The Multilevel exam explained: every part of the Reading and Writing papers

The Multilevel exam is Uzbekistan's national English exam, run by the State Testing Centre (DTM). Instead of a band from 0 to 9, it places you on the CEFR scale — B1, B2 or C1 — in a single sitting. It has four papers: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. This guide walks through Reading and Writing part by part, because those are the two papers where knowing the format saves the most marks.

Reading: five parts, 35 questions

The Reading paper takes 60 minutes. The parts get harder as you go: Part 1 is written at B1, and Part 5 at C1. Every correct answer is worth one mark.

Reading Part 1: gap fill (questions 1–6)

A short B1 text of roughly 150 to 200 words, with six gaps. Each gap takes exactly one word — and the rule that makes this part different from any IELTS task is that the missing word appears somewhere else in the same text. You are not inventing the answer; you are finding it.

Reading Part 2: adverts and notices (questions 7–14)

Eight short texts — adverts or notices, all on one theme, such as language courses or sports clubs — and ten statements labelled A to J. You match each text to the statement that describes it. Each statement is used once only, and two statements are extra: they match nothing, and they are there to catch you.

Reading Part 3: headings (questions 15–20)

One text in six paragraphs, and a list of headings with more headings than paragraphs — practice books typically give eight. Choose a heading for each paragraph. No heading can be used twice, and some are never used at all.

Reading Part 4: a longer text (questions 21–29)

One longer text — a story, a biography or a feature article — with nine questions in two blocks. Questions 21 to 24 are multiple choice with options A to D. Questions 25 to 29 are statements you mark True, False or No Information.

No Information works exactly like Not Given in IELTS: the text neither confirms nor contradicts the statement. The traps are the same too — see True, False or Not Given? The question the passage never answers.

Reading Part 5: an academic text (questions 30–35)

The hardest part: an academic C1 text of around 500 to 650 words. Questions 30 to 33 are a summary with four gaps, each taking no more than one word and/or a number, in the same order as the information in the text. Questions 34 and 35 are multiple choice, A to D.

Writing: three tasks in two sections

The Writing paper takes about an hour. Section 1 gives you one situation and asks you to write about it twice: once informally to a friend, and once formally to someone in charge. Section 2 is a separate opinion task.

Writing Task 1.1: an informal email (about 50 words, B1)

A short email to a friend about the situation — typically how you feel about it and what you think should happen. Friendly, direct and short: about 50 words is not much, so every sentence has to do a job.

Writing Task 1.2: a formal email (120–150 words, B2)

The same situation, written to a manager or an organisation: what the problem is, how it affects you, and what you would like them to do. The content overlaps with Task 1.1. What changes is register — the vocabulary, the grammar and the tone.

Writing Task 2: a forum post (180–200 words, C1)

You are taking part in an online discussion and must answer its question — for example, whether schools should replace exams with coursework — giving reasons and examples. This is the C1 task: a clear opinion, developed over 180 to 200 words, in a style suitable for a public forum.

Multilevel and IELTS: the differences that matter

• The result. Multilevel gives a CEFR level; IELTS gives a band from 0 to 9. The two are different scales, and converting one into the other by rule of thumb is unreliable.
• Reading. Multilevel has five parts and 35 questions, including gap fills where the answer is in the text; IELTS Academic Reading has three passages and 40 questions.
• Writing. Multilevel has three tasks, two of them emails in different registers; IELTS has two tasks, and neither is an informal email in Academic.
• One shared skill. No Information in Multilevel and Not Given in IELTS test the same thing: reading only what the text actually says.

How the exam is scored

Public descriptions of the exam give a score out of 75 for the whole exam, mapped to levels like this: 65–75 is C1, 51–64 is B2, 38–50 is B1, and a score below 38 is below B1. Thresholds can be revised, so confirm the current ones with the State Testing Centre before you plan around a number.

Listening, the fourth paper we have not covered here, also has 35 questions, in six parts. The format of every paper rewards the same preparation: practise each part in its real shape until the instructions feel familiar, so your attention on exam day goes to the English, not to the rules.