The Reading paper assesses candidates’ ability to read and understand a number of texts taken from books, newspapers and magazines. Candidates are expected to be able to show understanding of gist, main points, detail, text structure or specific information, deduce meaning or recognise opinion and attitude.

The Writing paper assesses candidates’ ability to write non-specialised text types such as letters, articles, reports and reviews for a given purpose and target reader, covering a range of topics. Responses are of about 250 words in length.

In the English in Use paper, candidates are expected to demonstrate knowledge and control of the language system by completing various tasks at text and sentence level, based on authentic texts. This will include gap-filling, error correction, word formation, register transfer and text completion exercises.

The Listening paper assesses candidates’ ability to understand the meaning of spoken English and to extract detailed and specific information from the spoken text and to understand speakers’ attitudes and opinions. The texts are taken from a variety of text types including interviews, discussions, lectures and conversations.

The Speaking Test assesses candidates’ ability to interact in conversational English in a range of contexts. It contains four parts, including an interview section, individual long turns, a collaborative task and a discussion. Candidates are provided with stimulus materials such as photographs and drawings.