Last July an agreement was reached between nine Andalusian universities to establish common evaluation criteria. This is overwhelmingly good news; as a result, passing Level 3 at the Instituto de Idiomas will give you a B2 certification that will be recognized not just at the University of Seville, but throughout Andalusia and, eventually, all over Spain.
The exams at all nine of these institutions will now be “examenes de dominio” that reflect a mastery of general skills for the level (as specified in the MCERL), rather than “examenes de aprovechamiento,” which test specific topics and vocabulary limited to a specific textbook. In this way, the new exams will have greater validity and will truly reflect the level in question.
As detailed in the 2011-2012 program, IDI exams will now be divided into four sections—each worth 25% of a students total mark. Three of these sections will appear on the written exam (listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and written expression) and students who pass each of these three sections with at least 50% correct will move on to the oral exam (oral expression), which they will need to pass with a minimum of 5/10.
Over the course of the year, as we learn more, we will go into greater specifics about the structure of the new exam, and familiarize ourselves with the types of exercises on it.
