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[References: p. 245 (9 tit.)]

In this article the authors cover main international English Language Examinations, their role in defining language proficiencyand interpreting language qualifications and review the structure of English as a foreign language examination FCE (FirstCertificate in English). The applied part of the paper contains the result analysis of this examination at Tomsk PolytechnicUniversity (local sessions 2013 and 2014) and is aimed at identifying the most complicated papers of the exam and therelationship between English proficiency and the difficulties detected (based on certificate grades). Theoretical analysis ofmethodological literature, mathematical research methods for data and results processing, as well as authors’ personalexperience of administering local EFL examination sessions were used. The obtained results allow us to conclude that inproductive skills there is no relationship between certificate grade and difficulty in Writing and Speaking papers of the test. TheListening paper was considered to be the most difficult. The following relationship is revealed: the lower English proficiency acandidate has, the more interference of the gaps in the student’s knowledge in different examination papers is observed,therefore, the greater difficulty he/she encounters when completing examination questions. This work will be useful forlanguage teachers, graduate students, students of English who are preparing for the FCE exam.