Assess Your Level
Language level assessment can often seem to involve an arbitrary judgement – one person’s ‘intermediate’ can be another’s ‘fluent’. The aims of our assessments are simple: for individuals, to ensure you are learning appropriate material right from the very first lesson; for group students, to enable us to place you in the right group.
If you are interested in individual tuition and would like us to send you an assessment test, click here. If you wish to join one of our groups beyond beginners’ level, please follow these four steps:
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1)
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Read the brief description below of the 8 levels we offer. Don’t worry if you think you don’t fit into a level exactly: when you send us your group booking form tell us approximately which level you think you are. |
| 2) | We will send you the relevant assessment test as a word file, to be completed on-screen and returned to us. |
| 3) | We will then arrange a short oral assessment, either face-to-face or over the telephone. |
| 4) | We will then suggest which group we think is right for you. |
| Level
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| Description
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| TRKI*
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| ALTE*
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| Beginners
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| for absolute beginners; i.e. those with no knowledge of Russian or of the Cyrillic alphabet
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| -
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| -
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| False beginners
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| you will have studied some Russian previously – e.g. a term or two of evening classes in another institution, a year at school – but may have forgotten much of what you learnt. You will know the alphabet and some simple phrases, and should have a basic overall understanding of how Russian works (i.e. you should be familiar with the concept of the case system). You should know some basic grammar – perhaps present and past tense of verbs, prepositional case of nouns, gender of nouns.
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| -
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| -
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| Elementary
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| You will have completed 50 to 75 hours of Russian. You should be able to cope with a few simple practical situations – e.g. introductions, buying things, directions, making appointments. You should be able to conduct very simple social conversations about yourself. You should be familiar with past, present and future tenses of imperfective verbs and some noun cases.
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| elementarnyi
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| breakthrough
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| Pre-intermediate
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| You will have completed about 100 hours of Russian. You should be able to cope with most day-to-day tasks using simple Russian, and should be able to overcome communication problems (i.e. able to ask people to say things in a different way, speak more slowly, etc.) You should be able to hold simple conversations on common topics other than about yourself (e.g. weather, likes and dislikes). You will know most of the forms of nouns and pronouns in the singular but may not be able to use adjectives in all forms; you will probably have some idea of verb aspects.
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| bazovyi
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| Level 1
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| Intermediate
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| You will have completed +/- 150 hours of tuition. You should be able to cope in most practical situations and should be able to converse freely on everyday topics with a sympathetic native speaker. You will still find it difficult to follow Russian spoken at native-speaker speed. You will be familiar with all the basic forms of Russian nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs, though you may not always use them correctly in speech. You will be able to use both verb aspects, and should be familiar with basic verbs of motion.
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| bazovyi
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| Level 1
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| Upper intermediate
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| You should be able to cope in all day-to-day situations, and should be able to understand the gist of unadapted texts (e.g. newspaper articles). You may find it difficult to follow Russian on the radio or news. You will have a sound knowledge of all the basic grammar of Russian, although you may not always use the forms correctly in speech. You may also require additional work on more advanced areas (e.g. verb of motion).
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| TRKI 1
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| Level 2
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| Advanced
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| You will have reached at least ‘A’ Level and may well have studied Russian as a minor at university level. You may also have spent time in Russia studying the language. You will be able to discuss all non-specialist topics with native speakers, and should be able to discuss some familiar specialist subjects (e.g. discussing your job in detail). You should understand Russian spoken at native-speaker speed as long as the topic is familiar. You should also be able to follow the main points of TV news, or watch and enjoy a Russian film.
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| TRKI 2
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| Level 3
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| Graduate advanced
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| You will have completed a degree in Russian (as a major subject). Although you may require some refreshing in complex areas of grammar, you will mostly be interested in advanced conversation and reading skills. You should be able to read a newspaper article or a literary text with only occasional dictionary use.
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| TRKI 3/4
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| Level 4/5
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TRKI and ALTE:
TRKI stands for ‘test po russkomu iazyku kak inostrannomu’ or ‘tests of Russian as a foreign language’ (RFL). These are exams (and their corresponding levels) organised by the Russian Ministry of Education. There are six levels: elementarny (elementary), bazovyi (basic), 1, 2, 3 and 4. Although we do not currently offer these exams, we have provided the approximate equivalent levels for those who have studied in Russia or are interested in taking the exams there.
ALTE (Association of Language Testers in Europe) is a programme to establish common levels of language proficiency across Europe. The aim is to say (for example), ‘Jean-Paul’s German is the same level as Dieter’s French’; or, from an employer’s point of view, ‘Jean-Paul can do the same things in German as Dieter can do in French’.
The ALTE framework has 6 levels: Breakthrough, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The framework defines language proficiency in terms of what speakers can typically do at a particular level in various situations. This is done through a series of ‘can-do statements’ (around 400 in all). Examples of ‘can-do statements’ relating to restaurants are: ‘CAN go to a self-service or fast-food establishment and order a meal’ (Breakthrough) and ‘CAN complain effectively about most situations likely to arise in a restaurant’ (Level 3).
Although we have strong reservations about the practicality of the ALTE framework, we have provided approximate equivalent levels for those who may have studied Russian elsewhere in Europe. |
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