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Exams & Preparation

Find useful exam information and teaching ideas for your students.

Exams, exams, exams stress…perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

It’s this time of the year! Again! Another examination period is coming and with that stress, pressure, anxiety, lack of sleeping or bad eating habits appear. Is this normal? Well, if you take it from the brain’s point of view, yes! Stress is the mental and physical state we face when we feel that something threatens us. We may feel either nervous for a...

The history of the Cambridge Exams

Cambridge English Language Assessment is part of the University of Cambridge and has been providing English language assessments and qualifications for over 100 years. The first Cambridge English examination, the Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE), was launched in 1913. The 12-hour exam had just three candidates, all of whom failed. One hundred...
The history of the Cambridge Exams

The 100% culture

In the English Language Teaching business our most-quoted number is 100. It’s all about 100%. Of what? Of language exams success of course! Everybody has to pass. 90% is not good enough. 70% is a total failure. Students become numbers. They are reduced to percentages. Teachers measure their teaching success based on pass rates. Schools advertise their...

Exam Time and the teaching is…

  It is not the first time ELT NEWS focuses on language exams and it won’t be the last. Our educational system relies on tests scores to discriminate strong and weak learners. In addition, the five or so thousand FL schools across the country function as spare parts of a huge exam machine ensuring its maintenance and existence. Personnel recruitment in the...

To take or not to take a language exam?

Author: Cathy Salonikides
To take or not to take a language exam?To take or not to take a language exam? The upcoming language exam session are just around the corner. The most common questions brought to our attention before choosing an examination body may vary depending on the “difficulty” or the “friendliness” of the exam, the recognition of the certificate, the cost, the alternative options of retaking the exam...

Adaptive testing and the LanguageCert Test of English

A test – through most teachers’ and students’ eyes – is usually a linear operation consisting of a set number of items that a student grinds through from the first item to the last. The current article describes the background to and the functioning of LanguageCert’s non-linear Test of English (LTE) ‘adaptive’ test. An ‘adaptive’ test adapts to a...

IELTS online – the most trusted English test, soon from the comfort of your home

Get ready for IELTS Online, a flexible new way to take your IELTS Academic test. English language test IELTS has announced that a secure online version of the exam will be rolled out globally in early 2022. Students around the world will soon have the ability to take IELTS Academic, a leading test of English for international higher education, from the...