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Where to take proficiency tests | ||
Tags: Placement Test | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Rsquest Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4186 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese Studies: Japanese, Spanish, Esperanto, French | Message 1 of 7 04 October 2014 at 4:16pm | IP Logged |
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Hi everyone!
I want to figure out what level I am in several languages. By the way, I live in Denver, Colorado.Can you please tell me: 1. What proficiency tests are available? 2. Where could I take them? 3. How to find information about them 4. Are there reasonable on-line sample tests that will give me a good idea of my level 5. Pros and cons of taking proficiency tests Thanks for your help! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5252 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 2 of 7 04 October 2014 at 5:41pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome to the forum, Rsquest. Your desire to test yourself can add up to a lot of money and time spent for traveling:
I will assume that you have learned/are learning Brazilian Portuguese. The Brazilian government offers the Celpe-Bras in the US. The test itself is relatively cheap, $100, but factor in travel expenses and it becomes significantly more expensive. The Centro Virtual Cervantes offers certification in Spanish in the US via the DELE DELE Test Centers US. Again, you'll have to travel. The Japan Foundation offers the JLPT Test including Boulder, Colorado. For French, there are the DELF-DALF Tests. Practice tests are all over the internet. One example is Transparent Language Online Proficiency Tests which offers tests in Mandarin, German, Polish, Dutch, Irish, Portuguese, English, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, French, Latin and Swedish. Again, welcome to the forum. If you plan on hanging around for a while, might I suggest that you change your profile to reflect that you are a native English-speaker and that you go to Members Profiles to introduce and tell us a bit about yourself and your languages. Edited by iguanamon on 04 October 2014 at 10:28pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Rsquest Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4186 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese Studies: Japanese, Spanish, Esperanto, French | Message 3 of 7 05 October 2014 at 1:20am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the information. At your suggestion, I updated my profile with English as my native language.
I know that most colleges have some kind of proficiency tests. I wonder if it is possible to get ahold of some of those. And what about the CEFR -- are there places to get tested in the US? As to sample proficiency tests on the web. I have been surprised at how hard it is to find really good sample tests that are pretty thorough. I will take a look at Transparent, though. Yes, you are right, I speak Brazilian Portuguese. I spend quite a bit of time in Brazil, so maybe I will look at the idea of taking the test in Sao Paulo. Thanks! Edited by Rsquest on 05 October 2014 at 1:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5252 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 4 of 7 05 October 2014 at 1:59am | IP Logged |
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There are no CEFR levels for Brazilian Portuguese or Japanese, because neither Brazil nor Japan is a European country. The "E" in CEFR stands for "European". There is a CEFR level test for Iberian Portuguese, though the Iberian grammar would probably trip you up. You'd have to take the test at a Portuguese consulate in the US.
All of the links I gave you have testing sites in the US. You could also do CLEP tests for Spanish and French but I don;t know if they do speaking or not. There is no way an online test can match the intensity and speaking comprehension of a live test. Edited by iguanamon on 06 October 2014 at 6:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4999 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 5 of 7 06 October 2014 at 3:14pm | IP Logged |
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There are often more options for the big languages.
French does have not only the DELF-DALF tests. There is as well TCF or there are specific tests for quebec immigrants etc. Delf-dalf or tcf are tied to the cefr levels, some others may not be. Spanish does have DELE but there are surely different tests as well, I think I've seen a specific argentinian exam and it would only make sense if some of the Latin American countries had their own exams which may not follow the cefr. Non european languages, such as Japanese, have their own exams and scales and it is not entirely precise to tie their levels to CEFR equivalents since there are many specifics (for exemple, an important part of testing Japanese knowledge is testing kanji knowledge which is an aspect we don't need in DELF and such exams. On the other hand, not all the Japanese exams have a spoken part). There are online samples and tests but most will test your passive knowledge only for understandable reasons. However, some language schools (especially the huge ones tied to the testing centers) may offer mock tests or a short examination by a qualified teacher-examinator to give you a more precise idea of which level might be suitable for you for a fee. Pros of taking an exam: 1.A proof for all the employers, schools and so on. 2.A nice goal at the end of an episode of your learning path. The exams may serve as your self-check and spare you some guessing on the level all the time. Cons, or rather limits, of vast majority of exams you can take: 1.They cannot take into account all your skills. They are not going to test your knowledge of the language as it is spoken in a pub or in a group of teenagers (there are learners with high level certificates totally failing in such situations and, vice versa, there are people completely fluent in such situations who fail in the academical context of an exam) 2.Any exam is not only about your knowledge of the language or cultural context. It tests as well your skills at examtaking. Preparatory books, training of the right forms of essays and resumes, being able to write 250 words where you would normally use 100 at most (just as a native would), all that will be taken into account. 3.They are quite expensive. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Rsquest Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4186 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese Studies: Japanese, Spanish, Esperanto, French | Message 6 of 7 06 October 2014 at 9:56pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the additional information.
In my case, I mostly want to figure out my level for my own knowledge -- self-check as you say. I would also like to be able to determine my weaknesses, so that I can work on them. I took the Transparent test for Brazilian Protuguese. The fact that I got a 90% doesn't really tell me much, though. It seemed pretty easy, and I simply made a couple of silly mistakes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 7 of 7 07 October 2014 at 4:43am | IP Logged |
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Consider looking for a Skype tutor. Since many of them prepare people for exams, they help you figure out you which exam you could pass and which weaknesses you have. Be sure to ask whether they would mostly affect your exam scores or matter in real life too.
There's also lang-8.com for getting your written texts corrected. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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