# Forum General General Discussion  TORFL (Test of Russian as a Foreign Language)

## Hanna

Has anybody taken anything like this? (below) 
I strongly suspect this is a fairly new test and I wonder, has anybody actually heard of it? It sounds like it's officially supported though, Ministry of Education etc...  
Just interested to find out what standard tests are out there for Russian and what your thoughts on it are. I'd really love to see a sample test paper for the first level...!    

> What is TORFL (ТРКИ) 
> TORFL (Test of Russian as a Foreign Language) 
> In this section you will find information about TROFL and can try sample tests. National Certificate of International Standard (TORFL) may be needed:
> for studying in Russian Universities
> to work in companies, cooperating with Russian speaking  firms
> for working with Russian speaking clients and tourists
> for working in Russia speaking countries
> to teach Russian language.
> The TORFL is a 5-level test based on Standards of the Russian Educational System and Requirements for foreign learners approved by Russian Ministry of Education. The TORFL levels are the following: Basic level 
> ...

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## Lt. Columbo

well timed! just yesterday i made a post about on my blog ( http://england-mosocw.blogspot.com/2009 ... -test.html )
i managed to get links to all the papers bar the first one! 
the test has been around for a while now. i passed the second and third levels, might go for the fourth early next year   ::

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## Hanna

Wow, respect! 
I'm going to sign up for the RSS feed of your blog - you've got lots of useful info there.  
Well, you live there, and you are a foreigner.. I guess that settles it -- this is a worthwhile exam.  
So what was your exact motivation for taking it? You are working as an ESL teacher, right?
In what way will it help you to have this exam?  Update: I read Lt Colombo's blog post - very interesting and informative. But the above questions remain. Here is the certificate that he got:

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## Lt. Columbo

i dont need it, i just wanted to do it for myself and because it might come in handy one day when im back in England. All foreign students here have to take it if they want to study here but they dont normally do more than the 1st level.
it's very annoying that i cant find a pdf for it but ill keep searching. 
i translate and teach here but nobody has ever asked me about Russian qualification, still i find at least having these test gives me a goal to shoot for   :: 
anyone who is interested can just save the pdf files and print the practise papers, it should give you a good idea of what to expect from the trki test   ::

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## Scholes

Ah I was looking for a test like this. Good to know that it actually exists  ::  Now I just need to find a place where I can get it. 
EDIT: The first 3 levels seem fairly easy to me. That kinda surprises me. Coz my Russian isn't that good yet. That makes me even more confused. I have no clue what level I could say my Russian is at the moment.   ::

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## Lt. Columbo

Generally the listening, spoken and writing are the hardest parts, for me at least

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## sperk

> Generally the listening, spoken and writing are the hardest parts, for me at least

 Do you have to write in script?

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## Lt. Columbo

Um, you just need to write legibly, i dont think they would penalise you if it was, say, not joined up. It's hard because you dont have a lot of time, you need to include a lot of points in your answer and try not to make anything other than style mistakes. Although the written for 2 was quite easy and i hear ! is ok too

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## chaika

There is also a TORFL exam in the US. I found the description once but have never taken it.

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## sperk

> There is also a TORFL exam in the US. I found the description once but have never taken it.

 Where is it offered?

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## fortheether

> Originally Posted by chaika  There is also a TORFL exam in the US. I found the description once but have never taken it.   Where is it offered?

 I emailed a school in St. Petersburg that gives the test with that question and they answered: 
Thank you for your letter and the interest in TRKI/ TORFL exam. In the USA you can have TORFL exams in Duke University. 
I suspect my Russian is not yet good enough to take the test. 
Scott

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## sperk

> Originally Posted by sperk        Originally Posted by chaika  There is also a TORFL exam in the US. I found the description once but have never taken it.   Where is it offered?   I emailed a school in St. Petersburg that gives the test with that question and they answered: 
> Thank you for your letter and the interest in TRKI/ TORFL exam. In the USA you can have TORFL exams in Duke University. 
> I suspect my Russian is not yet good enough to take the test. 
> Scott

 Спасибо!

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## fortheether

> Where is it offered?

  

> I emailed a school in St. Petersburg that gives the test with that question and they answered: 
> Thank you for your letter and the interest in TRKI/ TORFL exam. In the USA you can have TORFL exams in Duke University. 
> I suspect my Russian is not yet good enough to take the test. 
> Scott

  

> Спасибо!

 No sweat.

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## Hanna

Scott, they have lots of levels. 
I am aiming for the basic level  ::  for the time being. 
For Europeans reading this, it seems to be available in all European countries, the problem is getting good enough to pass the test, not finding somewhere to take it. 
I've decided to use it as a milestone though. Still haven't got over practically being thrown out of the Russian class at school for being a hopeless case. Passing this exam will be my comeback..  That event was one of the alltime lows in my academic history.

