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ion, and by continuous monitoring of the marking
and grading of all Cambridge ESOL examinations. Of
particular importance is the rigorous set of procedures which
are used in the production and pretesting of question papers,
and these are described in the following section.
The Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE)
Cambridge ESOL is a member of the Association of
Language Testers in Europe (ALTE), which was formed in
1990. The members are all providers of language
examinations and certificates from countries within Europe.
The principal objectives of ALTE are as follows:
• to promote the transnational recognition of
certification, especially in Europe
• to establish common standards for all stages of the
language testing process, i.e. test development,
question and materials writing, test administration,
marking and grading, reporting of test results, test
analysis and reporting of findings
• to collaborate on joint projects and in the exchange of
ideas and know-how.
Cambridge ESOL examinations fulfil the Code of Practice
established by ALTE. This Code of Practice focuses on the
responsibilities of both examination providers and
examination users and covers four main areas:
• developing examinations
• interpreting examination results
• striving for fairness
• informing examination takers.
For more information on ALTE please visit www. ALTE.org
The Production of Cambridge ESOL Question Papers
The production process for question papers for Cambridge
ESOL examinations begins with the commissioning of
material and ends with the printing of question papers.
For the majority of Cambridge ESOL question papers there
are five main stages in the production process:
Page 1
• commissioning
• editing
• pretesting
• analysis and banking of material
• question paper construction.
This process is represented in the diagram below:
Page 2
Trial
construction
Trialling
review
Trialling
Pre-editing and editing
of material
Pretest
construction
Revision
Rejection
Pretesting
Item
analysis
Materials Bank*
Question paper
construction
*electronic bank for pretested materials
Commissioning of material
for question papers
A B
Cambridge ESOL employs teams of item writers to produce
examination material, and throughout the writing and editing
process strict guidelines are followed in order to ensure that
the materials conform to the test specifications. Topics or
contexts of language use which might introduce a bias
against any group of candidates of a particular background
(i.e. on the basis of sex, ethnic origin, etc.) are avoided.
After selection and editing, the items are compiled into
pretest papers. Pretesting plays a central role as it allows for
questions and materials with known measurement
characteristics to be banked so that new versions of question
papers can be produced as and when required. The
pretesting process helps to ensure that all versions conform
to the test requirements in terms of content and level of
difficulty.
Each pretest paper contains anchor items or is supplied to
candidates with an additional anchor test. The anchor items
are carefully chosen on the basis of their known
measurement characteristics, and their inclusion