Oxford Test of English for Schools

Trust in a fair, reliable and valid test endorsed by the University of Oxford and developed by Oxford University Press. The Oxford Test of English for Schools is an affordable, personalized general English proficiency test that suits your needs. 100% online, it’s flexible, fast, and available at Approved Test Centres worldwide.

• Four modules: Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing
• Take or re-take as a full test, single modules, or in any combination – whatever your English proficiency needs!
• Results are valid for life
• Recognized by a growing number of institutions around the world

Preparation materials

Download free practice tests, audioscripts, and audio files for the Oxford Test of English. Available from A2 to C1 levels.

Access all our free practice materials

Read our testimonials

Students and teachers across the globe share their experiences of taking the Oxford Test of English.

Read our testimonials

Online demo

Experience the Oxford Test of English with the free online demo.

Access all our test demos

Overview of the Oxford Test of English for Schools

The Oxford Test of English, Oxford Test of English for Schools, and Oxford Test of English Advanced consist of four modules: Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing. The Listening and Reading modules are computer-adaptive, whereas the Speaking and Writing modules are randomized with questions selected at random from the item bank. The Speaking and Writing modules are marked by trained, expert assessors.

The table below shows the approximate length, number of parts, structure and content in each module for the Oxford Test of English for Schools.

Speaking Listening Reading Writing

Speaking

The Speaking module has four parts. It takes approximately 15 minutes.

Part	Task type	Number of questions	Task format	Testing focus	Detailed timing
Part 1	Interview	6 (plus two unassessed)	Eight questions on everyday topics	responding to questions giving factual information expressing personal opinions on everyday topics	Preparation time: none Response time: Questions 1 and 2: 10 seconds per question Questions 3–8: 20 seconds per question
Part 2	Voice messages	2	Two voice messages in response to two different situations	organizing and sustaining extended discourse sociolinguistic appropriacy sustaining relationships	Preparation time: 20 seconds Response time: 40 seconds
Part 3	Talk	1	Short talk on an issue or scenario	organizing and sustaining extended discourse describing comparing and contrasting speculating suggesting	Preparation time: 30 seconds Response time: 1 minute
Part 4	Follow-up questions	6	Six follow-up questions on the theme of the Part 3 talk	As in Part 3, plus: responding to questions expressing, justifying and responding to opinions expressing feelings	Preparation time: none Response time: 30 seconds per question

Listening

The Listening module has four parts. It takes approximately 30 minutes. Test takers can listen to each audio twice.

Part	Task type	Number of questions	Task format	Testing focus	Detailed timing
Part 1	Multiple choice – picture options	5	Five short monologues/ dialogues each with one 3-option multiple-choice question with picture options	Listening to identify: specific information	time to answer = length of audio plus an additional 10 seconds
Part 2	Note completion	5	A longer monologue with five 3-option multiple-choice note-completion questions	Listening to identify: specific information	time to read the task = 30 seconds; time to answer = length of audio plus an additional 15 seconds
Part 3	Matching opinions with people who say them	5	A longer dialogue with five 3-option multiple-choice questions focussing on identifying opinion	Listening to identify: stated opinion implied meaning
Part 4	Multiple choice	5	Five short monologues/ dialogues each with one 3-option multiple-choice question	Listening to identify: attitude/feeling/opinion gist function/reason/purpose speaker relationship topic type/genre	time to answer = length of audio plus an additional 10 seconds

* In these parts of the Listening module the task type and number of questions that the test taker gets will depend on their level.

Reading

The Reading module has four parts. It takes up to 35 minutes.

Part	Task type	Number of questions	Task format	Testing focus	Detailed timing
Part 1	Multiple-choice questions on short texts	6	Six short texts from a variety of sources, each with one 3-option multiple-choice question	Reading to identify: main message purpose detail	6 questions x 1 minute 20 seconds
Part 2	Multiple matching	6	Six items to match with three profiles of people OR six profiles of people to match with four longer text descriptions	Expeditious search reading at local and global levels to identify: specific information opinion and attitude	8 minutes
Part 3	Gapped sentences	6	Six extracted sentences are inserted into a longer text	Reading to identify: text structure organizational features of a text	11 minutes
Part 4	Multiple-choice questions on a longer text	4	Four 3-option multiple-choice questions	Reading to identify: attitude/opinion purpose reference the meanings of words in context global meaning	8 minutes

* In these parts of the Reading module the task type and number of questions that the test taker gets will depend on their level.

Writing

The Writing module has two parts. It takes up to 45 minutes. The tasks in both parts are compulsory.

Part	Task type	Number of questions	Task format	Testing focus	Detailed timing
Part 1	Email	1	Written response to an input email. 0—130 words 20 minutes.	giving information expressing and responding to opinions and feelings transactional functions such as inviting/requesting/suggesting	20 minutes
Part 2	Essay or article/review	1	Essay OR article/review on a topic typical of classroom discussion. 100—160 words 25 minutes	Email expressing and responding to opinions developing an argument Magazine article/review describing narrating expressing feelings and opinions recommending	25 minutes