The Foreign Language Knowledge Level Determination Exam or YDS ( tr, Yabancı Dil Bilgisi Seviye Tespit Sınavı) is a foreign
language proficiency
Language proficiency is the ability of an individual to use language with a level of accuracy that transfers meaning in production and comprehension. There is no singular definition of language proficiency: while certain groups limit its scope to ...
test administered by
ÖSYM
The Measuring, Selection and Placement Center ( tr, Ölçme, Seçme ve Yerleştirme Merkezi, ÖSYM) is the body responsible for organizing the national level university entrance examination Student Selection and Placement System, and several other ...
in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
in order to evaluate the foreign-language skills, especially of governmental employees. While anyone can take it, it is mostly taken by civil servants, academics and military personnel. The state pays extra money to public servants and employees of state agencies depending on their score on the test, and also uses this test to appoint employees to the positions located out of the country.
The test is administered every six months and is taken by more than 100,000 people. It can be taken electronically.
It is administered in several languages, but mainly in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. It is carried out in several cities throughout Turkey on the first Sundays of May and November.
The test consists of 80 multiple-choice questions to be finished within 180 minutes. The questions mainly deal with English vocabulary, English language grammatical structures, sentence completion, English to Turkish translation, Turkish to English translation, English paragraph completion, locating the irrelevant sentence in a paragraph, restatement, dialogue completion and reading comprehension passages.
The fact that the test evaluates only the reading comprehension skills while ignoring the listening, speaking and writing skills has been harshly criticised.
English language tests
Education in Turkey
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