TL;DR: Just after reaching Intermediate 2 in Serbian I passed an official B2 reading sample exam!
I have always been curious to what extent the LingQ levels correspond to CEFR levels, i.e. is it true that:
Beginner 1 → A1
Beginner 2 → A2
Intermediate 1 → B1
Intermediate 2 → B2
Advanced 1 → C1
Advanced 2 → C2
Inspired by this post called “My new experiment comparing lingq levels vs cefr test” by user @t_harangi, and by the fact that I recently reached Intermediate 2 for Serbian at LingQ, I decided to experiment myself.
Study outside of LingQ
- I have done most of the A1-A2 course offered by Serbonika. I just did the modules and nothing else. I stopped before finishing the A2 course because I did not want to renew my subscription.
- Beyond that, I have exclusively studied by reading LingQ ministories and the Harry Potter series in Serbian (currently on book 7)
- Watched a couple movies or videos with english subtitles, but not much
- I Do not use flashcards
Parameters
1 - Serbian B2 Level sample test provided by the European Consortium for the Certificate of Attainment in Modern Languages
2 - ONLY READING test (not assessing my reading, writing, or speaking)
3 - Simulated test conditions: 45 minutes time, no external aid, only pen and paper
4 - Passing grade := 60% of points, the average grade across reading, listening, speaking and writing that needs to be attained to pass in the official exam
5 - No training beforehand (I had no idea of what would come, or test-taking “tricks”)
6 - Exam taken only a few days after reaching Intermediate 2 on Lingq
Results
The exam contains two parts, each with 10 questions, each question worth 1.25 points, for a combined total of 25 maximum points.
First part (multiple choice):
Understanding was difficult at first, but all questions were related to the same topic, so I understood more and more the more questions I answered. I managed to review a few questions at the end of the exam and correct mistakes. I was in doubt with two questions that had very similar answers, so if I were less lucky, I might have gotten those wrong
But, in the end I got all 10 out of 10 questions correct (yay!) → 12.5 points
Second part (Answering questions from text)
This part was really difficult, especially because it was written in cyrillic, and I almost never read anything in cyrillic. Also the text was difficult, and I struggled with the meaning. But many questions were straightforward, so I could find the answers in the text.
Grading this section is less straightforward, because my answer could be correct but deviate from the answer key due to grammatical errors, or my answer being more detailed than the answer key.
If I grade every answer with any minute (including forgetting one letter in one word) grammatical mistake as wrong, I got 5 out of 10 questions correct
If I ignore grammatical mistakes, I got 9 out of 10 questions correct.
So, in the second section, total points were between 6.25-11.25
Exam total
For the total exam, my score was somewhere between 18.25 to 23.75 out of 25, or put differently: 75% to 95% of total points.
This means, that I would definitely have passed the 60% passing grade! Even If I subtract the two questions that I feel some luck played a role in the first part, I would still have 65% of points (16.25 points)
Conclusion
Just after reaching Intermediate Serbian in LingQ, I can definitely pass an official B2 reading exam. Even if I grade myself extremely harshly (by eliminating questions with grammar mistakes, or questions where I feel like I guessed a little) I still get 65% of points, passing the 60% threshold for passing the exam
I cannot say anything about the other levels, but I am fairly convinced now that Intermediate 2 is a good indicator for B2 in Serbian!
It was a fun experience, I recommend you all to try it when you reach your next LingQ level and sharing your experience!