Standardized Test of English Proficiency
STEP
Objective measure of English proficiency for admission, scholarships and jobs. ~100 scored MCQs, score 0-100, loosely CEFR-aligned, valid 3 years. Computer-based, bookable year-round.
- Who it is for
- University/scholarship/job applicants (non-native English speakers)
- Format
- mcq4 · ~100 scored (117-133 incl. trial) · ~3 hours · computer-based · 150 SAR in-KSA / 200 SAR outside
Test sections
| استيعاب المقروء (40%) | Reading Comprehension (40%) | Short-to-medium educational/social English passages: main idea, inference, vocab-in-context, detail, purpose. Highest-weighted section. | Write an ORIGINAL 150-250 word English passage (educational/social), then 4-6 MCQs spanning main idea, inference, vocab-in-context and detail. All answers passage-grounded. 4 options each, one correct, rationale per option. Never reproduce official passages. |
| التراكيب النحوية (30%) | Grammar / Sentence Structure (30%) | Tenses (present perfect vs past simple), prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, subject-verb agreement, word order. | Produce an ORIGINAL sentence with one blank or one error; 4 options where only one is grammatically correct. Distractors target common ESL errors. Rationale per option. Original items only. |
| الاستماع (20%) | Listening Comprehension (20%) | Short dialogues/monologues, announcements, lectures (audio played once): gist, detail, inference. Question stems are pre-readable. | Generate an ORIGINAL short English transcript (to be voiced via TTS) plus 1-2 MCQs whose answers are unambiguous from a single listen, with pre-readable stems. 4 options each, one correct, rationale per option. Provide the transcript as sourceReference. Original content only. |
| تحليل النصوص الكتابية (10%) | Composition / Written Analysis (10%) | Punctuation, capitalization, choosing the best-written sentence, coherence/word choice. | Offer 4 ORIGINAL versions of one sentence where only one is correctly punctuated/structured; distractors have run-ons, comma splices or capitalization errors. One correct, rationale per option. No copied items. |