Афанасьева Екатерина, обладатель кембриджских сертификатов CAE,  TKT; международных сентификатов IELTS и TOEFL iBT,
преподаватель экзаменационных курсов языковой школы МАСТЕРКЛАСС
08.07.2011 г.

On June, 15 and June, 16 I sat a CPE exam. The event was long overdue as I had been inclined to try myself at it since my CAE results were received in summer, 2008.

I have been glad to be subjected to so reliable and widely acknowledged a testing. I knew that CPE was the earliest examination developed by Cambridge ESOL as far back as 1913 for certifying the proficiency of nonnative English speakers. I have viewed it as an outstanding opportunity for checking up my  skills and identifying areas of further development in the English language.

Another reason for taking the test was that I am enthusiastic about methods of language proficiency testing. All CPE assignments are thoroughly prepared, revised and tested before being used in exam papers. And it is much fun to do the assignments as they are written with humor and dwell on fascinating topics. I wish I could learn how to diagnose someone's skills through such interest-sparkling procedures as CPE implies.

As far as the exam went, I felt both hopeful and worrying at times. On June, 15 our speaking skills were assessed. Two British examiners, Claire (interlocutor) and Glenn (assessor) assisted us in testing how fluent we are in describing, comparing, persuading our speech partners of our opinions, and in other language functions. It was hard to keep the balance of collaboration in the group, in other words, to provide for each partner taking an equal share in the polylogue. Individual long runs were simpler to accomplish, I believe. Generally speaking, this part was not as easy as I expected. Concentration, attention to others and naturalness are the components of success at this stage, they say.

The second day went faster and was perceived easier by all of us than the first one, despite our expectations of the opposite. Having participated in advance in a CPE pretest, I found it not in the least stressful to sit the real examination as the assignment types were already well known to me. And so were my strengths and weaknesses, as pretests also give a candidate individual feedback. Some of the reading exam was challenging due to a narrowest topic of innovative methods on history research. But then shouldn't an exam at such a level be difficult? I guess it should.

The writing is the part I would recommend all potential candidates to pay a special attention to. In a nutshell, stamina is an issue here. Be it that I worked through the recommendations provided in "Handbook for Teachers" well in advance, it was still hard to make the most of the alloted time. For instance, I decided not to make a draft copy, but only resort to a detailed plan. However, the way it goes much depends on a candidate's own style. Use of English was most fun, with both educational and entertaining texts that I sincerely enjoyed. Listening seemed less exciting since I had got tired by the time.

Overall, I am thanking Masterclass Cambridge ESOL Centre RU034 for the opportunity to take the CPE in my city. I am confident that sitting the testing in another location would slim my chances of success.

I am now awaiting my exam results, which are due on July, 26, 2011. Please, wish me good luck! And may we all have an opportunity to master a foreign language to desired proficiency!

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