SYLLABUS OF THE ADMISSIONS TEST
for the foreign applicants to main educational master programmes "Master in Management
(MiM)", "Master in Corporate Finance (MCF)",
main field of study 38.04.02 "Management"
for the applicants to main educational master program "Master of Public Administration",
main field of study 38.04.04 " Public Administration "
in the following subject: ‘THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE’
(TOEFL-based model)
Section 1. THE CONTENT OF THE MAIN TOPICS
1. The basic principles
1.1 The entrance examination in English for applicants to be enrolled in Master's programs in
Management and Corporate Finance (38.04.02 Management) and Public Administration (38.04.04
Public Administration) offered at the Graduate School of Management, Saint Petersburg State
University (hereinafter referred to as Master's programs) is held as a test which purpose is to assess
the applicants’ level of academic English language proficiency. The test involves the use of
comprehensive competency-building approach to language-related material used during testing.
Obtained results will help to select the applicants for Master's programs with upper-intermediate
level of foreign language communicative competence (B2-level according to the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages).
2. The content of the entrance examination: communicative competence and language skills
assessment
2.1 In the course of entrance examination the following types of communicative competence are
subject to testing:
2.1.1 Linguistic competence, i.e. command of a certain amount of knowledge, skills and experience
in the field of vocabulary, grammar and phonetics necessary for foreign language communication.
2.1.2 Language competence, i.e. knowledge of language units and rules of their putting together and
linking.
2.1.3 Speech competence, i.e. command of ways how to form and to frame thoughts by means of
language and the ability to use the ways in the course of speech perception.
2.1.4 Social and cultural competence, i.e. knowledge of national and cultural identity of foreign
language speech behavior, familiarity with items of social and cultural environment such as customs,
rules, standards of social conventionality and cross-cultural knowledge.
2.1.5 Social and linguistic competence, i.e. ability to select and to use appropriate language patterns
and means depending on the purpose and surroundings of particular communication, as well as social
roles of participants in communication.
2.1.6. Compensatory competence, i.e. ability to solve various-complexity communication tasks using
limited linguistic resources.
2.1.7 Information competence, i.e. ability to search, to analyze, to transform and to apply information
to solve problems.
2.2 The following is an approximate list of language skills (within the framework of communicative
competence) which become subject to testing during the entrance exam:
2.2.1 The ability to identify the most important information and to avoid ambiguity.
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2.2.2 An extensive vocabulary command. The testee rarely experiences difficulties in choosing an
adequate expression noticed by others. The testee has good command of idiomatic and colloquial
vocabulary.
2.2.3 The ability to choose the most appropriate way of expressing thoughts from a wide variety of
linguistic resources.
2.2.4 The ability to present any text about real and fictional events.
2.2.5 The ability to piece together an appropriate phrase to obtain the necessary linguistic
information from the available set of functional discourse.
2.2.6 Understanding of complex information and the ability to make recommendations on a wide
range of issues either related or unrelated to the future professional activity.
2.2.7 The ability to easily understand and to participate in complex discussions between third parties
in group discussion of abstract, sophisticated and unfamiliar topics.
2.2.8 The ability to determine the further course of the narrative and the text logic anticipating the
further flow of the presentation based on the context, grammar and vocabulary.
2.3 The grammar knowledge which is subject to testing covers all grammar phenomena consistent
with B2+ level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The
following is the list of grammar phenomena which become subject to testing since that are
considered to be difficult for Russian native speakers:
2.3.1 Irregular verbs (cost, spread, cast, lie, lay etc).
2.3.2 V-ing - to V.
2.3.3. Used to, be used to, get used to.
2.3.4. Tense following after, as soon as, before, by the time etc.
2.3.5. Lexical difficulties (conscious, consciousness, conscience, conscientious etc).
2.3.6. Countable – uncountable nouns (advice, knowledge, permission etc).
2.3.7. Adverbs - adjectives (lovely, likely, cowardly etc).
2.3.8. Inversion (e.g., following rarely, not once, not until, never etc).
2.3.9. Degrees of comparison (Father-further, easier etc).
2.3.10. Conditionals.
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Section 2: LITERATURE AND DATABASES
Main literature:
1. Cracking the TOEFL iBT with CD, 2013 Edition (College Test Preparation); Princeton Review; 1
Pap/MP3 edition, 2012
2. Barron's TOEFL iBT with Audio CDs and CD-ROM, 14th Edition; Barron's Educational Series;
2013
3. Kaplan TOEFL iBT with CD-ROM; Kaplan Publishing; PAP/CDR edition, 2009
Supplementary literature:
Official Guide to the TOEFL Test With CD-ROM, 4th Edition (Official Guide to the TOEFL iBT),
McGraw-Hill; 2012
Databases
Libraries The Russian State Library
www.rsl.ru
The National Library of Russia
www.nlr.ru
The Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences
www.rasl.ru
The Library for Natural Sciences of RAS
www.benran.ru
The Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University
www.bio.spbu.ru/library
The Scientific Electronic Library ELIBRARY.RU
www.elibrary.ru
The entrance exam format and length:
The written TOEFL-based test consists of three parts and lasts for two hours. It comprises the
following sections:
Listening Comprehension: 25 minutes;
Structure and Written Expression: 25 minutes;
Reading Comprehension: 55 minutes.
