exam information

First year full exam

It's a 3-hour exam on your general knowledge of English. The level is Intermediate/Upper Intermediate or B1+ on the European scale. The exam is based on English File Intermediate for the Grammar. But if you have studied English at school you should be at or near this level (!). There are 3 sections in the exam. First there is a grammar (accuracy) section with 2 exercises. One has 15 sentences and you have to decide if they are right or wrong and correct the ones that are wrong. The second is a text with 15 spaces and you have to put one word in each space (cloze). The second section is reading comprehension with a text from a newspaper, a synonym exercise based on words underlined in the text, and then questions about what the text says and the meaning. The third section is a writing section. You have to write a short composition on a general topic or a letter. Each of these 3 sections is worth 30 points and you have to pass all the sections with at least 18 points. Your written mark is then the average of these 3 marks.

Later there is an oral exam in which you have to talk first about yourself and your life, and then about a book that you have read in English and comment on any language items the teacher asks you about. You can explain the items in English, suggest a synonym or translate the context sentence into Italian.

There are two possibilities for sitting the written exam:

1) You can do the complete exam (FULL EXAM, the written and oral) in May/June of this academic year, or September or January/February of the next academic year.

2) You can do the exam in 2 parts, PART 1 written at the end of the first semester and PART 2 written (+ the oral) at the end of the second semester. If you do not pass PART 1 at the end of the first semester (or if you do not want to accept the mark) you do not do PART 2 at the end of the second semester. You have to do the FULL EXAM. The content of the exams is the same (although the two-parts option lasts slightly longer). Prior to the exams we will do exam practice in class.

Books

New English File Digital, Intermediate Student’s Book and Workbook

English Grammar in Use – Raymond Murphy

Extra 1 (dispensa)

A modern book (and a DVD if you are willing to do more!) of the your own choice. It should be the kind of book you would read in your own language. As you read you should take notes on the vocabulary (concentrating on common words and expressions) which you will be asked to talk about in the oral.