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## fortheether

> Scott, they have lots of levels. 
> I am aiming for the basic level  for the time being. 
> For Europeans reading this, it seems to be available in all European countries, the problem is getting good enough to pass the test, not finding somewhere to take it. 
> I've decided to use it as a milestone though. Still haven't got over practically being thrown out of the Russian class at school for being a hopeless case. Passing this exam will be my comeback..  That event was one of the alltime lows in my academic history.

 I am also aiming for the basic level.  What study materials are you using?  The only thing I found for self study is:  http://www.amazon.com/Rossiiskaia-gosud ... 338&sr=8-1 
Is that the official study book for the tests?  The book is only 56 pages long.

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## Hanna

Scott - I don't NEED this certificate right now, and I don't urgently need to be able to speak Russian for work. But I *want* it.  
It's more a case that I have identified that a) Russian would be useful in my line of work, and b) I am quite fascinated by the country and its' culture.  
Plus some other reasons.  
But I'm not going to stress myself out overly about it. 
I'll take the test when I'm ready. Next spring or summer, I think. I 
As for material, I am using / planning to use:  
1) Pimsleur (I know that Olya and others think it's rather bad, but nevertheless it's 35 full hours of recorded material - can be used anywhere.) 
2) Assimil - a French programme which is VERY extensive (audio). It's supposedly a lot better than Pimsleur, but a slight problem – my French is very weak...  I will use it because it's considered to be the best audio course there is in the Russian language.  
3) The Swedish secondary school standard course in Russian. It comes in a format that is very familiar to me from other langauges I studied. For that reason it's helpful. It has a text book, excercise book and recordings.  
4) Anki Flashcard application (massive collection of cards - that thing is ADDICTIVE.... !) google it.  
5) A Russian-Swedish grammar book and its' exercise book.  
The difficulty I am facing is that Russian is a lot harder and more time consuming than I had thought - stuying Russian can't be compared with studying any Western European language.  *WHAT ABOUT YOU? What material are you using and what is your approach?*

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## fortheether

> Scott - I don't NEED this certificate right now, and I don't urgently need to be able to speak Russian for work. But I *want* it.  
> It's more a case that I have identified that a) Russian would be useful in my line of work, and b) I am quite fascinated by the country and its' culture.  
> Plus some other reasons.  
> But I'm not going to stress myself out overly about it. 
> I'll take the test when I'm ready. Next spring or summer, I think. I 
> As for material, I am using / planning to use:  
> 1) Pimsleur (I know that Olya and others think it's rather bad, but nevertheless it's 35 full hours of recorded material - can be used anywhere.) 
> 2) Assimil - a French programme which is VERY extensive (audio). It's supposedly a lot better than Pimsleur, but a slight problem – my French is very weak...  I will use it because it's considered to be the best audio course there is in the Russian language.  
> 3) The Swedish secondary school standard course in Russian. It comes in a format that is very familiar to me from other langauges I studied. For that reason it's helpful. It has a text book, excercise book and recordings.  
> ...

 Johanna,
   I do not need this cert for anything.  This is a hobby for me.  My Grandmother was from Belarus and my Grandfather from Ukraine.  For the TORFL test I need to know what to study.  I use Skype with multiple people to practice.  I do pay for lessons.  Also, lots of folks want to learn English.  I get Russian channels from Directv.  I guess my approach is to do whatever I can do to study with a full time job (very far commute) and a family.  Thank you I'll look into Anki.  I've used Interlex (http://www.vocab.co.uk/) to help me.   
Scott

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## DDT

> As for material, I am using / planning to use:  
> 1) Pimsleur (I know that Olya and others think it's rather bad, but nevertheless it's 35 full hours of recorded material - can be used anywhere.)
> approach? [/i][/b]

 There is nothing wrong with Pimsleur. In fact using Pimsleur will give you a large headstart on any formal lessons  undertaken, particularly useful for your pronunciation. Everyone needs to hear the spoken target language while learning. Do not be put off by the nay sayers.

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## Оля

> There is nothing wrong with Pimsleur.

 The wrong thing about Pimsleur is that it uses extremely unnatural sentences and typically English word order.

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## DDT

> Originally Posted by DDT  There is nothing wrong with Pimsleur.   The wrong thing about Pimsleur is that it uses extremely unnatural sentences and typically English word order.

 Well, that may be true, but it is the best and most thorough CD course available, as far as I know, and i have looked all over the place. All CD courses have something wrong with them.  The point is that Russian speakers will understand anyway, even if it does sound awkward. The main thing is, is to get people started speaking the new language. They will sound awkward anyway!.... and they will soon figure out better ways to say things. 
The worst thing about Pimsleur is the price. I would never pay that much. That's why i use "share-ware" for everything.

