What is APIEL?

　　APIEL is a College Board/ETS exam. The College Board (美国大学理事会) and ETS professionals supervise the exam developed by an international committee of scholars and English professors.APIEL is an International English Language examination of high quality. This challenging English language proficiency exam is designed for international students who wish to pursue university study in English speaking countries, including but not limited to the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

　　What does APIEL measure?

　　APIEL measures a student誷ability to read, write, speak, and understand English. APIEL tests the following skills:

　　*Listening comprehension

　　*Reading comprehension

　　*Speaking with accuracy and resourcefulness

　　*Writing with clarity and fluency

　　How many questions are on the APIEL Exam?

　　*Listening—40 multiple-choice questions based on dialogues and mini-lectures.

　　*Reading—40 multiple-choice questions based on passages from different academic disciplines.

　　*Speaking—5 one-minute speaking tasks, based on visual and verbal prompts.

　　*Writing—2 forty-minute essays on different academic topics. The two essays allow students to demonstrate their ability to express and analyze ideas.

　　What are the benefits of APIEL?

　　*Students receive a certificate that testifies to their English language proficiency. They can present this certificate to employers as a demonstration of their competency in English.

　　*Students are able to challenge themselves in comparison with the best students of English worldwide.

　　*APIEL students have the opportunity to demonstrate their speaking ability. Speaking ability has become a very important skill for university study, scholarship application, and the professions.

　　*The highest scoring students worldwide from each participating country will be given the opportunity to travel to the United States to receive APIEL Scholar award at The College Board in New York City.

　　How can APIEL be helphul in university admission?

　　APIEL scores will give students an edge in the university admission process. More than 600 colleges and universities worldwide accept APIEL scores in the admission process. These include prominent universities in the United States, such as Yale, Brown, and Columbia, universities in the United Kingdom, such as Oxford and Cambridge, and many universities in countries such as Australia, France, and Germany.

　　How does APIEL compare with TOEFL?

　　APIEL includes listening, reading, writing, and speaking.

　　TOEFL includes listening, reading, and writing, but not speaking.

　　APIEL is scored from 1-5, 5 being the highest.

　　TOEFL is scored on a scale of 0-300 (computer-based test).

　　APIEL costs US.

　　TOEFL costs US; TSE costs an additional US.

　　What materials are available for APIEL?

　　The College Board APIEL Course Description contains detailed information about the exam. It also includes the complete 2001 examination, along with sample student essays and commentations. In preparation is a book for Chinese students and teachers of English, Integrated English(《整合英语》), which includes chapters on Reading and Writing, chapters on Grammar and Punctuation, additional chapters on Speaking and Listening, a series of taped lectures for listening practice, and a teacher's guide.