The Cambridge Proficiency Exam Layout
In the Cambridge Proficiency C2 Exam both the Reading and Use of English are combined in a single exam. The total time for the exam is 1 hour 30 minutes. However, they are marked separately and the answer sheet lists the question tasks from 1 to 7. In total the exam contains about 3000 words in texts.
Use of English starts the exam and there are four exercises listed from 1-4. The Reading tasks are listed as questions 5-7.
Number of Questions
The complete Reading & Use of English exam has a total of 53 questions.
C2 Use of English Tasks
Use Of English Part 1 Multiple Cloze
There are 8 questions in this part and each correct answer is one mark. The task tests knowledge of idioms, collocations, phrasal verbs and fixed expressions.
Use Of English Part 2 Modified Cloze Gap-Fill
This is a single text with 8 gaps and each correct answer is one mark. This exercise tests grammar awareness and some vocabulary.
Use Of English Part 3 Word Building
This is also a single text with 8 gaps and each correct answer is one mark. The task tests knowledge of prefixes, suffixes and other forms of words.
Use Of English Part 4 Word Transformation
There are 6 questions in this part and a prompt that must be used in any answer. For each fully correct answer there are two marks, with a single mark possible for a partially correct answer. The task tests grammar, vocabulary and collocations.
C2 Reading Tasks
Reading Part 5 Multiple Choice
This is a long text with 6 individual questions and each correct answer is two marks. The task tests ability to identify main ideas, attitude and tone and how text is organised.
Reading Part 6 Gapped Text
There are 7 questions in this part and each correct answer is two marks. This exercise evaluates the ability to understand the structure and coherence of a text and global meaning.
Reading Part 7 Multiple Matching
For this text or series of short texts there are 10 questions and each correct answer is one mark. This part tests the ability to understand details and specific information as well as identify opinions and attitudes.
Download a sample Proficiency exam from the Cambridge website. This includes the Proficiency Reading and Use of English and all other parts of the exam.