Pre-Intermediate Level (B1)

This examination is based on the Threshold specifications worked out by the Council of Europe and assesses whether the candidates can meet the basic communication demands of everyday life and whether they can create and maintain social, cultural and work relationships at a basic level in a Hungarian language environment. Passing the examination requires 350-450 hours of study. A successful Threshold-level examination creates the foundation for further progress towards the Independent User level.

The examination assesses the language skills in the following way:

Reading comprehension

The candidates must understand simple texts of public interest (transport information, information concerning the administration of affairs, etc), basic factual texts (instructions, advertisements, etc), short pieces of personal information (personal letter or message). These are texts the candidates could meet in a target language environment already at a very early stage of language learning.

The texts are followed by a series of tasks consisting of 20 units (multiple choice tests, multiple cloze, true-false answers).

Listening comprehension

The candidates must understand short dialogues and short informative texts taken over from the audio-visual media or publicly heard and must understand the essence of the content and the communicative intention.

The language skills of the candidates are assessed through two different kinds of tasks, which are followed by a series of tasks consisting of 20 units (information transfer exercises, multiple choice tests, multiple cloze and cloze tests).

Speaking

The candidates can perform the basic language functions: giving information, giving an account of events, describing things and persons and expressing their views adequately and asserting their basic interests verbally.

In the oral examination the examiners have a short conversation with the candidates about personal issues, then the candidates describe the content of a picture or some other visual aid. Finally, there is a role play about a situation involving one of the examiners on the basis of Hungarian instructions on a sheet chosen at random.

Writing

The candidates can perform basic written functions: giving information, giving an account of events, describing things and persons as well as expressing their views adequately.

The task is to write a continuous text of about 100 words (usually a letter with personal content) on the basis of the instructions. The candidates can choose between two topics.

Use of the Language

The candidates prove that they have the grammar and lexical skills required at the intermediate level through solving a set of tasks consisting of 20 items and different kinds of tasks (multiple cloze, cloze, transformation tasks, etc).

Weighting of components

The weighting of speaking skills is 40%, while that of the other skills is 20% each.

Results

The examination is evaluated on a pass/fail basis. The examination centre issues an official certificate both in case of failure and of passing, and mail it to the candidate.