Accreditation Manual > Glossary
Accreditation Fee: a fee to be paid when applying for the accreditation of an examination system, a new language, examination centre or examination location.
Accreditation Review (extraordinary, scheduled, thematic or ad hoc) a coordinated, scheduled inspection process consisting of several steps that investigates the language examination system, the operation of the examination centre and the examination locations belonging to it. The usual duration of the inspection process is three months but should be long enough to include a complete period of examination.
Accreditation: the name of the procedure under which the body authorized to do so, states whether an examination system operated by a Hungarian or a foreign examination centre and the examination centre itself are professional, valid and comply with the legal requirements.
Accreditation Manual: a professional and methodological guide that, on the basis of Hungarian Government Decree No. 137/2008. (V. 16.), contains the requirements and steps of the accreditation and inspection process of the language examination centres, sites and systems.
Accredited Examination Centre: an educational institute or a registered legal entity with articles of association whose buildings are suitable to hold certified language examinations and where, as a result of a successful exam, the candidates may be issued a language certificate recognized by the state.
Accredited Examination System: a methodological package that assesses language skills according to pre-determined principles. The experts of the accreditation process examine whether the system is appropriate for assessing language competence and if it complies with the levels specified by law and also with the other requirements. If it does, they suggest that the Educational Authority and the Language Accreditation Centre should accredit the system meaning that its operation becomes recognized by the state.
Category “A” Assessment Instrument: assessment instruments using discreet points or objective techniques. The types of tasks belonging to this category include the following: multiple choice, true or false, cloze test, C-test, completion, gap filling, matching, etc.
State Language Exam: Prior to 1st January 2000, the Centre for Advanced Language Learning was the only institution to conduct language exams that were recognised by the state and that granted some advantages to those passing the exam and in possession of its certificate. Before 1st January 2000 however, there used to be other exams and certificates which the state recognised as “equivalent” with the state language exam.
Certified Language Exam Since 1st January 2000, there have been several language exams and (if successfully passed) language certificates which are recognised by the state. Every state language certificate received before the 1st January 2000, is automatically considered to be a certified language exam even after 1st January 2000.
General Competencies: (encyclopaedic knowledge): all the knowledge (gained about the world) necessary for all kinds of activities and not specifically related to languages.
General Language Exam: mono- or bilingual language exam measuring the language performance of the candidates related to various activities and in everyday situations.
Angoff Method: a test-centred approach to determine the minimum performance based on the test. Related to the minimally qualified target group, the experts predict what percentage of the group would answer a given item correctly.
Battery: interdependent sub-tests or tests for a particular skill that are independent units, but that can be used together to determine the final score. An expression used mainly in the case of oral examination materials.
Category “B” Assessment Instrument: criterion-dependent, subjective assessment instruments. The types of tasks belonging to this category include the following: conversation interview, interpreting a document, situation practice and debate, translation, composition.
internal rules of procedure: measures that regulate, in detail, the operation of an examination centre and the examination systems run by it (for further details see here).
Descriptor: a description belonging to a given score of a grading scale that characterizes the performance of the candidate at a given level.
Discrete-Point Tasks: every test that assesses the language elements separated from each other by independent questions and exercises. This includes tasks where the candidates may choose between several possible solutions.
Discrimination Index: an indicator that shows to what extent an item is able to differentiate between the better and the poorly performing candidates.
Discrimination Exemption (neutrality): the elaboration of the test in a way that no group of candidates (e.g. candidates who use the spelling of American English, or the German auxiliary system typically used in Austria, candidates belonging to a particular ethnic or cultural group, candidates experienced or inexperienced in a particular professional or scientific field, etc.) should enjoy any advantage. The principles of neutrality, of not having any positive or negative discrimination should be applied throughout the whole process of test development. When developing tests, the developers, as part of the proceedings, shall try to do their best to guarantee neutrality. The use of questions, items, answer keys etc. that are detrimental to the major “national dialects” of a given language shall be avoided? similarly, the use of materials that discriminate against any gender, ethnic or age, minority and religious group shall be avoided? the use of taboos and test material causing offence shall also be avoided.
