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Introduction
During the past few years, more and more Public competitions have included an English exam.
The so-called
pre-selection tests
generally consist in a pre-determined number of multi-
ple-choice questions each candidate needs to answer and may vary from administration to ad-
ministration. At a later time, candidates may either have an additional English exam sheet they
are expected to complete, or that they can find enclosed in the “general knowledge” test sheet.
The number of options may vary from a four-answer base, to a five-answer base. Furthermore,
a database containing all the possible exam questions sometimes may be provided by some
specific administrations prior to the actual exam date.
This particular procedure may not necessarily be held in a pre-selection phase of the compe-
tition. In fact, some administrations may require its candidates to take this exam at the end of
the screening process. The way this other procedure works is essentially the same as those ad-
ministrations which require their candidates to take their exam at the beginning of the screen-
ing process.
In addition, many administrations may require its candidates to take another type of exam, the
so-called
Foreign Language Proficiency Assessment
. When requested, the contestants will
have to take a different kind of
written exam
which will assess the contestants’ ability to un-
derstand correctly and interpret written texts in English as a whole. Since the articles may fo-
cus on a variety of fields, the candidates will be expected to answer some text-related ques-
tions, demonstrating their full understanding of the text.
Some administrations might even require the contestants to take an
oral exam
. In this case,
the exam may be either compulsory or elective. Either way, the contestants will be handed a
written text which they are going to read – occasionally translate – and have a conversation
on the topic introduced by the text with their examiners.
While oral exams are widely used by several different administrations as a popular method
for assessment, the procedure each administration adopts often varies. In fact, some adminis-
trations may request candidates to take a
dictation exam
. In this case, candidates will have
to write down what the examiner is reading correctly, or they may simply be asked to read and
translate a text without having to discuss it at all.