C2 – native speaker level. You can freely perceive any information in English, regardless of the way it is presented to you, and you can easily make an oral and written retelling of any information received. When communicating with native speakers, you have absolutely no difficulties with choosing words and setting phrases according to the context of the dialogue. The so-called “play on words” of the English language becomes absolutely clear to you; you understand any shades of what you perceive by ear. Possess the skills necessary to complete clear, formal letters and papers.

   Upon reaching this level, in speech, even when speaking in Russian, the English manner of pronunciation of words, with its characteristic impulsiveness, prevails.

How to determine your language proficiency level?

English language proficiency is determined through various tests; the most popular and accredited determination system in the world is the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) test.

This test was specially developed by specialists in the field of English language philology for those who do not speak English as their native language.

Three organizations are authorized to conduct this test:

• Cambridge ESOL Examinations; As specialists who participated in the creation of the test system itself. To enter British universities you need to take this type of test.
• British Council; A cultural organization dedicated to improving relations and international cooperation with the UK and other countries. This charitable organization operates in more than 100 countries around the world. The British Council has been working in Russia for more than 20 years, developing cultural exchange between the two countries, organizing charity events and conducting English language tests.
• IDP: IELTS Australia; An organization registered in Australia acts as a state company conducting English language tests for migration to Australia and studying in Australia.

What does the English level test include?

The test is divided into 4 parts, including:

1. Listening; A fragment of a test that determines language proficiency by ear, takes place in the format of listening to a fragment of text, followed by a test task.
2. Reading; assignments that determine the skills of reading text and answering questions related to the text of the assignment.
3. Writing; writing skills, testing your understanding of English grammar, construction of English phrases, writing an essay on a given topic.
4. Speaking; speaking skills test, during this part of the test, you will be asked to talk in English with the person conducting the exam, most often, such a conversation will last within ten minutes.

The test result itself is assessed on a scale from 0 to 9 points, and the results of passing the test become known 13 days after passing the exam. IELTS results are valid for two years.

It is worth noting that there are three types of test formats themselves:

• Academic IELTS; This certificate is mandatory for admission to schools and universities where instruction is conducted in English.
• General Training IELTS; This certificate is required for professional migration, as evidence that a person will be able to communicate on work topics.
• IELTS life skins; This certificate is required to obtain a visa to the UK for the purpose of work or other activity over a long period of time.

Tests to determine your English level online

The Internet offers various variations of English language tests, however, not all of them can boast of similarity, both in the complexity of tasks relative to IELTS, and the presence of a satisfactory grammatical base.

From the list below, three different types of tests have been selected based on IELTS exams over the past years:

1. http://www.ielts-exam.ru/onlinetest/; official tests, updated with each official test.
2. http://www.ef.com/wwru/test/#/ ; an official test comparable in complexity to the pan-European “CEFR”.
3. http://ieltsportal.ru/services/show/60 ; This portal contains various types of English language tests, the quality of which is confirmed by a certificate.

How to improve your level of English?

Of course, the most important thing will be the desire to learn and develop. You need to study every day, for short periods of time, this way the brain will be kept in good shape and ready to perceive new information related to learning English.

The right decision would be to watch a film in English, so you will get used to the perception of the English language as such, your vocabulary will expand, and you yourself will understand how English words should be pronounced and how to correctly compose phrases in English.

Everything is in your hands, the road lies under the feet of the one walking.