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.
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