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## gRomoZeka

I'm not a fan of Pimsleur myself, their method of repeating the words backwards is ridiculous and unhelpful.  ::   But I'd like to say that the Russian sentences Pimsleur uses are not " _extremely_ unnatural". They are often awkward and sometimes very old-fashioned, but still understandable. It's not broken Russian, though they sound sometimes like something that a foreigner, who's very proficient, would say.

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## Оля

> But I'd like to say that the Russian sentences Pimsleur uses are not " _extremely_ unnatural".

 I meant that _some_ sentences are. And in general, Russians don't speak the way they use in Pimsleur; and many Pimsleur situations are just strange, for example, "- My name is Elena. - Glad to meet you, Elena. Where would like to drink some vodka with me?"

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## gRomoZeka

> .. and many Pimsleur situations are just strange, ...

 I agree, it sounds weird. Maybe this is an attempt at humour?  ::  Anyway it seems like a common flaw of all the textbooks and courses. I've yet to find a book where dialogs are absolutely natural. Alas.  ::

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## Hanna

Finally something that I agree with DDT on.    ::  
Pimsleur is simply too big to ignore - even if (as Olya says) there are some problems with it.  
Actually it's more material than I said earlier - more like 50 hours in total.  
I have already done part 1 and part 2  --- Silly or not, I will finish the course as a matter of principle.  
I agree that some of the situations are a bit silly / unrealistic - but despite that -- it's really the largest course out there..  And like DDT, I haven't exactly bankrupted myself to buy this course either - so I can't complain about something I haven't paid for.  
The Pimsleur repetition ad-infinitum actually works for me... I am definitely no more talented at language learning than the average Pimsleur user.  
I am SO grateful to the people (olly and others   ::   ::   ::  somebody called "grogs" ) who worked on creating and correcting scripts for Pimsleur and put them on this site. I can't even explain how tremendously helpful that has been.   The big challengers to Pimsleur in the audio area are 
1) The Michel Thomas course (the teacher is really good!) a British made course.  Approx 6 hours, no book.  
2) Assimil "La Russe sans peine" Supposedly VERY good - I haven't started it yet. However requires you to understand French to use the book.  Approx 4 hours, plus a book.   
I have tons of other material too... *"EuroTalk", "Russisch bitte"* and plenty more. Some is a bit dated, i.e. 1990s or earlier....  and some is rather dull...    ::   ::   ::   ::   ::   ::   *Is anyone interested in doing a rundown of what material you have and what you liked / didn't like.. ?
(We could start a separate thread for that? ) *   ::   ::   ::   ::   ::   ::   
Also: I don't mind sharing what I have assuming everybody tries to reciprocate...

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## Kennedy

Thanks so much for this post. I am currently studying in Russia right now and am preparing(well, have been preparing for the last 6 months really) for this exam. The plan was to try to take level 2 before I go home but it seems based on the info here that I need to take level one first. And here I thought I could save some money  ::  
Thanks again, especially for the PDFs. From the looks of it, aside from the speaking(it's slow going unfortunately) I could take level 2 and most likely pass. Darn my horrible stage fright!

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## fortheether

> Thanks so much for this post. I am currently studying in Russia right now and am preparing(well, have been preparing for the last 6 months really) for this exam. The plan was to try to take level 2 before I go home but it seems based on the info here that I need to take level one first. And here I thought I could save some money  
> Thanks again, especially for the PDFs. From the looks of it, aside from the speaking(it's slow going unfortunately) I could take level 2 and most likely pass. Darn my horrible stage fright!

 What materials are you using to study?

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## Kennedy

> What materials are you using to study?

 Specifically for the test? I already went though the full practice test for the first level - our teacher made us copies of it, and I just recently bought "тесты тесны тесты... II cертификационный уровень" which unfortunately is just for the grammar portion of the test which was why I was really relived to stumble upon this thread. There is also a book of verbs and words that one SHOULD know before taking the second level(they also have such books for each level) 
But in addition to that:
Знаю и люблю русские глаголы 
Shaum's outlines: Russian Grammar
Дорога в Россию 2
Русский язык - первые шаги(I did book 2, and am working on three at the moment)
Слово: пособие по лексике и разговорной практике
Let's Improve Our Russian!
and
изучаем русский язык, узнаем Россию(also working on that at the moment by myself)

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## Оля

> Знаю и люблю русские глаголы

 Как мило.   ::

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## SAn

Да. «Знаю» и «люблю» — русские глаголы.