Documentation Review and Assessment: the review and assessment of the accreditation material of an examination centre or system.
expansion of examination location: justified due to quantity reasons in the case of an increase in the number of examinees in the given language exam system (increase by at least 100 persons compared to the preceding calendar year).
change of examination location: in this case, due to quality reasons or due to temporary reconstruction activities, the examination location requests the simultaneous removal of previous exam rooms and the addition of new rooms to the accreditation register. The change of location affecting another settlement is not possible.
Monolingual Complex Examination: it assesses at least four skills per level (listening comprehension, speaking, writing and reading comprehension). It does not assess interpreting (mediation) skills, so as a result, these skills do not influence the final score of the exam.
Pre-testing: a phase, in the development of tests, where the tests are tried out using a representative sample of the target population. The aim is that following the statistical analysis of the results, the good and bad items may be identified.
profile: possible diversification of exam systems. E.g. a language examination centre operates an independent economic professional language exam system inside which it offers the examinees two profiles to choose from: commerce and tourism. The language examination centre has to have at least one examination occasion per year on all levels of the provided language(s) and in all profiles. (This means at least 6 exams per language.)
The operation of the profiles is suited to the needs of the examinees, i.e. if on a given level the examinees enter exams in two profiles, not only one, then the examination material can be prepared in two versions, and there can be exam parts with identical content between the lists of exam tasks. If, on a given level, there is interest in only one profile then the language centre only has to organise the exam for that given profile. In the exam certificates only the professional language but not the profile is indicated. (Based on the example given above, the word ‘economic’ will be indicated in the certificate.) The maximum number of profiles within a language exam system is limited to three.
Desirable Statistical Analysis and Indicators: In the case of category “A” assessment instruments, if the number of results treated together is at least 30, the following statistical indicators shall be worked out after both the pretesting and the exam:
For each item: difficulty value and discrimination index?
For each task and possibly for each test: average, median, deviation, and standard error of measurement and reliability index.
In the case of pretesting, when the tasks belonging to the same test are taken by the same pretest population, the correlation between the tasks and the subtests should also be calculated. After the live exam, the correlation between the tasks and also between the subtests should be calculated.
In the case of category “B” assessment instruments if the number of results treated together is at least 30, the following statistical indicators should be calculated after the live exam:
For each task and maybe for each test: average, median, deviation?
The level of the reliability index between the assessors.
After the live exam, the correlation between the tasks and subtests should be calculated.
See also: Category “A” assessment instruments and Category “B” assessment instruments
Empirical validation: an important phase of exam development, the fourth phase of the CEFR harmonization process aimed at guaranteeing the external and internal validity of the sample tasks (and of other item pools).
Ad Hoc Review: as part of the inspection process visiting the examination centre, the examination site(s) and the exam(s). Its aim is to inspect whether the exams take place according to the internal manner of operation of the examination centre. Minutes are taken about the inspections that are carried out by external and internal experts trained by the Education Authority.
Live Exam: a language exam where candidates pay the examination centre an exam fee and upon successfully passing the exam get a language certificate recognized by the state.
Assessor: (1) in the case of oral exams, a person trained and certified by the examination centre who quietly observes the oral performance of the candidates and assesses it on the basis of the criteria interpreted the same way by all assessors, and who, together with the interviewer, determines the final score after the exam. (2) In the case of written exams, a person trained and certified by the examination centre who, assesses the writing tasks on the basis of the criteria interpreted the same way by all the assessors.
Grading Scale: an assessment instrument consisting of categories ranked on the basis of certain aspects and the scores and descriptors assigned to them that is used in assessing the written and oral language performance of candidates.
Intra-Rater Reliability: the extent of similarity between the assessment of the same rater about the same level of performance assessed at two different times.
Validity: whether or not the examination system suitably assesses the command of the designated target language of the exam.
Item writer: the officially trained and certified expert of the examination centre, who develops tests for the exams within the framework of the examination system belonging to the centre.
Test Bank: an item pool that the examination centre has already tried out in real exam situations and where the data gained about how the tasks operate are available. The information gained here may be used to determine the levels and assure the quality of the exams in the case of future exams. Its application is possible mainly when the examination centre uses the methods of modern (probabilistic) test-theories to determine whether a test works or not.
