Quick test or certified exam

Two ways to find out your English level.

One is free and takes five minutes. The other costs $6, takes about an hour, and ends in a certificate.

Route one

Quick Level Test

An estimate, in the time it takes to make coffee.

Free always, and with no account
  • Adapts to every answer you give, in about 20 items
  • Grammar, vocabulary and reading, scored separately
  • The full CEFR scale, A1 to C2
  • Your result on screen the second you finish
  • Unlimited retakes, fresh questions every time
Start now

No sign-up and no card. It is marked in your browser, which is why it cannot issue a certificate.

Route two

Certified Exam

Five parts, one sitting, a document at the end.

$6 one time, no subscription
  • Two graded attempts included, the second after 14 days
  • All five skills, including listening and speaking
  • Marked on our servers, with a key your browser never sees
  • A certificate anyone can verify from its own link
  • Full A1 to C2, with a band for every skill
Start now

Needs an account, because a certificate belongs to somebody. Checkout opens as soon as our payment provider is live; until then the exam unlocks without a charge.

Both place you on the same CEFR scale. Written and reviewed by Vugar Novruzov, Academy Director

What each route actually does.

Everything above is a claim. Here is what is behind each one.

A line chart across twenty questions on a CEFR scale from A1 to C2. The line climbs while answers are right, then settles and oscillates between two neighbouring bands.
Every answer moves the next question. That is why about 20 items are enough: nearly all of them land at the edge of what you can do, which is the only place a test learns anything.

The free route, in full

  • It adapts, which is why it is shortGet one right and the next is harder. Twenty well-chosen items beat a hundred that are all too easy or all too hard.
  • A per-skill breakdown, not just a letterGrammar, vocabulary and reading are scored separately, so you know which one is holding you back.
  • Nothing to sign up forNo account, no email, no card. Your result appears the moment you finish, and it is gone when you close the tab.

It is marked in your browser, which is why it cannot issue a certificate. Anyone determined enough can read the answer key out of the page. For an estimate that is exactly the right trade; for a document it is fatal.

A bar split into the five parts of the exam: grammar and vocabulary eighteen minutes, reading eighteen, listening fourteen, writing eighteen, speaking eleven, with a dashed line marking the seventy-five minute cap.
The five parts are budgeted at 18, 18, 14, 18 and 11 minutes. They add up to 79, and the exam clock stops at 75, so a minute you save in reading is a minute you still have for writing.

The paid route, in full

  • All five skills, including the two nobody tests freeGrammar and vocabulary, reading, listening, writing and speaking. Free tests stop at the first three because the last two cost money to mark.
  • Two graded attempts for one paymentThe second attempt unlocks 14 days after the first, so the questions you see are new ones rather than the set you have just memorised.
  • An answer key your browser never receivesMarking happens on our servers. That is the entire reason this band is worth putting on a document and the free one is not.
  • A certificate with its own public linkSend it to a school or an employer and they can check it themselves, without taking your word for it.

Writing and speaking are recorded and kept, but not marked yet: that marking is not calibrated, and an uncalibrated band on a certificate is worse than no band. Your certificate carries the three parts we score on our own servers, and says so.

What the price is made of

Where your $6 goes.

Three things, and the site itself is the third one.

A document headed Virtuous English Academy with a gold seal, listing the five parts of the exam. Grammar and vocabulary, reading and listening are each tagged keyed on our servers. Writing and speaking are each tagged read by AI. A note says three parts are settled by a key and two have to be read.
Three of the five parts are multiple choice, so a key map settles them outright. Writing and speaking are produced language, so there is nothing to key them against and something has to read them.
  1. Powerful AI reads what you produce

    Your writing and your speaking are read and assessed by strong AI models against a published rubric, not matched against a template. That is the expensive half of an exam and the half a quiz cannot fake.

  2. Servers that keep the exam honest

    The other three parts are scored on our side, against a key map your browser never receives. It costs more than marking in the page, and it is the only reason a band is worth putting on a document.

