Recently I've been thinking how standard levels (A1-C2) can be missleading. I think they precisely apply only to those students who were going through some sort of official course, step by step, one level after another. There are certain types of course goers who are quite disciplined and dedicated and who complete the whole journey from A1 to C2, sometimes with the same school... it can take years.
I think for them perhaps the levels apply correctly, because nowadays modern courses are standardized and they are made in such way that each course will give you exactly what is required by certain levels. So if you have completed, let's say several consecutive courses all the way up to B1... and didn't do much else regarding langugae... at that point your level is probably truly B1.
And not only that - at that point your level is probably a solid B1. That is, you probably don't have many gaps in knowledge, you're well a rounded student, you have practiced all of your skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar) extensively, and in balanced amounts. Perhaps you don't know that much stuff... you're nowhere near C1... but what you know - you know very well. So this is an example of student, who doesn't have that much knowledge... so they are low on quantity, but they are very high at quality scale. They know their stuff very well, even if there isn't that much stuff.
Now what about another extreme - a student who studied a lot on their own, perhaps had a bit of exposure in school, took some courses, but in haphazard and irregular way... got in touch with the language out of necessity (work), or personal interests (e.g. you're a die hard Bundesliga fan and you can't help but try to read German forums about football, even if you don't understand much)... took long breaks, haven't ever had a clear roadmap in their journey, yet over time they somehow happened to accumulate loads of knowledge... however loads of very messy and unstructured knowledge. Loads of unbalanced knowledge... for example your vocabulary might be close to C2, your speaking and listening are barely B2, your grammar is generally fine, but sometimes you make mistakes that would be a no-no even at A2 level. This is an example of student who has a lot of knowledge, that is a bit shaky/messy .
This was my situation with English... it was messy, but over time it solidified, though I am still not that great at speaking, listening and pronunciation. Officially I have C1... but I am well avare that my skills are quite unbalanced.
So what type of student are you... the one with perhaps fewer knowledge that is rock solid, or the one with loads of shaky knowledge?
What is better in your opinion?
Are there any courses designed for advanced students, who got there in a haphazard way, so that they can makeup for their gaps and weaknesses?
Metaphorically, the student type A, his knowledge could be represented as an iron bar of 2 kg... solid, no holes, no gaps, but 2kg, student B, his knowledge could be represented as Swiss cheese that weighs 10kg, so yeah, a lot of stuff, but a lot of big holes as well.
Don't you agree that it's quite difficult to assess the level of cheese type students?
Of course there are also big iron bars and small cheeses, but that's not the point right now...
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