Guide for Test Constructors: a guide prepared for the test constructors of an examination centre that details the criteria of which items and tasks should be constructed for each skill.
Item Pool: the collection of tests ready to be used in exam situations categorized according to different types. The tasks in the item pool are interchangeable equivalent versions of the given task type.
Interchangability: the equivalence and interchangability of the tasks used with the same assessment target regarding their type, internal structure and level of difficulty.
revision committee (RC): a body of experts consisting of members from the Accreditation Board and requested outside experts whose task is to carry out the accreditation review. The review is ordered by the Educational Authority and is carried out through the chairman and the members of the RC. The chairman of the RC must be a member of the Accreditation Board.
Procedural Requirements: the ten phases of the examination procedure that follow one another in a chronological order (details here), and that are important components of quality assurance.
Chief Examiner: the person responsible for all the activities and preparation related to one of the languages of the examination centre.
Site Visit: a detailed examination of the operating conditions of an examination centre orlocation.
True Copy: a copy certified by either the head of the examination centre or by a notary public.
Anchor Item: an item appearing in two or more tests. Its level of difficulty is known? it is placed in the next version of the test to provide information about the test and about the candidates taking the test with the aim of, for example, calibrating the test on the given grading scale.
Fit Statistics: data that can be produced using probabilistic analysis methods that show how the test items and the candidates conform to the model according to which, the better performing candidates correctly answer the more difficult items with greater probability than the lower performing candidates.
Interaction: oral and/or written activity involving at least two people, where production and reception alternate or, in the case of the oral activity, can take place at the same time.
Writing Skills: reading comprehension and writing. Depending on the place it occupies in the examination system, the assessment of mediation skills may belong to the oral or writing skills.
IRT (item-response theory): a group of probabilistic mathematical models that try to find the correspondence between the test result of a candidate and their level of knowledge. These models are based on the principle that the prospective performance of the candidate depends, firstly, on the level of difficulty of the items and, secondly on the level of knowledge of the candidate. IRT has several applications, of which the most well-known are the following: the one-parameter logistic model (level of item difficulty), the two-parameter logistic model (level of item difficulty and item discrimination) and the three-parameter logistic model (level of item difficulty, item discrimination and degree of guessing). See also probabilistic test analysing methods.
Familiarization Phase: the first phase of the harmonization procedure? getting acquainted with the CEFR as the theoretical basis and practical guide.
Item: every measurement unit within a task that gets a point or points? the smallest unit of the test that can be assessed separately.
Correctness Indicators: indicators revealing the quality of a test. Generally, there are three correctness indicators: objectivity, validity and reliability.
Bilingual Complex Language Exam: a language exam that assesses at least five different skills (listening comprehension, speaking, writing, reading comprehension and mediation) per level.
Making a Bilingual Exam Monolingual: an opportunity for examination systems that were originally accredited as bilingual, when the examination centre operating the exam may request the transformation of its system into monolingual or to be able to run a monolingual version of the exam at the same time.
Double Marking: an evaluation method, which according to the Board needs to be documented, when two assessors mark the exam independently.
Interviewer (oral exams): in the case of oral exams, a person trained and certified by the examination centre that informs the candidates about what to do and communicates with the candidates in the target language during the exam in order to make the candidates perform in a way that their performance can be assessed satisfactorily. Together with the assessor, the interviewer also takes part in the assessment of the oral exam. They determine the final score together on the basis of the assessment scale specified by the examination system.
Classical Test Analysis Methods: statistical test analysis procedures developed on the basis of a measurement theory. Data gained this way is heavily dependent on the population.
Communicative Competence: it has several definitions. Generally speaking, it refers to the ability to use the language appropriately under various circumstances. CEFR mentions the communicative language competence that enables the candidate to act using the means of language.
Complex Measurement: an examination assessing both the oral and written skills as stipulated by Government Decree No. 137/2008. (V. 16.)? it provides a representative cross-section of the candidate’s knowledge that can be assessed.
Construct: those parameters or faculties and also the connections between them that make up the command of a language.
Correlation Analysis: an external validation procedure that verifies that there is an appropriately strong connection existing between the results of the tests of the live exam and those of the tests previously linked to the CEFR.
Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR): a guide published by the Council of Europe in 2001 on language acquisition, language teaching and assessment. It aims to provide a common framework to develop curriculums, guides, examinations and text books.
Criterion-Reference: a feature of proficiency examinations? relating the performance of the candidates to previously determined criteria.
Qualitative Validation Procedures: all the validation procedures related to the quality of a test whose aim is to collect information about the experiences typical to certain individuals or groups. Such procedures involve the use of questionnaires, the examination of how the candidates completed their tasks by way of “thinking out loud”, an examination of the style of the test, etc.
Mediation: written or oral language forms that make communication possible between people who, for some reasons, are not able to communicate with one another directly. In Hungary, in the case of language exams recognized by the state, if a written text has to be translated or summarized into another language in writing, its score must belong to the written part of the exam. If a written or spoken text has to be translated or summarized into another language orally, then its score must belong to the oral part of the exam.
Reliability: the degree of how consistently, and with the least amount of errors, the exam – as a combination of various assessment instruments – is able to assess the command of a language. Reliability may be described by the reliability coefficient that can be determined on the basis of the performance of the candidate and the analysis of the exam results. The reliability of the exam includes the reliability of the interviewers (assessors) and that of the tasks (tests).
Pass Mark: the percentage of the total score (differs by examination centres, but generally 60%) that the candidates must achieve considering the scores for all the tasks of the exam in order to pass a language exam recognized by the state. It is different from the minimum performance level that the candidate must achieve for each skill separately in order to pass a language exam recognized by the state (minimum 40% as stipulated by the Accreditation Guide).
Measurement Unit: all the tasks grouped around the skills that are measured. Even a single task may form a measurement unit and one measurement unit may consist of several tasks. A task or test may be considered a measurement unit if it is suitable for measuring at least one skill. A further requirement is that the measurement unit must be independent – it should not be built upon other units. Two or more integrated tasks that are evaluated using one score may be regarded as one measurement unit. In the case of measuring the skills separately, the tasks used to measure the same skill form one measurement unit.
Assessment Instrument: a task used at a language exam. The complexity of the exam also means the complexity of the various types of tasks used? a language exam applies several different types of assessment instruments at the same time. As part of the examination system, the different assessment instruments complement and balance each other.
Difficulty Indicator: the proportion of right answers given to an item.
Skills in Language Use: listening comprehension, speaking, reading comprehension, writing.
Linguistic Competence: one of the components of communicative competence including grammatical, lexical, semantic and phonological knowledge.
Language Knowledge Model: the interpretation of a given examination system in terms of what language knowledge means.
Language Exam: the language exam is a form of assessment where the foreign language knowledge of a candidate is assessed by an examination institution.
Accreditation Centre for Foreign Language Examinations (Centre): one of the departments of the Education Authority that makes decisions regarding the accreditation of language examinations and their reviews.
The Centre determines what a foreign language certificate issued prior to January 1st 2001, is worth in Hungary today. It issues certificates to those candidates who took their written and oral language exams separately and wish to get a complex (Type C) language exam certificate. In the case of lost certificates, candidates may request “duplicate certificates” here and the Centre certifies the authenticity of certificates for certain institutions.
Accreditation Board for Foreign Language Examinations (Board): a professional body that the chairman of the Educational Authority selects through tender and commissions to arrange the accreditation and review of the examination centres, the exam locations and the language exams and also to carry out the professional tasks in relation to the certified language examinations as stipulated for them by Government Decree 137/2008. (V. 16.)
Conflict of Interest: according to Government Decree 137/2008. (V. 16.) § 4. article (1) a person who participated in preparing the candidates for the language exam can not be a member of the examining body. According to the position of the Board there is also conflict of interest in the case of those examiners and invigilators who taught the candidate
A: for the duration of at least one course (30 lessons) one year before the exam, or
B: in the form of any course, irrespective of it’s duration, nature or educational form within three months prior to the exam.
Declaration on Conflict of Interest: a document where the assessors of oral and written exams declare that, according to the position of the Body, there is no conflict of interest, that they are not related to the candidate in any way and that they are not influenced by anything when judging the performance of the candidates objectively. Complying with the regulations regarding the conflict of interest is the responsibility of the head of the examination centre.
