Test your languages online (2)

I’ve written before about the University of Westminster’s online diagnostic quiz for Norwegian, Swedish and Hungarian. Test your languages online – Language Miscellany I’ve now tried their quiz for some of the other languages.

Here are my results for all the ones I took. The results are marked out of 50.

German and French

For German, I got 49/50. The one marked as wrong was marked incorrectly: 3 of the 4 options were identical and correct. I selected one of the 3 correct answers but it was marked as ‘wrong’.

For French I got 42/50. Of the ones marked wrong:

• 1 was marked incorrectly in the same way as in the German test: 2 of the 4 options were identical and correct; I selected one of the 2 correct answers but it was marked as ‘wrong’.
• In 2, the official answer is wrong, in my view. In another 3, I think my answer was a reasonable alternative. I’ve summarised the results I dispute at the end of this post. If you want to test yourself, don’t look at that summary until you’ve done the test!
• For some reason, 1 question wasn’t marked, but I think I got it right.
• I got 2 wrong: picked the wrong preposition; couldn’t remember how to form the 2nd person singular imperative and guessed wrong.

Other results

I’ve grouped my results into the 4 levels the University uses.

Above 43: Intermediate course: Spanish (43)

29 – 42 correct answers: Lower Intermediate course: Portuguese (35); Hungarian (33); Norwegian (33); Swedish (31).

15 – 28 correct answers: Elementary course: Mandarin (23); Romanian (17); Dutch (16)

0 – 14 correct answers: Beginner’s course: none

Test not available in: Italian, Russian; Japanese; Bulgarian; Croatian /Serbian; Finnish

Didn’t try: Arabic; Cantonese; Farsi; Turkish

Comments on the results

The Dutch test was the only one that required some free-form answers and not just multiple choice. This made that test much harder than the others. So my score of 16 for Dutch probably reflects a better performance than both 23 for Mandarin and 17 for Romanian.

I got a lower score for Portuguese (35) than Spanish (43). This was mainly because several of the Portuguese questions tested tricky details of word order.

As I said in my comments last time, the tests overstate my knowledge and ability (except in German and French). Apart from the Dutch test, they are all multiple choice and it is often quite easy to eliminate 1 or 2 options immediately.

Spoiler alert – French

For 2 questions, I believe the official answer is wrong and my answer was correct:

1. I selected: C’est l’homme qui habite à côté de chez moi.
   The official answer is: C’est l’homme que habite à côté de chez moi.
2. I selected: J’habite à Londres depuis 10 ans. The official answer is J’habite à Londres pendant 10 ans.

For 3 questions, I think my answer was a reasonable alternative to the official answer:

1. I selected: L’année dernière, je suis allé à Rome. Je suis allé seul.
   The official answer is L’année dernière, je suis allé à Rome. Je suis parti seul.
2. I selected: Où amerais-tu partir en vacances, l’été prochain? (conditional)
   The official answer is: Où aimeras-tu partir en vacances, l’été prochain? (future)
3. I selected: Je me suis dépêchée pour terminer ce rapport pour sortir avec mes amies.
   The official answer was: Je me suis dépêchée à …
   I think my answer may be OK, though with a slightly different nuance. (I hurried in order to finish and succeeded versus I hurried to finish)