## The three components

| Component | What it covers | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Compreensão da Leitura e Produção e Interação Escritas | Reading and writing | 45% |
| Compreensão do Oral | Listening | 30% |
| Produção e Interação Orais | Speaking | 25% |

People often describe the CIPLE as having four parts, because you do four distinct things on the
day: read, write, listen and speak. That is true of the experience. It is not how the marking
works. Reading and writing are scored together as one component, and that single component is
worth almost half your grade.

## Why the weights are worth internalising

Most candidates split their preparation evenly across the four activities, or they spend the most
time on speaking because it frightens them the most. Both are misallocations.

Reading and writing together are the heaviest component and also the most improvable, because
they reward a small set of skills you can drill directly. Reading in particular is marked
objectively: an answer is right or wrong, with no examiner judgement involved.

Speaking is the lightest component at 25%, and it is usually the most forgiving. Examiners are
trained to assess A2 speakers. They expect hesitation, small vocabulary and simple sentences.

## The trap in the weights

Being light does not make a component safe. There is a second pass rule, a minimum of 25% in
every component, and it applies to speaking exactly as it does to reading. Skipping speaking
practice because it is only a quarter of the grade is how people fail an exam they had otherwise
passed on total marks.

## What we cover

A2 CIPLE Prep trains the reading part: unlimited exam-style questions graded instantly, with
corrections and timed practice exams. We do not cover speaking or listening.