Summative Assessment: a written document that the Committee of Experts produces following their site visit and the review of the documentation. The Body recommends accreditation on the basis of this document.
Minutes of the Summative Review: a document concluding the accreditation review where the Inspection Committee evaluates the operation of the examination centre in question.
Pragmatic Competence: the ability with which the language user connects statements and the linguistic functions the statements intend to express.
Probabilistic Test Analysis Methods: statistical test analysis procedures developed on the basis of a measurement theory that makes a connection between the degree of possibility the candidate completes the tasks correctly and the level of difference that exists between the knowledge of the candidate and the difficulty of the task. Data received this way heavily depends on the population. See also IRT.
Production: oral or written activities including speaking and writing.
Profile: the possible branches of specialized language examination systems within a given scientific field. For example, a language examination centre may operate an independent business language exam within which it offers two optional profiles to the candidates: trade and tourism. The examination centre shall organize an exam for every level in each language once a year (in the case of two foreign languages this means at least six exams). The operation of the profiles is adjusted to the needs of the candidates, so if there are candidates who wish to take an exam in two profiles at the same level, then there could be subtests with the same content. If candidates are interested in only one profile at a given level, then the examination centre shall arrange the exam specifically for that particular profile. The certificate issued does not contain the profile, only the professional language (so using the example above, only the word “business” will appear in the certificate).
Rank Order Correlation: a correlation based on ranking the relation of variables to one another
Reception: oral and/or written activities including listening and reading comprehension.
Representativity: the comprehensive sample of exam tasks taken from the foreign language during the examination, on the basis of which, the existence of foreign language knowledge appropriate to the given level can be safely ascertained. The representative sample is a comprehensive selection of test materials that is produced with regard to the limits of feasibility.
The Consolidation of the Results: a possible method to determine the final result of the language exam, where the result of the exam is produced by adding up the partial results.
Partial Exam (certificate): it means that the examination centre arranging the complex exam has, at its discretion, the possibility to issue two partial exam certificates that complement one another. The partial exam can not be accredited on its own as an examination system.
Specification: the second phase of the CEFR harmonization process? linking the test specification and the sample tasks to CEFR.
Determining Standards: the harmonization procedures used when determining the minimum performance. It is the task of the judges to determine the minimum score possible that test takers must reach to comply with the requirements of the given CEFR level (for all language skills). Generally there are two procedures: test-centred and candidate-centred procedures.
Standardization: the third phase of the CEFR harmonization process? these are judgment-based procedures where the judges try to estimate to what percent the requirements of a task and the performance of a candidate comply with the description of the CEFR levels. The judgment-based procedure is an important part of making the test comply with the CEFR.
Validating Standardization: an external validation process certifying that on the basis of live test results linked to the CEFR levels by experts' opinion, candidates categorized into certain CEFR levels are categorized into the same levels on the basis of the criterion test
Standardized Performance Sample: in the case of productive skills (speaking, writing) these are assessed performance samples of candidates that appropriately represent the expected language performance at a given level. These are indispensable when used for training and retraining examiners.
Strategic Competence: according to literature there are several interpretations: (1) the collection of those verbal and non-verbal procedures with the help of which the user of the language is able to overcome problems appearing in communication? (2) a mental ability that arranges the elements of language competence into context-dependent communicative language use. It has three phases: situation-evaluation, planning and implementation.
Weighting: assigning a score different from the raw score to an item, task of subtest in order to modify the proportion of the given part to the whole by changing the relative proportions of the various parts.
Committee of Experts (CE): a committee of language examination experts approved by the Board that give their opinion on applications for examination system accreditations. It has at least two members, one of whom is also a member of the Body.
Professional Speech Community: the community of speakers of a given language who work in the same professional field, have common goals, use various means of communication (e.g. meetings, professional journals, textbooks, monographs, congresses, etc.) developed by the community, use a particular jargon and have at least a threshold level of professional knowledge as well as appropriate experience and knowledge in their field of text management.
