guidetothemajoreslandacademictestsandexaminations.doc

Guide to the Major ESL and Academic Tests and Examinations Categories of ESL Tests Comparing ESL Tests Test and Examination Centers in Hong Kong General English Tests About Cambridge ESOL Main Suite Cambridge ESOL Online Materials Academic Tests About IELTS IELTS Online Materials About TOEFL iBT TOEFL iBT Online Materials Business ESL Tests About Cambridge BEC BEC Online Materials About Cambridge BULATS BULATS Online Materials About TOEIC TOEIC Online Materials University Entrance Tests About SAT SAT Online Materials About GMAT GMAT Online Materials 1. Categories of ESL Tests There are many tests available for ESL students to choose from. We have categorized the major tests under the following headings: (click to go directly to information) General Cambridge ESOL KET PET FCE CAE CPE Academic IELTS TOEFL iBT Business Cambridge BEC Preliminary Vantage Higher Cambridge BULATS TOEIC University Entrance SAT GMAT 2. Comparing ESL Tests You may be wondering how the different language tests compare to each other? If you’ve achieved IELTS Level 5 what sort of TOEFL score can you expect? Every ESL test is a little bit different so they are most usefully compared using the guidelines established by the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) and the Council of Europes Common European Framework of Reference (CEF). The CEF and ALTE determine language levels by identifying what learners are able to do at every step of learning. They do this using a series of ‘can do’ statements (Table 1). Using this framework, it is possible to compare ESL tests according to those levels (Table 2). Both ALTE and the CEF divide language learners into six levels: Mastery ~ CEF C2 / ALTE 5 Effective Operational Efficiency ~ CEF C1 / ALTE 4 Vantage ~ CEF B2 / ALTE 3 Threshold ~ CEF B1 / ALTE 2 Waystage ~ CEF A2 / ALTE 1 Breakthrough ~ CEF A1 / ALTE 0 Table 1 – CEF / ALTE levels ? Lis