News Overview Cambridge English Exams

The Spring Seminar is back! Although not the way you were used to... As we had to cancel this year’s Spring Seminar 2020, we did not want that to happen again. To offer this seminar to all of you safely, we have transferred the Spring Seminar to the online world. We are happy to announce that registrations are now open!

Swiss Exams has successfully launched computer-delivered IELTS in Winterthur/Zürich and in Lausanne with more locations to be added in 2021. At the beginning of 2020, Swiss Exams and the British Council signed a strategic IELTS agreement for Switzerland. In the summer, the first IELTS pilot sessions took place and Winterthur/Zurich and Lausanne went operational during the course of the autumn. This gave Swiss Exams the time needed to establish processes and operations and gain the necessary experience to accelerate in 2021.

A year ago, we launched Swiss Exams Access and many schools make excellent use of the platform. Here are five tips that may help you with making decisions and that will make your life easier:  If you would like to reserve seats for Computer-based exams, which are in very high demand, you can make reservations in your Swiss Exams Access account directly.  If you would like to check the payment or option status of your students in realtime, you can filter all outstanding payments of your candidates in the “All Registrations” menu. 

We are excited to announce that our Spring Seminar will take place online for the first time on 5th + 6th March 2021. The topic stays the same: Empowering your learners – developing learner autonomy.

As of November 2020, Cambridge Assessment English changed the look of the Cambridge English Qualifications certificates to improve the security and modernize the look and feel of the certificates. Prior to this new look, Cambridge Assessment English had already updated the paper used for the certificates to a higher quality. The overall new look will therefore build on this change and update the design and enhance the security features on the certificates starting in November 2020. Updates to the Young Learners certificates will follow at a later date.

In our latest update to our Online Shop we have added two books in high demand to our inventory. New Trainers for C1 Advanced and B2 Business Vantage. B2 Business Vantage Trainer

Although not a new topic, this has certainly become more relevant than ever. Online teaching, which we teachers all had to get involved with recently, has shown us that students who know how and are motivated to learn on their own are a necessity when teaching remotely and not just “nice to have.” How do we motivate students to want to learn independently? Which traditional and which online resources are available to help us guide them and enable us to encourage them on this learning journey? 

Richard joined our Exam Operations Department in August 2020. He will support the team with various tasks until the next summer 2021. About your career and interests? I am the new Exam Operations intern. I am in my last year of the HMS (Handelsmittelschule) where students usually do a one-year-long internship. I plan on going to university after the internship. Outside of work, I enjoy playing basketball and playing video games. About your position?

With the number of Corona infections rising globally, our way of conducting English language testing in huge halls with a lot of candidates is a challenge. Fortunately, Linguaskill, by Cambridge Assessment English, has made relevant progress towards independent and on-demand language assessment with the remote proctoring option.

In response to the high demand for computer-based exams and the cancellation of some exams during the first half of 2020 because of the Corona virus, Swiss Exams has added additional exam dates for the last quarter of 2020. We have added exams in Berne, Lucerne, Zurich and St. Gallen for various levels including B1 Preliminary, B2 First, C1 Advanced, B1 Business Preliminary, B2 Business Vantage, C1 Business Vantage.