STUDENTS ENROLLED IN BACHELOR'S AND MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAMS WHO HAVE THE B2 LEVEL ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXAM AS A PREREQUISITE IN THEIR CURRICULUM
Students enrolled in the following courses:
BACHELORS DEGREE PROGRAMS:
Economics and Banking, Economics and Management
MASTERS DEGREE PROGRAMS:
Artificial Intelligence, Electronics and Communications Engineering (for students enrolled from 2020/2021 academic year), Finance, Economics, International Accounting and Management, Biodiversity Conservation and Environmental Quality, Biotechnologies of Human Reproduction, Genetic Counsellors, Medical Biotechnologies (for students enrolled from the 2019/2020 academic year), Sustainable Industrial Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Chemistry, Dentistry, European Studies, Language and Mind: Linguistics and Cognitive Studies.
Students enrolled in our bachelor's and master's courses that are taught entirely in English, who are required to pass a level B2 (according to CEFR) English exam as a prerequisite, must send one of the international certificates accepted by the university by email to the Front Office of the Language Centre. Email address: infocla@unisi.it.
Those who have not been awarded an international certification should take the B2 level English exam at the Language Centre after their enrollment in the university. They do not need to pass a pre-test, but they do have to register for the B2 exam online.
Those students who have the B2 English exam as a prerequisite need to present a B2 level English certificate or pass the internal B2 level exam (Idoneità ) before they are allowed to take exams in their faculty.
STUDENTS WHO DO NOT HAVE THE B2 LEVEL ENGLISH EXAM AS A PREREQUISITE
(Students enrolled in all other courses)
If you are attending a face-to face or blended B2 course, you will be enrolled in the exam directly by your teacher in the same semester, and do not need to register yourself. Those students that have passed a B2 course and would like to sit the exam at a later date need to register at the Language Center by the given deadlines.
If you are not attending a face-to-face or blended course and feel that your level of English is high enough (you should have, in any case, at least a B1 level), you can request direct admittance to the exam after passing a B2 pretest which must be booked online.
The next pretest online will be held in September2022.
If you book a test and then are unable to attend, please remember to cancel your appointment (in order to allow other students to book), otheriwise you will not be allowed to reserve a place the next time.
If you have already taken the B2 level English exam without passing it, you do not need to repeat the B2 pretest.
You do not need to take the pre-test and can register directly for the exam at the CLA Front Office if:
- You have already taken the B2 level English exam and have not passed it, or you have successfully attended a course in the previous semester without having sat the exam
- You are a first-year student enrolled in a degree course which requires the B2 level English exam as a prerequisite for the other assessments in your faculty (you must have already completed enrollment procedures in the university). See list above for degree courses which require the B2 exam as a prerequisite.
- You have graduated from a secondary school with English as the medium of instruction, but you do not have one of the international certificates approved by the Language Center
A self-study online course is available in order to prepare for the B2 exam. Please write to clatutors@unisi.it to request the access code.
The Language Center also periodically holds workshops which teach strategies to prepare for the both the Reading and Use of English components of the exam.
13 April, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. - Reading Seminar – Teacher: Helen Carruthers
Link to virtual classroom: http://meet.google.com/axw-tbcr-ekn
You do not have to register ahead of time In order to participate in the workshop. You should only:
- download and print the files below
- access the virtual classroom with your UNISI account
The next B2 English language exams will be held in Computer Lab 1, Piazza San Francesco, 8, on the following dates:
- 28 aprile 2023 – enrollment from this link from April 1 to 19.
- 22 e 23 giugno 2023 – enrollment from this link from May 22 to June 12.
- 13 July 2023 – enrollment from this link from May 22 to July 3.
- 15 September 2023 – enrollment from this link from August 21 to September 7.
PLEASE NOTE. You can choose to take the exam in June or July, but cannot take the exam in both sessions.
You can enrol in the exam if:
- you have attended a B2 course or have passed a B2 pre-test or
- you have already taken the B2 exam but have not passed it or
- you are enrolled in a bachelor’s or master’s degree program that requires the B2 English exam as a prerequisite.
Candidates are requested to arrive at the assigned classroom at least 30 minutes before the indicated time. Late students will only be accepted within the first 10 minutes of the START TIME of the exam. The exams are held in Computer Lab 1 (Aula Informatica 1) on the ground floor in Piazza San Francesco, 8.
Candidates must provide a valid, recent photo ID (i.e. passport, identity card). University badge cards will NOT be accepted.
The exam will be computer-based; make sure to have your UnisiPass (the username and password that you need for all online university services).
The B2 level English exam is similar to the Cambridge FCE (First Certificate in English) exam, but is composed of only two parts, Reading and Use of English. A minimum of 60% (the average of the two parts) is necessary in order to pass the exam.
An hour is allowed for the completion of the first part:
Reading: 3 reading exercises (30 questions)
- Part 1: reading comprehension, with questions and multiple-choice answers (8 questions, 2 points each)
- Part 2: completion of an article by inserting the given sentences (7 questions, 2 points each)
- Part 3: reading of a text and associating the given sentences with the people referred to (15 questions, 1 point each)
45 minutes are allowed for the completion of the second part:
Use of English: 4 exercises (42 questions)
- Part 1: choose the correct word (among four options) to fill in the gaps in a text (12 questions)
- Part 2: complete an extract with 12 gaps
- Part 3: reading of a text and filling in the gaps with words derived from those in bold print (for example, “able” can become “ability” or “enable” or “disable”, etc.) (10 questions)
- Part 4: rewrite a sentence, using the given word, so that it has the same meaning as the first sentence (8 questions, 2 points each)
The B2 pretest is composed of:
- Questions with multiple-choice answers (grammar and vocabulary)
- Text to be completed, with multiple-choice answers (similar to “Use of English” part one from Cambridge FCE examination)
- Word formation exercises (similar to “Use of English” part three)
- Cloze test - text with gaps to be filled in with missing word (similar to “Use of English” part two)
45 minutes are allowed for the test.