Section 3. THE ENTRANCE EXAM STRUCTURE AND CONTENT
3.1 The test consists of three sections: Listening Comprehension, Structure and Written Expression
and Reading Comprehension.
3.2 The Listening Comprehension section is designed to test the following skills: to comprehend
spoken conversations, infer the correct conclusion from conversations, answer the questions based on
the information given in conversations. The Listening Comprehension section, which lasts for 25
minutes, comprises three parts. In the first part the applicants will hear short conversations between
two people and have to get the gist of it. The next part consists of two longer conversations. After
each of them, the applicants will have to answer several questions. The last part comprises three
passages from academic lectures or discussions followed by questions. Each of the listening passages
lasts for about 2 minutes. Most of the tasks use multiple-choice questions with 3-4 choices in them.
3.3 The Structure and Written Expression section is designed to test the applicants’ skills in English
grammar. This section lasts for 25 minutes and comprises two tasks. The first one consists of the
sentences in which part of each sentence has been replaced with a blank. Each sentence is followed
by four answer choices. The second one consists of the sentences in which four words or groups of
words have been underlined. The applicants will have to underline word or group of words that
contains grammar or lexical mistake.
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3.4 The Reading Comprehension section lasts for 55 minutes and comprises five texts (of
approximately 2000 characters). It is designed to test reading skills, extent of vocabulary, ability to
deal with synonymy, knowledge of stylistic features of language, ability to guess the meaning of
occasional unknown words from the context. All the texts are based on academic English.
The applicants for Master’s degree program in management (Master in International Business,
Master in Corporate Finance, Master in Information Technologies and Innovation Management)
should demonstrate the following components of communicative competence:
Linguistic competence
Language competence
Speech competence
Social and cultural competence
Social and linguistic competence
Compensatory competence
Information competence
command of a certain amount of knowledge,
skills and experience in the field of vocabulary,
grammar and phonetics necessary for foreign
language communication.
knowledge of language units and rules of their
putting together and linking.
command of ways how to form and to frame
thoughts by means of language and the ability
to use the ways in the course of speech
perception
knowledge of national and cultural identity of
foreign language speech behavior, familiarity
with items of social and cultural environment
such as customs, rules, standards of social
conventionality and cross-cultural knowledge.
ability to select and to use appropriate language
patterns and means depending on the purpose
and surroundings of particular communication,
as well as social roles of participants in
communication.
ability to solve various-complexity
communication tasks using limited linguistic
resources.
ability to search, to analyze, to transform and
Section 4. ENTRANCE EXAM ASSESSMENT SCORES
4.1 Rules of test assessment
4.1.1 The applicants have to complete the test tasks which are grouped in three sections. The total
number of tasks in a test is 140. Each task carries equal weight. The test is scored on a 1-100 point
basis.
4.1.2 Each question of the entrance test is scored in the following way:
- correct answer – 0,71 point;
- incorrect answer – 0 point.
4.1.3 To reach the pass mark, a applicant has to get at least 50 points.
4.2 The results of some international language proficiency tests which confirm that the applicant
masters the language at B2 level could be regarded as a pass of an entrance test (in case a
corresponding application from an applicant is provided). The exams which are taken into
consideration are the following: Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), International
English Language Testing System (IELTS), Certificate in Advanced English (CAE), Business
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English Certificate (BEC) Vantage (Grade A, B), Business English Certificate (BEC) Higher and
other certification tests of UCLES (Cambridge English). For the Cambridge English exams the
Statement of Results is submitted together with the Certificate.
4.3 Score comparison for English levels.
4.3.1 A score comparison chart below gives an idea of correlation between the results of TOEFL and
other alternative tests (IELTS, САЕ и ВЕС Higher), if the latter are confirmed with the certificates
from the organizations which have the right to administer the tests given to them directly or
indirectly by the Educational Testing Service (USA), British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia, the
University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge English).
4.3.2 The following score comparison chart is accepted:
Cambridge
English
Score
100points
scale
1
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
Cambridge
English
Score
IELTS
Score
TOEFL Score
Paperbased
Computerbased
Internetbased
2
550
3
213
4
79–80
553
217
81–82
557 –
220
83
563
223
84–85
567
227
86–87
570 – 573
230
88–89
577
233
90–91
Common
European
Framewor
k of
Reference
for
Languages
Интернетверсия
FСE/b
BEC V/b
5
6
B2
FСE/a
BEC V/a
6,5
B2-C1
The
number of
correct
answers
(entrance
exam
(GSOM
SPbU))
6
70
71–72
73
74
75–76
77
78–79
80
81
82–83
84
85–86
87
88
89–90
91
92–93
94
95
96–97
98
99–100
101
102
103–104
105
106–107
108
109
5
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
580 – 583
237
92–93
587
240
94–95
590 – 593
243
96–97
597
247
98-99
600–603
607–610
613
617–620
250
253
257
260
100
101–102
103–104
105
623–637
640–677
263–270
273–300
106–110
111–120
CAE/c
BEC H/c
7
C1
7,5
C1
CAE/b
BEC H/b
8
C1
CAE/a
BEC H/a
8,5–9
С1-С2
110–111
112
113–114
115
116
117–118
119
120–121
122
123
124–125
126
127–128
129
130
131–132
133
134–135
136
137
138–139
140
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