Terminology: the usage of a given language, that is different from its everyday use, with a (professional) background knowledge typical to the given professional field and according to the written and unwritten linguistic and social rules, norms and conventions, under specific circumstance(s), for specific purpose(s) and in order to solve specific issues. When using a professional language, both the elements of the language (vocabulary, rules, background knowledge) and those of the professional language are continuously present in a proportion required to solve the given communicative aim, task or situation.
Professional Language Exam: mono or bilingual language examination that assesses all language skills in relation to a particular professional field and using tasks related to that professional activity. It focuses on examining how much the candidates are able to use – beyond its everyday use - a particular language with a (professional) background knowledge typical to the given professional field and according to the written and unwritten linguistic and social rules, norms and conventions under specific circumstance(s), for specific purpose(s) and in order to solves specific issues.
Computerised Adaptive Language Exam: a method based on computerised testing where, on the basis of their estimated command of language, candidates answer questions that are suitably difficult for their own level of knowledge
Proficiency Exam: the exam which assesses the language knowledge of the candidates in relation to the CEFR requirements. The requirements are built upon the theory developed about language knowledge. The assessment is independent from the methods and conditions of language learning (acquisition) and the curriculum and textbooks applied.
Manual for Relating Language Examination to CEFR (the linking of language exams to the Common European Framework of Reference – Manual, Preparation, Pilot Version): a manual prepared by the Council of Europe with the intention of giving assistance to exam developers to link their exam to the levels of CEFR. The Hungarian translation can be downloaded from the website of the Educational Authority and that of the Centre.
Reference Supplement: the document which accompanies the Manual and provides further help for the harmonisation process, especially in the field of empirical validation. It also contains information on standardization, qualitative analysis, classical and modern test theory, the Generalizability theory and factor analysis. The Hungarian translation can be downloaded from the website of the Educational Authority and the Centre.
Benchmarking: the standardization process when the performance of the candidates are assessed on the basis of productive skills assessment tests.
Oral Skills: the skills of speaking and listening comprehension. Depending on the place it occupies in the examination system, the assessment of mediation skills may also belong to the oral or writing skills.
Sociolinguistic Competence: the knowledge of the socio-cultural conditions of language use such as courtesy and rules for addressing people.
Discourse Competence: the skill which makes language users able to compose cohesive and coherent oral and/or written texts.
Needs Analysis: a method an examination centre uses to assess the needs (skills, tasks, etc.) of a given group of language learners in advance. The context (situation) that is important with respect to the communication used by a given professional community and the manner of effective participation in these situations can be assessed through needs analysis and could also be incorporated into the exam requirements.
The Use of Anchor Tests: an external validation procedure through which it should be verified that the psychometric characteristics of the criterion and exam tests, linked together with the help of the anchor tests and items, are mainly the same for both complete tests and their items.
Use of Teacher Assessments: an external validation procedure through which it should be proved that the teachers’ classification of the candidates into the CEFR levels correspond to their classification made on the basis of their test performance (this procedure may be applied when there are no tests linked to the CEFR levels that can be used as criterion tests available).
Minimum Performance: the score of the exam expressed in terms of percentages (according to the requirements of the Centre it must be at least 40%), that the candidates must achieve in each skill in order to obtain a language certificate recognized by the state. This is different from the pass mark that candidates must achieve when combining the scores of all the subtests in order to obtain a language certificate. The pass mark varies with examination centres but is generally set at 60%.
In cases where the examination system also assesses a skill (e.g. mediation) separately, using two different subtests (written and oral), the 40% must be achieved in both subtests in order to successfully pass the language exam.
When determining the minimum performance grade, the task and the total score that can be given to it, can only be assigned one measurement unit. In the case of integrated tasks, where partial credits are given to different skills (e.g. in the case of a task assessing the mediation skills, the reading comprehension skill can also be assessed and given a separate score), the examination centre may decide what they wish to assess using that particular integrated task and allocate marks to that skill. It is practical to select the skill that is most needed to complete the task or that is given the higher emphasis when giving scores. At an oral exam where listening comprehension is separately assessed through other tasks, the partial credit should not be assigned to the minimum of two measurement units (speaking and listening comprehension) separately.
