The STEP exam is the Standardized Test of English Proficiency in Saudi Arabia, an objective test administered by the National Centre for Assessment (Qiyas) to measure non-native English speakers’ proficiency. It is used for university admission, especially for English departments, exemptions from English courses, post-graduate program admissions, and for professional purposes in the private sector and among English language teachers. The exam consists of four sections: Reading Comprehension, Structure, Listening Comprehension, and Compositional Analysis, with scores ranging from 0 to 100
Eligibility Criteria
Following students are eligible to take the STEP test:
Students who want to apply to the English departments in the higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia are required to take this test.
Students who want an exemption from studying English courses in their respective programmes
Students who have applied for English departments and want to get placed as per their relevant level of proficiency must take the test
Students who want to apply for post-graduate programmes
People who want to work in private sector
English language teachers who want to obtain a certificate in English
The STEP tests has four sections: (percentage of questions)
- Reading Comprehension 40%
- Sentence Structure 30%
- Listening Comprehension 20%
- Composition Analysis 10%
Duration: 3 hours
Total no. of questions: 100
