The ACERT certificate exam is composed of two parts – written and oral.

Written examination:

The duration of the written examination - 120 minutes.

Maximum score for the written part: 80 points

The written examination consists of four parts:

• listening,
• reading,
• grammar and lexis (communicative use of a language in terms of both lexis and grammatical correctness in context)
• writing a functional text.

Listening - two or three listening texts (e.g. monologues and/or dialogues in the field of topics in accordance with the syllabus / CEF).

Different types of listening tasks are proposed (true/false/not given, multiple choice test, matching questions with distractors, etc.).

A total of 20 points can be obtained for the Listening component, one point for each correct answer, the only exception may be closed matching tasks (match a speaker to a correct answer).

Reading - two longer or three short reading texts (in the subject area in accordance with the curriculum / CEF).

Different types of tasks are proposed to test global and selective reading comprehension (true/false/not given, multiple choice test, paragraph matching including a distractor, etc.).

A total of 20 points can be obtained for the Reading component, one point for each correct answer, with a possible exception of paragraph matching tasks.

Grammar and lexis - the number of tasks is arbitrary (in the area of topics in accordance with the curriculum / CEFR).

Different types of tasks are proposed to test knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.

A total of 20 points can be obtained for the Grammar and Lexis section, one point for each correct answer, with the exception of sentence transformation tasks where 0.5 point is given for each correct structure in a sentence containing two structures. The result is rounded up to the nearest integer.

Writing a short functional text - In this part of the examination, a candidate chooses one of two or three tasks (in the area of topics in accordance with the curriculum / CEFR). The tasks encompass: covering letter (work, studies, foreign internship), formal letter, office correspondence, report, essay, composition, and a review. The word limit is 150 - 200 words.  The writing part cannot contain two same writing forms. A total of 20 points can be obtained for the Writing section.

Oral examination:

The oral examination is taken before a committee in pairs or individually.

The oral examination (in accordance with the syllabus/CEF) comprises an individual statement and a dialogue between candidates. Exam questions can be related to both everyday and professional issues. The questions are based on stimulus material  (discussion topic, short text, drawing, chart, questionnaire results).

In assessing the oral presentation, the examination board will take into account:

• discourse management and fluency, in the case of professional language also the content,
•  grammatical and lexical correctness as well as grammatical and lexical resource, ability to present opinions and justify arguments,
• interactive skills (e.g., fluency, initiating and responding, active listening, negotiating, etc.),
• pronunciation and intonation,
• overall impression.

A total of 20 points can be obtained for the oral examination.

A total of 100 points can be obtained for the written and oral parts together.

Distribution of points and scores:

In order to pass the Acert certificate examination in a foreign language, a minimum of 55% of correct answers are required (55 points) in the whole examination and, in addition to this, the candidate must score a  minimum of 50% in each examination component.

In the case of obtaining a lower number of points the examination is considered failed.