About English Proficiency Exam (EPE)

 

 

  1. SECTIONS

 

  1. USE OF ENGLISH

This section consists of 2 multiple choice gap filling tests each with 10 questions and 5 questions for finding the closest meaning. It has a weight of 25/100 in the score of the EPE.

 

  1. Multiple Choice Cloze Test

In the questions of two multiple choice gap filling test with 10 questions, candidates are expected to read a text and fill the spaces in the text with the correct vocabulary and grammatical structures taking into consideration the sentence structures and the grammatical clues.

 

  1. Closest Meaning

There are 5 questions in this subsection, which measure students' ability to find the sentence containing the meaning closest to the sentence given. This section also tests students’ competence in grammar and command of grammar in addition to their reading skills. It is expected that students use both their vocabulary knowledge and grammatical competence in finding the correct answer.

 

  1. READING

 

  1. Reading Texts

This sub-section tests students’ ability comprehend reading texts. In this section, there are two multiple-choice questions about each text, which is arranged in their level of difficulty. Candidates are expected to find the correct answer from among four options. The types of questions used in this section measure skills such as detailed reading, finding the main idea, deducing the meaning of the unknown words from the text, references in the text, finding the topic sentence as well as higher level reading skills such as inferring the writer’s tone/attitude about the topic and purpose for writing the text. Besides, specific information questions such as scanning and skimming are also present in the questions for both texts.

 

Questions in this section start with the finding the main idea questions, go on with various types of specific information questions and end with the ones about inferring the writer’s tone/attitude about the topic and purpose for writing the text.

 

  1. Paragraph Completion

This subsection, measures students’ comprehension skills and consists of six multiple-choice paragraph completion questions. Students are expected to find the sentence from among options the one which best completes the paragraph in terms of unity and coherence. The space in the paragraph is as follows: two main ideas, two details and two concluding sentences.

 

Reading section as a whole has a total percentage of 25/100 points in the overall weighting of the English Proficiency Exam (EPE).

 

  1. LISTENING

The listening section consists of two main sections, while listening and note-taking. In total, this section has 20 questions and its percentage in the overall weighting of the EPE is 25/100 points. (Not included in June EPE, 2022)

 

  1. While-Listening

In this subsection, there are two types of recordings, a radio show and a dialogue, and for each recording there are 5 multiple choice questions that students need to answer, which test lower level listening skills.

 

  1. Note-taking

In this subsection, the ability to answer questions by taking detailed notes, which is a more academic skill, is measured. Students are first given a note-taking sheet, which they analyze for 1 minute, and then listen to recording of 8 to 10 minutes about semi-academic themes while also taking notes on their note-taking sheets. They listen to this recording twice and then are given their questions sheets. There 10 questions and the breakdown of these questions are as follows: finding the main idea of the lecture, statistics, numbers, percentages, specific information, inferring the speaker’s tone and attitude or  purpose.

 

  1. WRITING

Students are expected to write at least 250 to 300 words of cause/effect or opinion essay / for-against essay on a subject by using the suggested key words in this section. However, students should not use all of these ideas in their writing. This section has 25/100 points in the overall weighting of the EPE.

 

 

  1. ADMINISTRATION PROCEDURE

 

EPE is mainly administered three times in an academic year, namely in September, January and June. Due to various placements of extra quota students, EPE is also administered on a needs-basis.

 

EPE administered in September also aims to place the newly-registered students into their correct levels regarding their language skills. In this aspect, the first phase of EPE consists of the Use of English and Reading sections. All the newly-registered students are entitled to take phase. Those students who cannot get a minimum 25 points out of 50 cannot take the second phase of EPE. Such students are placed relevant levels of the Department of Basic English Compulsory English Program. Students who score at least 25 out of 50 in the first phase are eligible to take the second phase, which comprises Listening and Writing sections. If these students score a minimum of 60 points out of 100 when their scores from both the first and second phase of EPE are added together, they are entitled to start their studies at faculties. Students who score between 25 and 59 are placed into the relevant levels of the Department of Basic English Compulsory English Program.

 

EPE is also administered in two sessions in January and June, too. All the students who have not failed due to absenteeism and score the minimum term-based or academic year-based GPA are entitled to take the exam in these months. All the pending students are also entitled to take the exam without any prior registration. However, in January and June, the condition of scoring 25 points from the first phase in order to take the second phase is not applicable and all the students take both phases of the EPE.

 

Click the link to access sample study materials for the EPE.