The C2/Proficiency Level

People who aim high in the world of EFL, ESL have their sights set on a C2/proficiency level exam, but what exactly is that level supposed to be? If you look at the description given by Cambridge University in connection with the CPE, you come across these statements:

At C2 level, typical users can be expected to:

• understand with ease virtually everything they hear and read
• make accurate and complete notes during a presentation
• understand colloquial asides
• talk about complex and sensitive issues without awkwardness
• express themselves precisely and fluently.

The material for the Cambridge CPE begins with a questions: Is the CPE for you? And it says it is as long as you can ...

• use English to advise on, or talk about complex or sensitive issues?
• understand the finer points of documents, correspondence and reports?

The references to colloquial asides, a lack of awkwardness and the complex and sensitive issues can sound daunting and can sound as if they set the bar extremely high, but in practice anyone who is comfortable using English both orally and in writing in both formal and informal contexts should be on course for one of these certificates.

A comparison of the CPE, the ECPE and the IELTS exams

Here we look at three exams: Cambridge University's CPE, the University of Michigan's ECPE, and the IELTS (which in part comes from Cambridge University). All three are serious exams that test the four main skill areas: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Before looking at some of the details we want to come clean about the one we prefer: IELTS. Why? Well, as teachers it is always painful to see students working sometimes really quite hard for 18 months or two years, do an exam, fail by the tiniest of margins and have nothing to show for their efforts. With the IELTS this unpleasant situation is avoided because EVERYBODY GETS A CERTIFICATE! This is a massive plus.

How is this possible? Well, the IELTS exam is written so that students over a range of ability levels will be able to take it. Tasks in the reading section, for instance, are graded so that the first questions are easier than the ones that follow. Candidates are then given a mark on a scale of 1 to 9, with 7.5 being a clear C2/proficiency-level grade. Students who don't quite make the grade will not come away empty handed as they do with the CPE and the ECPE. Instead they get the same certificate with a lower grade that may well be enough for those who, for instance, want to study a less linguistically demanding course at an English language university.

IELTS has another advantage: convenience. It is held much more frenquently than the CPE or ECPE, which are held only twice a year. The system for marking and awarding certificates is also much more prompt (especially compared to the Michigan ECPE, which can leave people waiting for three months over the summer).

Some people point out that the IELTS certificate includes a comment about the advisability of the person being re-examined after a number of years whereas the other certificates say nothing that might compromise their appearance of being valid for life. Of course, in the real world the vast majority of employers and universities are going to look carefully at the date of any language certificate (assuming that they really do need someone who has a good command of the English language). In cases where the age of a certificate doesn't matter the IELTS certificate will remain as valid as any other - it won't actually expire or self-destruct.

Having come clean about our sympathies, we will look at some of the areas where the differences between the exams are most marked

Focus: academic or literary?

One big difference concerns literary English: the CPE includes it whereas IELTS and the Michigan ECPE stick to non-literary academic topics. The CPE includes literary texts in its reading section and the litarary interest colours parts of the Use of English section. Although it would be great if all students were eager to read English literature, that is unfortunately not the case and for those students who are not keen to read the odd novel in their spare time an exam like IELTS or the ECPE would be better.

Size

The Cambridge CPE is a BIG exam. It takes a total of 6 hours and 4 minutes, which is quite a marathon. By comparison both the Michigan ECPE and the IELTS are just short jogs around the park - only 2 hours and 45 minutes each.

Complexity

The Cambridge CPE is a complex exam with a very wide range of tasks. There is a mix of multiple choice questions (MCQs) and questions without answer choices. The Michigan ECPE, on the other hand, is all MCQs, making it simpler, easier to prepare for and more attractive to candidates who like to know that where they don't know the answer they will still have a 25% chance of getting it right. The IELTS is somewhere in the middle - not as complex as the CPE but not made up entirely of MCQs.

Writing

The writing paper is another area where the added complexity of the CPE is obvious. Cambridge CPE candidates need to be ready to write good articles, essays, letters, proposals, reviews and reports, which goes beyond what most people have to do at university or work. IELTS has a very short (but sometimes tricky) description of some statistics followed by a longer and consquently more important essay. The Michigan ECPE sets its bar unbelievably low in asking students to write just one short essay in only 30 minutes (and in practice students who have never written a decent essay in class find themselves passing the ECPE writing paper).

Grammar and vocabulary

The size of the vocabularies demanded by the three exams are probably very similar but the contents are different. The University of Michigan has a taste for scientific and technical reading passages and students need to have the vocabulary to deal with them. IELTS has a similar focus. The CPE, as has been said, includes literary elements so students need vocabularies enriched by reading literature.

Whereas the Michigan ECPE has sections (in the GCVR paper) with headings "grammar" and "vocabulary" (each with 40 MCQs) the Cambridge CPE has a paper entitled "Use of English" which combines cloze activities with word and sentence transformations. The emphasis is more on finding the right word for the context, and what is traditionally understood as grammar only really comes into the last 8 of 39 questions. IELTS has no equivalent to the "Use of English" paper and no grammar or vocab MCQs. It sticks strictly to reading, writing, speaking and listening tasks.

Recognition

Before choosing an exam you need to consider which exam certificates are recognised by the organizations you might want to study with or work for. IELTS, for instance, is a particularly good exam for British and Australian universities and the CPE is a good exam if you want to go on to teach English at a language school. Make sure you check with employers and educational institutions first.

Useful websites

Information about the IELTS exam is available from www.ielts.org.

For the CPE visit www.cambridgeesol.org.

And for the University of Michigan ECPE visit www.lsa.umich.edu.

Back to Michigan ECPE resources