PET Exam Main Points

The PET is an exam administered by Cambridge to all 6th graders in the Communidad de Madrid. Passing this exam demonstrates an understanding of the English language to or beyond B1 proficiency. A successful exam also means that a 6th grader will be able to continue in the bilingual education system. 

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• The exam is administered sometime in May for Madrileno students (others can take the exam at different times during the year).

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• Teachers decide who will take the exam and will sign up the children. My teachers signed up all of their students this year because they received a request for student names earlier than usual, which meant they still weren't quite sure who should take the exam.

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• The exam is between 2 - 3 hours. More specifically, it is supposed to be 2 hours and 20 minutes.

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• There are 3 sections to the PET exam (I would argue there are 4, but officially the test is split into 3 sections): Reading and Writing (I consider these separate), Listening and Speaking. At my school, the test takes place over two days, with the Speaking part on a separate day.

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• The Reading and Writing section is 1 hour and 30 minutes. There are 5 Reading parts and 3 Writing parts. It counts for 50% of the exam.

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• The Listening section is 36 minutes and has 4 different parts. It counts for 25% of the exam.

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• The Speaking section has 4 sections. It is done with a partner, however only 2 sections include conversing with said partner. This section is between 10-12 minutes, and accounts for 25% of the test.

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• While I have not been able to verify this online, my teachers have repeatedly told me that students need 70% to pass this exam (combined from all sections).