The Foreign Language Centre of the University of Bucharest

The testing sessions are always held by a member of the staff of professors from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest.

The cost of a simple certificate is 180 ron. The amount is paid beforehand at 36-46 Mihail Kogălniceanu Boulevard, dorm B, 3rd floor, room 301 or by bank transfer.

Candidates are tested for their competence when it comes to speech, apprehension of the spoken language, reading and understanding of the content of the read material, with a four distinct steps evaluation for each competence. There are specific tests for writing, speaking, reading out loud, and apprehension of a written text and of oral instructions.
There is no specific bibliography.

The language level is standard, comprising texts from recent newspapers, from school course books for the target language, conversations on usual topics, such as allowing the candidate to introduce themselves, their objectives and their work etc. The test lasts for about an hour.

The certificate does not include a grade or an overall score, but rather uses descriptions such as “Cannot be understood when speaking this language” or “Fluent, correct speech, which can be easily understood”. For each competence there is a mark from 1 to 100, and the sum of these marks is mentioned in the certificate. The certificate is in agreement with the Common European Framework of Reference for the description of teaching and learning foreign languages for all five linguistic competences.

The certificates offer access to study grants, employments, to signing up for the Ph.D. exams etc. Some faculties which have a neo-philological profile accept these certificates as a description of the foreign language knowledge for the entrance exam.

The FLC certificate has no connection to the entrance examination for the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest. The maximum level of knowledge which is acknowledged by the FLC certificate is relative to normal social situations and does not necessarily correspond with the optimal results for the entrance examination for college, which is also relative to the students’ knowledge in linguistics, literature and general knowledge. Also, the FLC certificates replace neither the professional translator certificates for various fields, nor the ones awarded by the Ministry of Justice.

In order to sign up, the candidates have to fill in a written request at the headquarters. Afterwards, they will be scheduled for the soonest possible date, as the testing sessions are usually held once per week for each language.