- Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com
and welcome to this video where I'm going to talk about
the importance of knowing your level in English
for the difficulty in finding out what your level is
because recently I made a video talking about
how many words you need to know
in order to speak English with confidence.
And a very common comment on that video was,
well, how do I find out how many words I know?
And then we had a few conversations with people
and they were asking about their level
and how they can find out what level they have.
So in this video, I'm going to talk about
why it's important to know
what kind of level you have right now,
but also some ways that you can find out what that level is.
Now, I'm filming this from Manchester, England.
We are visiting family at the moment,
we're having a fantastic time.
When I release this video,
we'll probably be back in the UK, sorry, in America already.
But yeah, we've had a great trip.
Here is a quick video of the beach in Wales
and we've done a lot of things.
But anyway, let's talk about your level in English
and the importance of knowing what this is.
So,
there are six levels
according to the European Framework for Languages
and those are A1, A2,
B1, B2,
C1 and C2.
And you can think of A1 and A2 as elementary,
B1, B2, as intermediate
and C1 and C2 as advanced.
And if you're taking the IELTS test,
then this might be relevant as well to know
what kind of level you need for the score you need to get.
So, the other thing why is important to know about
your level is because
I am a firm believer in creating a goal.
So setting yourself a goal for whatever it is
you want to do in life.
So if you want to...
If you want to improve your health
then to have a goal for that,
so it might be to run a race at a certain time,
to lose a certain amount of weight.
It could be anything really.
But if you want to lose a certain amount of weight,
then you want to know how much you weigh now.
So then you can say, okay, I am this much now
and I want to be this much.
And then you can create a strategy
in order to achieve that goal.
And that's what my book,
'The 5-Step Plan For English Fluency' talks about.
You can download that for free.
But when it comes to knowing your level in English,
let's say that you find out you have a B1 level,
that your level is B1
and you might have a B1 level with speaking,
but your reading might C1.
So it can vary depending on the skill.
But once you know what level you have,
then you can set yourself a goal with a deadline to say,
this is the level I want to have by this point.
So this is a way for you to set yourself a goal,
create a plan, a strategy,
in order to reach that level
and then do what you need to do to achieve your goal.
So that's why it's important to know your level,
so then you can think about where you are now
and where you want to be.
And I highly recommend setting a deadline.
So specifying the timeframe
of when you want to achieve this goal.
So let's say you have the B1 level now,
your goal could be to reach a C1 level within six months,
which is a fantastic goal to have.
If you have a C1 level of English,
you can do amazing things.
You can talk to people,
you can watch a lot of TV series,
you can have conversations about
a variety of different topics,
you feel confident,
you feel fluent in the way that you speak.
So this is a really good goal to aim for.
And then after that, it's about getting to a C2 level
if that's your next goal.
So, you have your goal,
you have your level,
but how do you find out your level?
Well, first I want to share a tool
which will help you understand how many words you know,
which then can help you have a good idea about
the level that you have.
And I'll leave the link to that tool
in the description below.
And this is a tool that I found
after everyone was asking me,
well, how do I know how many words in English I know?
How do I know the size of my vocabulary?
So check out that tool,
see how many words you know and then watch my other video
and then you can gauge your level
to see where you are there.
But that's not entirely accurate because
you might know a lot of words,
but you can't use them in the right way.
This means you might not be able to form sentences or
you might not be able to say them properly.
So, it's not completely accurate.
Here is another way to test your level,
it's to evaluate yourself.
Now this isn't always accurate
because a lot of people will say,
I have a higher level than you actually have.
So you'll overcompensate with this.
You'll say that you have a B2 level
when maybe you have a B1.
But if you really think about this in an honest way
and read the descriptions that the European framework
gives everybody,
then you'll have a good idea of what level
you have right now.
So I made a video on this.
Again, the link will be in the description
where I explain the different levels
and what this actually means.
So before, I talked about what a C1 level means,
it means having conversations with people
on a variety of different topics
and not making many mistakes and you feel fluent,
you feel confident
and you use a right vocabulary at the right time.
But go watch that video and read the description
so that you can evaluate yourself in that way.
So that's another way that you can test the level of English
that you currently have.
Another way is to take an online test.
Now I think this is the least accurate
because a lot of the tests
are going to just test your reading skills
and they ask you questions in multiple choice format,
which isn't always the most accurate thing.
So yes, you can look for free online English task,
test my level free online,
something like that in Google and then take that test.
But I don't think that's the most accurate.
So another way you can do this
and we're gonna start talking about more accurate ways,
is to find a teacher who has experience
testing people's levels
so that they can have a conversation with you,
do a mini test,
whether this is online with your teacher
or in a class with a teacher
and then they can give you a good description
of what level you have.
They can estimate what type of level you have right now.
So find a teacher,
use something like italki where you can find someone online
or somebody in your local area
and say, okay, I want to know what my level is,
I want to have a good estimation of what my level is.
And then they can say, okay, I can do this for you.
They'll give you a test online
and then they can let you know what your level is, okay?
So that's a cheaper option
than what I'm going to explain next
because the next one and I think this is the most accurate,
is where you will take a full test,
whether this is for the first certificate,
the advanced certificate,
an IELTS test, the TOEFL test,
something like that where
they're going to sit you through an exam,
you're going to do reading, writing, speaking
and reading, writing, speaking and listening.
They're gonna test the four skills
and then they're going to say, okay,
this is your score based on our test.
And then you'll have a very clear indication
of what level you have.
Now this is more expensive,
there is a wait list normally for the test,
it's going to take about an hour to two hours
to take the test,
but it will give you a very clear indication
of what level you have right now
and it's a way for you as well to test your progress
at different periods.
So let's say you sit a test today,
you can sit another test in six months
and then see what level you have then.
So those are the different ways that you can evaluate
what level of English you have now.
You can do a vocabulary test,
which is basically just telling you how many words you know,
it doesn't really tell you your level of English.
You can self evaluate and watch my video on that
to really understand what level you have.
But again, when you're testing yourself,
it's not always a clear indication.
You can have a teacher give you a quick test online
or in person,
usually 20 to 30 minutes
where you'll have a conversation with that teacher
and they can tell you, okay, based on our conversation,
I think you have a B1 level
or you can take an official test.
And I'll leave some links to the most common official tests
in the description below.
And then once you know your level,
then you can have a goal that says this is my level now,
this is where I want to be
and then you can use methods
that are actually gonna help you reach that level.
So if you don't have my book yet,
'The 5-Step Plan For English Fluency',
download that now,
there'll be a link in the description
and I'll leave a comment for it too.
It is free to download
and I talk about the importance of setting goals,
how to reach your goals and the best methods
that you can use to improve your English.
And if you want to jump right in,
if you're ready to take a program and a course
that's really going to boost your English
especially your speaking,
then join the To Fluency program.
It's my program which will take you through
the different aspects of speaking in the right way
and how to internalize new words and phrases
and how to internalize grammar
so that you can use it freely and naturally.
Okay, if you've enjoyed this video,
then please like and share it and leave a comment below,
telling me what you think your level is,
A1, A2,
B1, B2,
C1 or C2.
Okay, thank you for watching,
speak to you soon, bye bye for now.
(upbeat music)