Test Impact: Impact that the content and structural elements of the language exam have on the practice of language teaching. Both positive and negative test impacts are possible.
Test-Centred Procedures: procedures to determine the minimum performance when the assessors have to determine the level of difficulty of the given test. It can be done in two different ways: while focusing on a given target group they predict what percentage of the group will give a correct answer (or use the different versions of the Angoff Method), or by classifying the tests into different categories according to their predicted difficulty.
Declaration of Secrecy: a document signed by those working for the examination centre and the exam location where they undertake not to give out information they receive about the exam and the candidates to any unauthorized people.
Post Standardization: a correction that may become necessary in the course of analysing the test data and the answers (e.g. excluding the answers given to inappropriate items). Filtering out the poor quality items improves the reliability of the exam as a whole and also increases the validity of the decisions made on the basis of the exam results.
vis major: an unpredictable problem that prevents or undermines a part or the whole of the exam; lost or destroyed tests (subtest), assessment and other documents.
Examining Board: a committee consisting of a minimum of two examiners.
Exam Documentation: the personnel and exam documents, the oral exercises, the test papers and the related result sheets.
Test paper: a written language exam consisting of questions and the model answers.
The Collective Treatment of Test Results: the collective treatment of the test results during the exam (completing and assessing the tests, determining the exam results, decision making, awarding the certificates, etc.) for the sake of quality assessment. Over an examination period, the data of a written exam and the related oral exam provide the data and results that are treated collectively. The exam data and results treated collectively also include the data of those tests completed at the exam sites belonging to the institution in question.
Exam location: an educational institution having an article of association or a registered company having ABAE (Accreditation Board for Adult Education)
institutional accreditation. In the buildings of such institutions and companies, an examination centre may organize exams even though they do not belong to the examination centre. Experts also review the exam sites and determine whether they fully comply with the regulations and are thus appropriate for holding examinations.
Examination Period: the period when the candidate takes a complex or partial language exam, and carries out the prescribed tasks with the aim of getting a certificate. The candiate may pass or fail the exam. . The beginning and end of the examination period are adjusted for the particular exams the candidate has to take, and not to the tasks of the examination centre or exam sites related to the duties of the given examination period. The examination period is thirty days and does not necessarily coincide with a calendar month. Follow-up activities in connection with the assessment and the quality assurance of the exam must be carried out within 60 days following end of the examination period. The examination periods are adapted to the languages offered therefore the number of examination periods per language organized by an examination centre may vary.
Test Specifications: the basic document of an exam where the examination centre precisely determines the target, the target group, the levels of the exam, the language knowledge and the skills examined, the aim of the tests and the procedures followed during test-development and the preparation of test materials (for details see Chapter II.)
Expansion of an Examination System: when the examination centre intends to add another language or more languages to the examination system it must prove – in the framework of a complementary accreditation procedure - that the tests developed in the new language suit the examination system, that the tests were developed in the same way as the tests of the language(s) already accredited and that the centre possesses enough examiners to operate the system.
Exam Regulations: a single document that lists the rules and regulations of the exam and the rights of the candidates for the information of the candidates and interested parties.
Examiner: a person, having the appropriate qualifications, who is officially trained by the examination centre to carry out examinations for the given examination system. These people possess a certificate proving that they are authorized to do this job.
Basic Training for Examiners: a procedure developed by the examination centre when, observing the requirements of the Centre, the examination centre trains examiners and assessors to be able to perform the examination tasks of the examination system operated by it. The basic training can be held by those senior staff who have, without interruption, been examiners of the examination system in question for at least five years. In the case of a new examination system the training may be held by those who developed the exam and who have at least five years experience in the field of education and examining.
Further Training for Examiners: compulsory training for examiners organized by the examination centre and held annually following basic training. Here the examiners refresh their knowledge so the examination system can guarantee standardized assessment of its live exams.
Inter-Rater Reliability: the degree of agreement between two or more assessors concerning the assessment of a specific candidate’s performance.
Candidate-Centred Procedures: procedures to determine the minimum performance, when the judges assess the performances of the candidates on the basis of samples recorded on video or written on paper. The pass mark is awarded for performances that comply with the requirements of the given level.
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