Test Format & Components - YAEL
The Hebrew Proficiency Test (YAEL) contains four sections. The first three of these sections consist of multiple-choice questions, and the fourth sections is a writing task.
Each of the first three sections contains 22 multiple-choice questions of different types: Sentence Completions, Restatements, and Reading Comprehension. In each question you need to choose the response that best answers the question from among four alternatives. The allotted time for each section is 20 minutes.
The multiple-choice questions are intended to test the examinee’s proficiency in various features of the Hebrew language: vocabulary, grammar, syntax and reading comprehension.
Sentence Completion questions consist of a sentence with one or more words missing. You need to choose which of the four possible answers best completes the sentence. These questions are intended to test proficiency in vocabulary, conjugation of verbs, correct use of prepositions, etc.
Restatement questions consist of a sentence, followed by four possible ways of restating the sentence. You need to choose the answer which is closest to the meaning of the original sentence. These questions test proficiency in vocabulary as well as understanding of syntactic structures and comprehension of complete sentences.
In Reading Comprehension a text to be read is given, followed by questions on the text. These questions may test your understanding of an individual sentence from the text, the function of a word or sentence within the text, or the ideas appearing in the text and the interconnections between them.
In each of the first three sections questions of the same type appear together, arranged in ascending order of difficulty, except for the Reading Comprehension questions, which are arranged according to the order in which the subject matter appears in the text.
The fourth section of the test, intended to assess proficiency in written expression, consists of a writing task. The time allotted for this section is 15 minutes. You will need to write an essay addressing the given topic. Your essay should be well organized and written in correct Hebrew. Two raters evaluate each essay in terms of four dimensions: content, structure, complexity of language, and correct grammar.
Please note: Essays that do not meet the criteria - such as essays that are too short or that do not address the given topic - will not be checked and will be given the minimum score.
Sample questions of each type and further explanations can be found here.
Changes may occasionally be made to the test format, the number of questions, or the time allotted to each section. These changes will be announced on the NITE website before the first test date when they will take effect.
Only two of the first three (multiple-choice) sections will be used for scoring purposes. The third of these sections is not used for scoring purposes, and is typically used for question quality control. Before a question appears in a section used for scoring purposes, it undergoes quality control to ensure that it is fair and that it discriminates between examinees with high proficiency in Hebrew and those with lower proficiency. There is no way for examinees to tell which sections are to be used for scoring and which are not. Therefore, in your own interest, treat every section of the test equally seriously!