PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - my icao english level 4 test is next thursday ,, any advices ?!!!!
Old 24th Aug 2008, 11:08
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Farrell
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OK.....

Regardless of what your score is in a standard Oxford, Cambridge or other ELT test, it will have no real bearing on what your ICAO English Language Proficiency Test results will be.

"Aviation" English is the key here. The test will be aviation related. The fact that you can talk about football, restaurants and the weather will be taken into consideration but you will also have to demonstrate proficiency in radiotelephony procedures.

If you are joining a flight training centre and they are doing the test before you commence training, then they are running the risk of you not having the required vocabulary for aviation related themes.

My guess is that you will just be doing a basic language competency test for training - if it IS an ICAO Level Check test then I would have serious reservations about its worth.

To be honest, I think that most of the ICAO testing programmes are farcical in the way that they are being misused and abused by training centres and aviation authorities.

A lot of the cowboy suppliers of these tests are out there, purely to make a buck at the expense and, in some cases, the naivety of some organisations.
One particular shower that I worked for had virtually no quality control in place - nor respect for clients. Anyway - that's another story.
Just to add - no Aviation English Test provider is ICAO "endorsed" - contrary to some of the ridiculous claims out there.

Brush up on your aviation vocabulary and above all, keep talking in the oral interview part - assuming that they have one!
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