Exams for Schools
Featured Research
Developing Can Do statements for younger KET and PET candidates
Part of the research involved in the development of these new exams included developing Can Do statements appropriate for the 11-14 age range. Development of Can Do statements for KET and PET for Schools by Szilvia Papp outlines how these descriptions of ability were developed and then validated using exam performances from real candidates.
Cambridge ESOL exams are increasingly being used in primary and secondary education around the world. To make them more appealing and accessible, we offer a range of exams which are specially tailored to suit the interests of pupils and young learners.
Why use Cambridge ESOL exams in schools?
- they increase the motivation of pupils to learn
- they give pupils the confidence to actively use all four skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking
- they inspire enthusiasm to carry on learning
- they are recognised by colleges, universities, employers and governments around the world.
Creating opportunities worldwide
For a number of years, Cambridge ESOL has been working closely with local and national education authorities to give school pupils around the world a head start in English.
Chile: El Inglés Abre Puertas
In 2003 the Chilean Ministry of Education launched the national English project ‘English Opens Doors’ to improve levels of English in Chile. One of the aims of this project is that all state school pupils reach a level equivalent to KET by the end of primary school and a level equivalent to PET by the end of secondary school.
China: Young Learners English
Cambridge ESOL has been working in China since the early 1990s with its local partner, NEEA (National Education Examinations Authority), an agency of the Ministry of Education. More than one million Chinese children aged 7 to 12 have taken a Cambridge Young Learners English examination since its introduction in 1997. Annual candidature is currently about 250,000.
Colombia: national bilingual project
In 2007 Cambridge ESOL produced a new English test for Colombian school-leavers, which was aligned to the new Colombian standards and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). This test was incorporated into the Examen de Estado, the national school exit exam in Colombia. More than 500,000 Colombian school leavers took this test in 2007.
France: Ministry of Education project
The project is part of a nationwide project to improve French school-leavers' second-language ability and to assess that ability within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Examinations are taken by students in their final year of mandatory schooling (age 16) and the level is equivalent to PET, at CEFR Level B1. The certificates are now being offered to schools currently running 'European Section' classes (where particular subjects are taught in a foreign language) and nearly 20,000 pupils took the first test on 4 April 2008.
Germany: school language assessment projects
A curriculum-mapping project has established that there is an appropriate Cambridge ESOL exam for each of the levels which need to be reached by German school pupils at different stages of their studies. A number of successful projects have taken place, involving the widespread use of PET, FCE and CAE exams in the state school sector. Cambridge ESOL exams have now been adopted by many schools, especially in the following Bundesländer: Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Bremen, Nordrhein-Westfalen and Sachsen.
Switzerland: external examinations in the Swiss state sector
Following a successful Cambridge ESOL pilot with a number of schools in the Basel area, an agreement was made in 1998 that external examinations could be integrated within the Swiss curriculum as part of the Berufsmatura (leaving certificates of the commercial or professional schools) from several cantons in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.
European Survey on Language Competences
Cambridge ESOL is part of a consortium which has been awarded a contract by the European Commission to develop a Europe-wide survey of languages. The survey will compare second language learning for pupils in the final year of lower secondary education using the scales of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
