YLE Official Exams

Last Wednesday, 18 April our Year 2 and Year 4 students demonstrated their English skills in the official Starters and Movers exams.  These exams are designed by Cambridge Assessment English which is part of the University of Cambridge.  Cambridge English exams are recognised by more than 20,000 institutions all over the world (including universities, employers and governments).  Each exam focuses on one of the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).  Starters is pre-A1 level and Movers is A1 level within the European Framework.

The Starters and Movers exams are designed to make English learning fun and effective.  Students develop confidence in their ability to communicate well in English through speaking, listening, reading and writing.  The exams provide motivation for the students to improve their practical skills for the real world.

The YLE official exams are divided into three parts.  There is a Listening Test, a timed Reading and Writing Test and a Speaking Test.  The Speaking Test is carried out individually.  The students are required to answer questions about a series of pictures and then the examiner asks them questions about themselves.  The Luyfe students have always impressed the examiners with their high level of confidence and ability to engage in conversation in English.

All of the students who completed the YLE official exams will receive a certificate before the end of June.  The certificates will be sent to Luyferivas and the tutors will hand them out to the children.  On the certificate, the students receive shields for Listening, Reading and Writing, and Speaking.  The maximum score for each part is five bold shields.  A total of 10 bold shields means that the student has achieved this level of English and is ready to move on to the next level.  More than 10 bold shields mean that the student has done extremely well at this level.

On Wednesday morning, the students went into their official exams full of expectation and a bit of nerves.  But by the end of all of the parts, the students felt confident that they had done well.  The most frequent comment overheard was that the exam was very easy.  In fact, many of the Year 2 students said that they enjoyed the Speaking Test so much that they wanted to do it again!  

At Luyferivas the students have always done exceedingly well on the official exams and I have no doubt that this year the tradition will continue.  Well done kids!!!!

English Department
(Information about Cambridge Assessment English taken from www.cambridgeenglish.org)