Examination System

Setting and Pretesting

1.1 Selection of materials

Examination items are set by five teams composed of practising teachers: four people for each certification: CEFP1, CEFP2, DL, DS, DHEF. Each team member selects texts from a number of different sources, including novels and short stories, news items, letters and radio programmes. Choice of materials is guided by the following criteria:

• skills to be assessed;

• linguistic complexity;

• subject matter;

• cultural considerations;

• item types;

• number of items in the section.

1.2 Test item writing

Team members write their own items, which are then checked by a commission chaired by the Director of the Paris school or the teacher training adviser and sent back for modifications wherever necessary.

The CEFP commission produces twenty-eight to thirty tests a year. Between twenty and thirty are produced for the DL and fifteen for the DS. The approved tests are then left with the examinations department.

1.3 Pretesting

New materials are pretested and feedback on the existing material is obtained by asking teachers for comments on the difficulty and appropriacy of texts and examination items.

Marking

2.1 Process

The written components are sent to the examination centre in Paris, which distributes them to a team of markers, who are practising teachers from the Paris school. They mark following the marking criteria provided. Oral examinations take place in the various centres and are marked locally.

2.2 Training

Mark schemes are discussed and a standardisation meeting takes place before marking begins.

2.3 Checking

The Director of the Paris school or the teacher training adviser checks random samples of scripts.

Problem cases can be marked twice.

Results

Results, in the form of a list of passes – Very Good, Good and Fair and Fail, are sent to the Alliance Institutes. These are posted up for candidates to see. This is done within a week for candidates in Paris; it takes a month for Institutes abroad.

Security

At each centre a nominated person is responsible for security. The examination centre in Paris has an item bank from which test items are chosen. Each version can be used up to ten times at 220 different centres. The same version of a test is never used twice in the same country.