Knowing one's language level is essential, not only to continue improving and acquiring new language skills, but also to access better professional and personal opportunities. Under this premise, TECH designs this complete assessment in which, following the criteria established by the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), the students will be able to know their level in Brazilian Portuguese. In this way, you will be able to choose the next step in your language learning and become a more competitive professional.

This TECH placement test is the most complete and rigorous test on the market to know your level of Portuguese"

It has been proven that learning languages increases your Intelligence. Learning a foreign language strengthens the brain's neural networks” 

José Antonio Marina. 
Philosopher, writer, and teacher.

In the professional world, nowadays it has become almost essential to prove a certain level of languages in order to be able to access job offers and even training such as postgraduate courses, degrees or doctorates.

For this reason, this placement test is the ideal way to determine the student's level in Brazilian Portuguese according to the CEFR criteria. A great opportunity to find out if you have a level ranging from A1 to C2, which will help you to consolidate your growth in new highly competitive environments.

For this purpose, TECH offers a simple but rigorous formula to determine the student's level, carrying out a personalized test, either face-to-face or online, at a time that the student prefers and with an exhaustive results report in less than 72 hours.

You will finally be able to show how much Portuguese you know

Flexible and Tailored

Choose the best time to take your exam, with TECH you set the date!

At Your House or Mine?

We conduct our placement test in person and individually, but if you prefer, you can take it completely online without having to travel.

No Waiting

Once the test is completed get your level certificate in less than 72 hours.

The structure, contents and duration of the placement test are described below:

The test lasts 100 minutes and is divided into 4 parts: 

• Listening: 20-30 minutes
• Speaking: 10-15 minutes
• Reading: 20-30 minutes
• Writing: 20-30 minutes

At TECH, you will find the most effective way to improve your communication skills"

The following is a description of the TECH placement test model specifications:

Skills Assessed

The exam consists of four parts designed to assess the candidates' linguistic and strategic abilities in the following skills:

• Reading
• Listening
• Writing This skill is assessed by two examiners
• Speaking The evaluation will take into account both the spoken presentation and the interaction between the candidates. This skill is assessed in person by two examiners

Subjects

The subject areas and subcategories used in the placement test are heterogeneous and based on what is described in the CEFR. The following is a list of some of the subject areas and subcategories used so far, which is based on Chapter 7 ("Specific Notions") of the same bibliography used in the writing of the CEFR:

• Leisure and recreation (free time, hobbies and interests, radio, TV, movies, sports)
• Travel (public transportat, private transport, vacations, lodging, luggage, travel documents)
• Relations with others ((invitations, correspondence, government and politics, social affairs)
• Health and physical awareness (body parts, personal comfort, hygiene, medical services)
• Education (school, subjects, grades)
• Shopping (facilities, food, clothing, fashion, basic necessities, prices)
• Food and drink (types of food and beverages, eating and drinking away from home)
• Services (e-mail, telephone, banks, police, hospitals)
• Places (ask for and give directions to locations)
• Language (skills, comprehension and expression)
• Weather (understanding weather forecasts and exchanging information on weather forecasts, climate)

Features of the Texts Used in the Test

The texts are completely authentic. In other words, they are samples of the real language that have not been produced especially for language teaching and may be subject to minimal ad hoc adaptations. Materials are gathered from sources as diverse as the Internet, magazines, newspapers, guidebooks, novels, advertisements, letters, e-mails, etc., which are adapted to the contextual domains of use described by the CEFR.

Assessment Criteria

The scores for each skill are expressed in percentages, which are reflected in the certificate issued to those who pass the test. The requirement for a candidate to be considered eligible for accreditation is to have obtained 50% or more in each of the four skills (reading, speaking, writing and listening), in addition to obtaining an average of at least 60% in the exam as a whole. The different scoring criteria for each of the skills are detailed below:

Listening and Reading Comprehension: Each correct item (minimum of 25 and maximum of 30) equals one point. A candidate's total number of correct items in this skill is weighted to obtain the corresponding score in percentage

Writing: When marking the two exercises to be carried out by the candidates, the following aspects are taken into account: relevance to the topic, cohesion and coherence, lexis and grammar.

Each aspect is evaluated with a score ranging from 0 to 5 points (maximum total of 20 points) and then the sum of these scores is weighted to obtain the percentage corresponding to each of the two tests.

Speaking: Once the interview has been completed, the examiners (interviewer and observer) give the test as a whole a score between 0 and 5 points for each of the four aspects evaluated: grammar and vocabulary, speech management, pronunciation and interactive communication.

Each aspect is weighted equally in the assessment of the skills. The total sum is divided by two and weighted, as is the case when marking the writing test. All sessions are recorded.

Types of Tasks

The tasks proposed in this test are designed to assess whether candidates are able to:

• Understand the main points of clear, standard-language texts dealing with common matters, whether in work, study or leisure situations (reading information brochures, reading billboards, reading text messages, understanding radio or television news)
• Perform in most situations that may arise during a trip in places where the language is used (identifying timetables and directions through reading or oral interaction, asking for directions, etc.)
• Produce simple and coherent texts on topics that are familiar to them or in which they have a personal interest
• Describe experiences, events, desires and aspirations, as well as briefly justify their opinions or explain their plans

Description of the Exercises

The details of the exercises for each of the skills are given below:

Reading: It consists of two exercises, each of which is based on reading a text. In turn, these two exercises may be subdivided into up to three different sections according to the type of questions/items contained in them.

So, the first of the two exercises of an exam could include a true or false questions section, a second short answer section, and a third section of multiple choice questions, to mention just one of the different possible configurations.

Listening: It consists of two exercises, each of which is based on listening to a passage that can be repeated up to two times.

Writing: It consists of two writing/composition exercises. The candidate must complete both of them.

Speaking: It consists of four exercises:

• The first is a conversation about personal information that each of the candidates holds individually with one of the two examiners present at the test
• The second is an interaction exercise between the two candidates being examined (in order to assess the candidate’s ability to interact, they are examined in pairs)
• In the third exercise, the candidate must sustain a monologue
• The fourth exercise, is a conversation between the two candidates and one of the two examiners present at the test

Number of words

Reading: Minimum of 900 words in total between the texts of the two exercises.

Listening: Not applicable. An audio text lasting a maximum of five minutes is used for each of the two exercises.

Writing: Candidates will have to produce two texts, one containing between 120 and 150 words, and the other between 150 and 180.

Speaking: The instructions provided by the examiner to the candidates at the beginning of each of the four exercises state that no more than 50 words are to be used. In this case, the duration of each of the four exercises is also relevant: personal conversation between 2 and 3 minutes; interaction between candidates between 2 and 3 minutes; sustained monologue of 3 minutes (one and a half minutes per candidate) and a 3-minute conversation between examiner and candidates.

Test duration

The maximum total duration of the test, including the four skills evaluated, will be 100 minutes, distributed in different periods for each part of the test (written comprehension, oral comprehension, written production and oral production).

Reading: Between 50 and 60 minutes.
Listening: Between 30 and 40 minutes.
Writing: Between 60 and 80 minutes.
Speaking: Between 15 and 20 minutes.

Basic Instructions

At the beginning of the assessment for each of the four skills, written instructions are given on the specific examination procedure for each skill.

Materials Used and Test Format

The four tests that make up the exam are designed with a common format that TECH uses expressly for this exam, with the objective of making it easier to read the content and provide answers.

The exam contains separate "question" sheets for each test or skill (with instructions, text, graphics and questions) and a separate answer sheet for each skill, on which candidates must write their answers.

In just over 3 hours, you will take a test that will allow you to precisely assess your level of Portuguese in 4 different areas"