Courses for STEP, IELTS, TOEFL and everyday English
Module 1
9 min read
لم تحدد مستواك بعد؟ اختبار من خمس دقائق يفتح لك الشرح بالعربية في الدروس الأولى.
ابدأ اختبار تحديد المستوىBefore any English, a question worth answering honestly: is this the test you actually need? Oxford University Press publishes two English tests whose names are easy to confuse, and they do entirely different jobs.
If somebody has asked you to prove your English for admission, a scholarship or a job, a placement test is not the evidence they want, because it does not assess speaking or writing and issues nothing you can submit. Find out which test was actually requested before preparing for either. If it turns out to be a proficiency test, this is not the course for you, and the honest thing is to say so on the first page rather than after you have paid.
A placement test exists to answer one question: which class should this student join? There is no threshold to clear and nothing to fail. The result is a level, and the level is a description of you rather than a judgement on you.
This has a consequence most candidates never consider. A result above your real level is not a win. It places you in a class taught at a pace you cannot follow, in which you will understand less, participate less and learn more slowly than the class below. The cost of an inflated placement is paid by you, over a term, in a room where everyone else is keeping up.
The term that is lost
Two students sit the test. One answers honestly and is placed at B1. The other gets help and is placed at B2. Twelve weeks later the first has moved from B1 toward B2, and the second has spent twelve weeks in a room where the reading was too fast, has spoken rarely, and has learned less than if they had been placed correctly. The inflated result cost a term.
Two sections. Use of English tests grammar and vocabulary and carries roughly thirty questions. Listening tests general listening ability and carries roughly fifteen. Expect about forty to forty-five questions in forty-five minutes to an hour, though the test adapts to your answers, so the exact number and duration vary between candidates.
The result is a score out of 120 mapped to a CEFR level, from Pre-A1 up to C2. Your institution administers the test and usually schedules it for you rather than letting you book it yourself, so ask them when it is and what you need on the day.
Given all of that, what is this course for? Two things. It removes the errors that place a student below their real level: carelessness, unfamiliarity with the format, and gaps in ordinary grammar that a few weeks can close. And it raises your real level, which is the only legitimate way to raise a placement.
Try it now
Send one message to whoever asked you to sit this test and confirm two things: that it is the Oxford Placement Test rather than the Oxford Test of English, and what they will use the result for. If the answer is that they need proof of your level, you are preparing for the wrong exam.
A few quick questions. You'll see an explanation after each one.
Question 1 of 4
You need to prove your English level to a university admissions office. Which Oxford test do you need?