• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sos Italian – Learn Italian online

Online Italian lessons, Italian culture, Italian translation

  • About
    • Awards
  • Choose me
    • Online Italian Lessons
    • English > Italian Translations
    • Proofreading of Italian Texts
  • Resources
    • Teaching aids
    • Teaching and Learning
    • Translation
  • About
    • Awards
  • Choose me
    • Online Italian Lessons
    • English > Italian Translations
    • Proofreading of Italian Texts
  • Resources
    • Teaching aids
    • Teaching and Learning
    • Translation
  • Home
  • My Blog
  • Learn Italian
    • Test your Italian
    • Exercises
  • Italian books
    • Grammar books
  • Online Italian courses
  • Contacts
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • My Blog
  • Learn Italian
    • Test your Italian
    • Exercises
  • Italian books
    • Grammar books
  • Online Italian courses
  • Contacts
  • Subscribe

Exam preparation: CILS, CELI, PLIDA, CIC

Last Modified: June 23, 2022

After years of study you have finally decided it’s time to get an official certification of your Italian level or to start your exam preparation? That’s good. But maybe you should know a thing or two first.

If you are still unsure about the certification you want to get, you should have a look at these articles – Cils and Celi; Plida and Cic first. By contrast, if you already have a pretty clear idea of the exam you want to sit, continue reading.

Many people believe that a good command of the language is the only necessary requirement to pass an exam. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Indeed, it’s important to become familiar with the structure of the exam too.

In fact these types of exams have at least two characteristics that make the completion of exercises really challenging:

– Time constraints
– Multi-tasking

When I had to take IELTS to enroll in an English university some years ago, I already had a bachelor degree in foreign languages and a reasonable knowledge of English. However, when I first tried to complete an example of an IELTS examination found on the web, I scored poorly. That happened because, although I had a linguistic preparation, I wasn’t used both to completing tasks with little time at my disposal and to carrying out different tasks at the same time – i.e. during the listening test.

I soon understood that if I wanted to pass the exam, I had to come up with a study plan. For my exam preparation, I had to increase my reading, and writing speed and I had to improve my concentration to complete tasks quickly and accurately.

To do so, I had two options: following a specific course or buying a book to prepare myself for each specific examination’s section. I opted for the second, and more affordable, choice. I bought the first edition of Barron’s IELTS, I practiced a lot, and when I took the exam, I passed it with good results.

So, here is my advice for everyone who wants to start the exam preparation to take CILS, CELI, PLIDA or CIC: self-study on a specific book before trying to take the official exam. In case this is not enough, you can always follow a specific course or lessons later.

There are very few official editorial options for CILS, CELI, PLIDA and CIC preparation and, for some reasons, the books found on U.S stores seems to be generally much more expensive than those found on EU stores  – if I were you, I’d either opt for used books or try to contact directly the publishing house.

Concerning CILS only, all the official books dates back to 2006 or 2007, so they’re kind of out of date and some of them are super difficult to buy – I’ll list the one that can still be found below just for reference. So, my suggestion in this case is to use the free samples of past year examinations first and then buy a non official book to prepare for CILS, CELI, PLIDA and CIC.

Here is the titles available:

Cils

You can find some free examples of past year examinations on the website of the University of foreigners of Siena.

Or you can buy one of the books listed below, which offer samples of examinations with keys.

Official books



Unofficial books



To study or revise the grammar you need to master to pass the grammatical part of Cils examination, you can buy one of my Italian grammars: Sos Italian grammar A1-A2, Sos Italian grammar B1-B2, Sos Italian grammar C1-C2.

Celi

You can rely on free resources, on the website of the University for Foreigners of Perugia.

Or, you can buy one of the following books:

Official books



Unofficial books





To study or revise the grammar you need to master to pass the grammatical part of Celi examination, you can buy one of my Italian grammars: Sos Italian grammar A1-A2, Sos Italian grammar B1-B2, Sos Italian grammar C1-C2.

Plida

You can practice with free samples of past years’ examinations by clicking here.

You can buy the following official books:



Cic

Finally, to prepare for CIC, you can buy:

OFFICIAL BOOKS
B1L’italiano al lavoro Cic + Cd
C1L’italiano al lavoro Cic + Cd

To learn other tips to pass the different sections composing CILS, CELI and PLIDA exams, please refer to:

How to prepare for CILS, CELI and PLIDA exams – listening

How to prepare for CILS, CELI and PLIDA exams – reading comprehension

How to prepare for CILS, CELI and PLIDA exams – writing

Italian speaking practice – How to prepare for cils celi and plida exams

If you found this article about exam preparation: CILS, CELI, PLIDA and CIC useful, don’t forget to share it or to like our Facebook Page!


Credits

Original image by Geralt

Related Posts:

  • Italian language certifications (part 2 - PLIDA and CIC)
    Italian language certifications (part 2 - PLIDA and CIC)
  • Six reasons why you didn't pass the exam Cils, Celi and Plida
    Six reasons why you didn't pass the exam Cils, Celi and…
  • Italian language certifications (part 1 - CILS and CELI)
    Italian language certifications (part 1 - CILS and CELI)

Category: Italian Language CertificationsTag: CELI, CIC, CILS, Exam, Italian, PLIDA

Previous Post: «Italian-language-certifications-part-2-PLIDA-and-CIC Italian language certifications (part 2 – PLIDA and CIC)
Next Post: Learn Italian sounds – the alphabet »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

five − 2 =

Primary Sidebar

Italian grammar: beginner to advanced

Newsletter

Join my newsletter and get a piece of Italy delivered right into your inbox!

Learn Italian with my online courses

Sos Italian - Online Italian classes

Categories

  • Culture
  • English-Italian texts
  • Grammar
  • Italian food and drinks
  • Italian Language Certifications
  • Learn Italian
  • Learning
  • Teaching
  • Translation
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized

Advertising

Archives

  • Popular

Footer

Terms and Conditions

© Copyright En

Privacy Policy

Termini e Condizioni

© Copyright It

P. Iva: 02736390028

Copyright © 2023

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

This website uses Pixel Facebook to better measure, optimize, and retarget our marketing campaigns.

This website uses AdSense to enable an analysis of the use of the website and to allow third party vendors, including Google, to use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to this website or other websites.

Keeping these cookies enabled helps us improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

Cookie Policy

More information about our Privacy and Cookie Policy

Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance