If you are considering a career in finance or are about to embark on studying towards an
accounting or finance qualification, ICFE will be a valuable addition to your CV.
ICFE is designed to determine whether candidates whose first language is not English
have an adequate level of English to function efficiently, in terms of language ability, in
an international finance or accountancy environment. It is based on realistic tasks of the
kind accountancy and finance professionals would be expected to encounter at work.
ICFE is linked to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)
and the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) frameworks of levels. The
exam is set at CEFR Levels B2–C1. Results at C1 level may be used as evidence of the level
of language necessary to work at a managerial or professional level or to follow a course
of academic study at university level.
To ensure that ICFE accurately reflects the realities of the international finance or
accountancy environment, it has been produced in collaboration with ACCA (the
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). For more information about ACCA
Why take a Cambridge ESOL exam?
Develop effective communication skills
• Cambridge ESOL examinations cover all four language skills – listening, speaking,
reading and writing –as well as testing your use of grammar and vocabulary. They
include a range of different types of question which test how well you can use
English, so that you develop the full range of skills you need to communicate
effectively in a variety of contexts.
A world of opportunity
• Thousands of employers, universities and government departments around the world
recognise Cambridge ESOL exams, so a Cambridge ESOL exam is a valuable
qualification to have when you need to provide evidence of your level of English for a
job or when you apply for a place to study.
Quality you can trust
• We test all our questions on candidates before we put them into a ‘live' examination.
This makes sure that they are fair, at the right level, that the content is suitable for all
candidates and that you have enough time to answer them. You can therefore be sure
that your result is a true measure of your level of English.
University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL) offers the world’s leading
range of qualifications for learners and teachers of English. More than 2 million people
in over 130 countries take Cambridge ESOL exams each year.
What does ICFE involve?
This booklet is a brief introduction to ICFE. We show examples from each part of the
exam, but in some cases we do not show the full text or all the questions. If you would
like to see a full sample paper for ICFE you can download one from the ICFE website at:
www.financialenglish.org/learning_mat.php
How many papers does ICFE have?
ICFE has four papers: Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. The papers assess candidates’ ability to understand spoken and written English in a number of realistic contexts of the kind accounting and finance practitioners are likely to encounter in their daily working lives. The sample papers have been trialled on a range of candidates from twenty different countries and exemplify the format of each individual paper.
Reading: there are six tasks in this paper: three are tests of Reading and three are tests of English in Use. The texts included on the paper come from journals, books and articles related to finance and accounting. There are fifty four questions. The paper lasts for one hour and fifteen minutes.
Writing: the Cambridge ICFE Writing Test has two tasks. The first task is a letter of 120 to 180 words which the candidate writes in response to a piece of correspondence received. The second task is a report or proposal of 200 to 250 words which the candidate writes for a client or another department within the company he/she works for. The first task is worth 40% of the marks on the paper and the second task is worth 60%. The paper lasts for one hour and fifteen minutes.
Speaking: the Cambridge ICFE Speaking paper has four parts and has a paired format of two examiners and two candidates. Part One consists of an interview and tests the candidates’ ability to respond to questions and expand on responses. Part Two tests each candidates’ ability to speak for one minute without interruption on a finance-related topic. Part Three consists of a collaborative task which the two candidates complete together. Part Four tests the candidates’ ability to engage in a discussion based on the Part Three topic. The Speaking paper lasts for approximately sixteen minutes.
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