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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
It is important to check how you prepare for the exam
Agreed!
Buona fortuna Cher!
I am starting my journey to prepare to take the CILS B1 exam in order to get dual citizenship with Italy and the United States through marriage since the new law created January 2019 now requires spouses to pass the B1 exam. Not knowing any Italian except for what I picked up verbally over 20 years of visiting Italy on vacation, I am starting in earnest trying to pass this exam to get my citizenship. I enrolled in Italian Beginners class at the local college, bought Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur CD’s and DUOLINGUO app. I spend about 2 hours each day in the following order: 1 hour DUOLINGUO, 30 minutes Rosetta Stone, and 30 minutes Pimsleur CD. The college class will meet 4 mornings a week for 1 1/2 hours each morning. Since I know absolutely NO GRAMMAR and read ZERO Italian I figure it will take me 2 years to be able to sit for the test. I am aiming for Summer 2021 to take the test. I’ll keep you informed of my progress. Thank you so much for your blog! It’s inspirational to me that you passed!!