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## tim_in_kiev

First, let me introduce myself, my name is Tim and I live, well, I am between cities, despite my username. I have lived in Moscow and Kiev for three years or so... 
Well- I came here looking for information on Russian films, and saw this post on the TORFL, which I happen to know a fair amount about.
You can download TORFL practice tests of every level here: http://www.zlat.spb.ru/catalog5_12.html
I took level 2 around a year and a half ago, and am going for level three now; I used Living Language Russian Advanced (a bit of a misnomer, actually) to prepare for level 2, and it helped quite a bit. 
At http://www.zlat.spb.ru in general you can find lots of useful materials.

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## fortheether

> First, let me introduce myself, my name is Tim and I live, well, I am between cities, despite my username. I have lived in Moscow and Kiev for three years or so... 
> Well- I came here looking for information on Russian films, and saw this post on the TORFL, which I happen to know a fair amount about.
> You can download TORFL practice tests of every level here: http://www.zlat.spb.ru/catalog5_12.html
> I took level 2 around a year and a half ago, and am going for level three now; I used Living Language Russian Advanced (a bit of a misnomer, actually) to prepare for level 2, and it helped quite a bit. 
> At http://www.zlat.spb.ru in general you can find lots of useful materials.

 Thank you Tim! 
Scott

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## Topolino

How do Russians pronounce TORFL and TRKI ?

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## AndrewB

I've never heard of such a test,anyway it's interesting. I don't wanna take it ,though,because although I speak fluent and without accent,I have some problems in writing Russian,therefore I'd better not.

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## Hanna

On Uz Translations, (google it!) I found some practice exams.

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## fortheether

> On Uz Translations, (google it!) I found some practice exams.

 Hanna,
   That site is excellent!  I don't see TORFL practice tests though - I only saw practice tests for English tests.  Can you please post a link to what you are referring to? 
Thank you, 
Scott

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## lemoni

> First, let me introduce myself, my name is Tim and I live, well, I am between cities, despite my username. I have lived in Moscow and Kiev for three years or so... 
> Well- I came here looking for information on Russian films, and saw this post on the TORFL, which I happen to know a fair amount about.
> You can download TORFL practice tests of every level here: Учебные пособия по русскому языку как иностранному (
> I took level 2 around a year and a half ago, and am going for level three now; I used Living Language Russian Advanced (a bit of a misnomer, actually) to prepare for level 2, and it helped quite a bit. 
> At Издательство Златоуст.  in general you can find lots of useful materials.

 К сожалению, я не могу найти тесты для скачивания с сайта Златоуста. Есть ли где-нибудь по интернете образцы таких тестов ТРКИ ?

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## lemoni

Ну, вот я нашла некоторые ссылки с онлайн тестами, чтобы проверить уровень русского Russian Test Online

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## Hanna

@ Scott; yeah, you were right, I hadn't checked them properly when I made the post! Sorry, didn't see your comment until now.  
@ lemoni; Great find!!! Thanks for sharing.

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## JackOnSkates

Does anyone know if there's a site listing testing centers worldwide? I did a few Google searches, but couldn't find much of anything. I live in Japan.

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## kurtmagnus

> First, let me introduce myself, my name is Tim and I live, well, I am between cities, despite my username. I have lived in Moscow and Kiev for three years or so... 
> Well- I came here looking for information on Russian films, and saw this post on the TORFL, which I happen to know a fair amount about.
> You can download TORFL practice tests of every level here: Учебные пособия по русскому языку как иностранному (РКИ). Каталог. Издательство "Златоуст"
> I took level 2 around a year and a half ago, and am going for level three now; I used Living Language Russian Advanced (a bit of a misnomer, actually) to prepare for level 2, and it helped quite a bit. 
> At Издательство Златоуст. Русский язык как иностранный (РКИ). Обучение русскому языку in general you can find lots of useful materials.

 Has anyone seen any of the textbooks published by Zlatoust? 
For instance  Учебные пособия по русскому языку как иностранному (РКИ). Каталог. Издательство "Златоуст" Учебные пособия по русскому языку как иностранному (РКИ). Каталог. Издательство "Златоуст", or Учебные пособия по русскому языку как иностранному (РКИ). Каталог. Издательство "Златоуст" ? 
Are they any good? 
Kurt

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## ladoga

What in Heaven's name is AUDING?!!!  I refer to test numbered 3.  There is no such verb in the English (British) language as "aud". Maybe it would have been a good idea if they got an English speaker to proof read it first!

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## it-ogo

Well, it's a special term. Psychological and pedagogical.

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## ladoga

Is it? So what would be wrong with 'listening' I wonder?

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## alexsms

It should be 'listening', or 'listening and comprehension', etc.

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## ThunderN

> It should be 'listening', or 'listening and comprehension', etc.

 lool, listenin comprehension ya mean

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## fortheether

TORFL Exam Experiences in Kyiv 
Scott

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