  3. The rest goes back into the site

    Every lesson, drill, story and worksheet here is free and stays free. What the exam brings in pays for building more of them, which is the only reason it is worth charging for at all.

The AI marking above is switched off for now: writing and speaking are recorded and kept, but not sent for grading until that grading is calibrated. Nothing is being charged yet either, and when checkout opens the price on this page and the price at the exam gate come from the same file, so they cannot drift apart.

If something goes wrong, we put the attempt back

A fault on our side, a lost recording, a result that never arrived: tell us and we restore the attempt so you can sit it again at no cost, which is usually what people actually want. If you would rather have the money, say so and we refund you instead. And before you have started at all, you can have a full refund within 14 days for any reason.

Read the refund policy

Side by side, including where the free one wins.

The quick test is genuinely good and genuinely free. Pretending otherwise would only make the paid one harder to believe.

Two panels. In your browser: the questions, your answers as you give them, the clock, and not the answer key. On our server: the answer key, the scoring and your band, the certificate record. Arrows show answers travelling out and a band coming back.
This is the whole difference. The free test marks in the page, so its answer key is in the page too, by design. The certified exam sends answers to a server that keeps the key, which is the only reason its band is worth putting on a document.
 Quick Level TestCertified Exam
Getting your level
Time5 to 7 minutesUp to 75 minutes
QuestionsAbout 20, adaptiveFive parts, about 57 items
Skills measuredGrammar, vocabulary, reading, one short writing taskThe same, plus listening and speaking
Range reportedA1 to C2A1 to C2
Where it is markedIn your browserOn our servers
What you walk away with
A level, on screenYesYes
Per-skill profileYesYes
CertificateNoYes
Public verification linkNoYes
What it costs you
Account neededNoYes
PriceFree, always $6 once, not per attempt
AttemptsUnlimitedTwo, 14 days apart

What the certificate is not.

It records your progress with us. It is not an accredited or officially recognised qualification, it is not equivalent to IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge or any state examination, and no university, employer or immigration authority is obliged to accept it. If you need formal proof of your English for one of those, sit one of those exams instead. That sentence is printed on the certificate itself, not just here.

What it is good for: knowing your own level against a standard rather than a guess, a line on a CV you can honestly describe as a self-assessment, and a starting point the rest of this site can plan around. The full position is set out in our Terms of Service.

Which one should I take?

If you want to know where to start studying, take the quick test. It is free, it takes five minutes and it is accurate enough to place you. Take the certified exam when you need something to show somebody else, or when you want listening and speaking measured as well.

Do I need an account?

Not for the quick test. The certified exam does need one, because a certificate has to belong to a person and the verification link has to point at a record that outlives the browser tab.

How accurate is the free test if it is marked in my browser?

Accurate for its purpose. It adapts to every answer, so nearly all of its questions land at the boundary of your ability, which is where the information is. What browser marking costs you is not accuracy, it is trust: anyone determined enough can read the key out of the page, so the result is worth exactly as much as your own honesty. That is fine for a study plan and useless for a document.

What am I paying for?

Marking, mostly, and you get two graded attempts for the one payment. Your writing and your speaking are read by AI models rather than matched against a template, and the rest of the exam is scored on our servers against a key map your browser never receives. What is left over goes back into building the site, which stays free.

Can I retake the certified exam?

Yes. One payment includes two graded attempts, and the second unlocks 14 days after the first. Both numbers are enforced by the server rather than promised by this page: the purchase grants the attempts and a separate check holds the 14 days. The wait exists so the second sitting draws questions you have not just memorised. The quick test has no limit at all.

What happens if something goes wrong during a paid attempt?

We put the attempt back. A fault on our side, a lost recording, a result that never arrived: tell us and we restore the attempt so you can sit it again at no cost, which is usually what people actually want. If you would rather have the money, say so and we refund you instead. Before you have started at all, you can have a full refund within 14 days for any reason. The refund policy spells out both lists, including what we do not refund.