Click play on the player at the bottom to listen to this podcast or find it on Apple Podcasts.
You may have heard of the CILS (or Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language) exam that tests your Italian level in 5 areas, and you may have even considered taking it, but what does the process of preparing for and taking the test actually look like?
Today, we’ll talk all about this exam, my motivations for taking it and what I’ve been doing to prepare for it.
Italian students from all over the world take this exam and each has his or her own motivation: some, like me, take it so that they can attend universities in Italy, some take it to demonstrate that they can work in Italy, and some just take it as a motivation to study.
Whatever your reason may be for taking the CILS exam, this episode is sure to be helpful in providing you with information on what the exam consists of as well as the ways I’ve been studying to prepare myself to take it.
– The 6 levels of the common European framework for measuring language competency
– What to expect in terms of the format of the exam and how it’s run, including what you’ll be tested on
– How I’ve been preparing for the exam
– What I’ve been struggling with during my preparations
– How the exams are graded
Resources I’ve been using to study for the exam:
– Blog post from an Italian student who studied rigorously and took (and passed!) the CILS C2 level exam
– Exercises from Impariamo l’Italiano
– Come prepararsi all’esame del CELI 3 – the book I’m using to prepare for the exam
– Italian Conversation Coffee Breaks
Blogs I follow for Italian practice:
– Where is Danuccia?
– italianindie.com
– italiansinfuga.com
