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Oxford Placement Test Preparation

Students about to sit the Oxford Placement Test for a language school or university programme, who want to be placed at their true level

هذه الدورة تجهّزك لاختبار أكسفورد لتحديد المستوى. وقبل كل شيء، اعلم أمرين: الأول أن هذا الاختبار ليس اختبار نجاح ورسوب، وإنما تستعمله المعاهد والجامعات لتضعك في المستوى الدراسي المناسب لك، فلا توجد درجة نجاح تسعى إليها. والثاني أن أكسفورد تصدر اختبارين متشابهي الاسم: هذا الاختبار لتحديد المستوى، واختبار أكسفورد للغة الإنجليزية وهو المعتمد بشهادة والذي يُقبل لإثبات مستواك للجامعات وجهات العمل. فإن كنت تحتاج إلى إثبات مستواك فقد تكون بحاجة إلى الاختبار الآخر، والدرس الأول يشرح لك الفرق بوضوح قبل أن تنفق وقتك. الاختبار قسمان: استعمال اللغة والاستماع، ومدته نحو خمس وأربعين دقيقة إلى ساعة. الدروس الخمسة الأولى مجانية، وتبدأ بالشرح بالعربية للمستويات المبتدئة ثم تنتقل تدريجياً إلى الإنجليزية.

Oxford Placement Test Preparation is an online course for students sitting the Oxford Placement Test. It covers the two sections the test contains, Use of English and Listening, explains why a placement test has no pass mark, and teaches the grammar, vocabulary and listening the test actually measures.

A course for the Oxford Placement Test: two sections, Use of English and Listening, adaptive, scored out of 120 against the CEFR. There is no pass mark and no certificate, so the goal is an accurate placement rather than a high score. Fifteen modules of real grammar, vocabulary and listening work, weighted the way the test is.

Read module 1 free

2 hours reading + 3.5 hours of mock exams

What you'll be able to do

  • Know whether the Oxford Placement Test is actually the test you need, before you prepare for it
  • Understand what an adaptive placement test is doing and why inflating your result harms you
  • Work confidently through the grammar the Use of English section concentrates on
  • Recognise verb patterns, conditionals and reported speech under time pressure
  • Handle phrasal verbs and collocations, which carry a large share of the vocabulary items
  • Follow everyday listening on a single hearing, including numbers and corrections
  • Place yourself honestly on the CEFR scale before the test tells you
  • Raise your real level, which is the only thing that raises a placement legitimately

Modules in this course

1. What this test is, and whether it is the one you need
Free

A placement test has no pass mark and issues no certificate. Oxford publishes a second, certificated test with a similar name, and some candidates are preparing for the wrong one.

9 min read

2. How an English sentence is built
Free with email

Use of English is two thirds of this test, and it begins with sentence structure. Two habits carried over from Arabic place candidates below their real level.

9 min read

3. The tenses that decide a level
Free with email

Tense accuracy is one of the clearest signals a placement test reads. One principle answers most of it, and the CEFR levels themselves are partly defined by which tenses a learner controls.

9 min read

4. Articles, prepositions and the small words
Free with email

Small words carry the same weight as large ones in a multiple-choice test, and Arabic organises both of these systems differently enough to make the errors predictable.

8 min read

5. Vocabulary and word families
Free with email

Vocabulary items in Use of English usually ask which form of a word fits a slot, and the slot is decided by grammar rather than meaning.

8 min read

6. Use of English: what the items look like and how to work them

Around thirty questions testing grammatical form and vocabulary. A method that works on all of them, applied before you look at the options.

8 min read

7. Verb patterns and modals

Which verbs take -ing, which take to, and what the modal verbs actually mean. Both are heavily represented and both are memorised rather than reasoned.

9 min read

8. Conditionals and reported speech

Two structures that sit almost exactly on the B1 to B2 boundary, and that a placement test uses to separate those levels.

9 min read

9. Relative clauses and linking words

How to join two ideas into one sentence, and how to signal the relationship between them. Both are what separates B-level English from A-level English.

8 min read

10. Phrasal verbs and collocation

The vocabulary half of Use of English concentrates here, and neither area can be worked out from the parts.

8 min read

11. Listening: gist, function and everyday register

Around fifteen questions on general listening ability. The recordings are everyday rather than academic, which changes what is difficult about them.

8 min read

12. Listening: detail, numbers and the single hearing

What to hold in memory while a recording plays, and how to recover when you lose the thread rather than losing the rest of the recording with it.

8 min read

13. The adaptive test, and why the usual exam advice does not apply

Difficulty responds to your answers, and the goal is accuracy rather than a maximum. That combination inverts advice that is correct on every other exam in this series.

8 min read

14. After the test: reading your result and what to do with it

A score out of 120 and a CEFR level. What those mean, what to do if the placement feels wrong, and how to use the result rather than resent it.

7 min read

15. Before the test: what helps, and what does not

The last week, the practical arrangements, and the one thing candidates do that reliably places them below their real level.

7 min read

Mock Exam · Place yourself honestly, then move the level

Build a self-assessment across Use of English and Listening, identify the grammar keeping you below the next CEFR level, and complete two weeks of targeted work with before-and-after evidence.

200 min to build

Questions before you buy

How long does this course take?
About 2 hours of reading, plus roughly 3.5 hours across the 1 mock exam. Most of that time is the mock exam, at your own pace.
Do I need any experience first?
No formal prerequisites — every course is written to be readable from the first lesson, and that lesson is free to read before you buy, so you can check it's pitched right for you.
How is the certificate issued?
Automatically, the moment you complete every module and mock exam. No review queue to wait on.
What's your refund policy?
A 14-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked — email support@courseparse.com within 14 days of purchase. Full policy on the Refunds page.
Oxford Placement Test Preparation Course | Course Parse