Become Fluent in Spanish: The Ultimate Proficiency Test Guide

Spanish proficiency tests are standardized exams designed to evaluate and certify an individual’s ability to understand, speak, read, and write in Spanish. The two most recognized official exams are DELE and SIELE.

DELE (Diplomas de Español como Lengua Extranjera)

• DELE is the official diploma certifying Spanish language proficiency granted by Spain’s Instituto Cervantes on behalf of the Spanish Ministry of Education.
• It offers six levels aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR): A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2.
• Exam format typically includes reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing, and speaking sections.
• DELE exams are paper-based and held on fixed dates in various countries.
• DELE certification does not expire and is widely recognized by universities, employers, and governments.

SIELE (Servicio Internacional de Evaluación de la Lengua Española)

• SIELE is a more flexible, internet-based exam jointly conducted by Instituto Cervantes and several Latin American institutions.
• It provides an overall score from 0 to 1000 points and assigns levels based on CEFR.
• SIELE tests four skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking.
• It is available year-round, allowing candidates to take the test anytime at authorized centers or remotely.
• SIELE certificates are valid for five years.

Choosing Between DELE and SIELE

Preparation Tips

• Familiarize with the CEFR level descriptions to choose the appropriate exam and level.
• Use official sample exams and practice materials from Instituto Cervantes.
• Focus on the four language skills tested: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
• Consider taking language courses or online programs to improve overall proficiency.
• Practice speaking with native speakers or through language exchange platforms to build oral confidence.
• Time management is important during the exam as tests are timed.

In summary, DELE is a traditional, well-established certification suitable for academic or professional validation, while SIELE offers a modern, flexible alternative with digital format and shorter result times. Both are trusted for assessing and certifying Spanish language proficiency at various levels from beginner to advanced. ^{1, 2, 3}

References

• Effectiveness of an Online Medical Spanish Course in Improving Medical Students’ Spanish Proficiency

• Comparing Examinee Attitudes Toward Computer-Assisted and Other Proficiency Assessments

• Evaluar el nivel de competencia intercultural de los candidatos al examen DELE a partir de su actuación oral

• Bilingual Academic Spanish Proficiency Tests: Assessment of Bilingual Cross-Cultural and Language and Academic Development Teacher Candidates

• Bilingual teacher candidates and their professors: Efforts to pass a Spanish proficiency certification exam

• Investigation of the Reference Level Description for Arabic Proficiency Tests in Indonesia

• Foreign language anxiety in online college Spanish: Prevalence and effects on oral proficiency

• Toward a systematic accessibility review process for English language proficiency tests for young learners

• The impact of EMI on student English writing proficiency in a Spanish undergraduate engineering context

• Cultural care needs of Spanish speaking parents with limited English proficiency whose children are hospitalized: An ethnonursing study.

• Time limits and English proficiency tests: Predicting academic performance

• Medical spanish proficiency as an independent study project

• Spanish language proficiency in dual language and English as a second language models: the impact of model, time, teacher, and student on Spanish language development

• Spanish Pre-trained BERT Model and Evaluation Data

• Evaluating Large Language Models with Tests of Spanish as a Foreign Language: Pass or Fail?

• A Standardized Clinical Case-Based Assessment for Evaluating Medical Students’ Oral Spanish Communication Skills

• Phonological fluency norms for Spanish middle-aged and older adults provided by the SCAND initiative (P, M, & R)

• A closer look at a marginalized test method: Self-assessment as a measure of speaking proficiency

• Laxatives for a Cold?

• CCAB–Español: The California Cognitive Assessment Battery in Spanish

• Transcultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Life Skills Scale For Sport: LSSS-S

• Three verbal fluency tasks: Normative data and convergent validity in Argentines over 50 years

• A comprehensive medical Spanish curriculum model: the Vida Medical Spanish Curriculum

• ASSESSMENT OF WRITTEN FRENCH OF SPANISH POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS DURING TEACHER TRAINING

• The Development of Discourse and Morphological Features in L2 Narratives: A Study with Classroom Spanish-Speaking Learners of French

• Investigations into the Appropriate Use of Various Item Types for Testing Specific Levels of Reading Proficiency.

• Vocabulary Acquisition in Beginner L2 Learners

• Fairness of using different English accents: The effect of shared L1s in listening tasks of the Duolingo English test

• MEASURING DEVELOPED ACADEMIC ABILITIES USING SPANISH‐LANGUAGE AND ENGLISH‐LANGUAGE TESTS: PAEG/GRE RELATIONSHIPS FOR PUERTO RICANS WHO ARE MORE PROFICIENT IN SPANISH THAN IN ENGLISH

• Lexical diversity development in newly arrived parent-child immigrant pairs: Aptitude, age, exposure, and anxiety

• Method for automatic measurement of second language speaking proficiency

• ABOUT IATED CONFERENCES PUBLICATIONS IATED TALKS DIGITAL LIBRARY BOOKSHOP MAILING LIST CONTACT US LOGIN

• Testing the Cognitive Load Hypothesis: Repair Rates and Usage in a Bilingual Community

• Language sample measures and language ability in Spanish-English bilingual kindergarteners.

• Self-ratings of spoken language dominance: A Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) and preliminary norms for young and aging Spanish–English bilinguals*

• Validity Evidence for the Physician Oral Language Observation Matrix as a Measure of Medical Spanish Proficiency.

• Speech-language-hearing therapists’ perceptions of the characteristics of structured assessment tests proposed by current Chilean regulations

• Ducasse, A. M. Interaction in paired oral proficiency assessment in Spanish. Language Testing and Evaluation

• TITLE IDEA Orai Language Proficiency Test ( IPT II )

• 스페인어 초급 수준(DELE A1, A2)에서의 듣기 평가 분석

• A Review and Critique of the Preschool IDEA Oral Language Test (Pre-IPT): Spanish.

• Development and Analysis of a Flexible Spanish Language Test for Placement and Outcome Assessment

• Evaluating Differences in Mathematical Competencies in Middle School Students during Pandemic Conditions through Preparatec Platform

• Measuring oral proficiency in distance, face-to-face, and blended classrooms

• Adapting to the circumstances: on discourse competence in L2 Spanish / De la competencia discursiva en español L2 o de cómo adaptarse a las circunstancias

• L3 acquisition of aspect: the influence of structural similarity, analytic L2 and general L3 proficiency

• The BEST Dataset of Language Proficiency

• Effectiveness of an Online Medical Spanish Course in Improving Medical Students’ Spanish Proficiency

• TELEIA: A Spanish language dataset for evaluating artificial intelligence models