Taking the Portuguese language exam

My experience with the CIPLE

You’re required to pass the basic Portuguese exam to qualify for citizenship—unless you were born in a Portuguese-speaking country. Portuguese is not a particularly easy language to learn, which is why the CIPLE (Initial Certificate of Portuguese as a Foreign Language) is a daunting hurdle for many who immigrate here. And European Portuguese is much more difficult than brasileiro falado, the Brazilian form. I say this with confidence based on my experience with both versions, and which I consider to be two separate languages.

I first started learning Portuguese in 1975 in Brazil and have worked on improving my language skills ever since. Later in the 1970s, when I went back to finish my undergraduate degree and had a heavy load of pre-med classes, I took Brazilian Portuguese every semester—it was challenging, but much easier than organic chemistry. And from 1982 to 1984 I lived and worked in Brazil. So, I shouldn’t have been nervous about taking the CIPLE, right?

Guess again, dear reader. I have always had fairly severe test anxiety, so bilingual fluent or not, I knew I had to overprepare. Walking in to the exam cold without any idea of how it was structured or what to expect would be a recipe for disaster. And like most every “official” experience here in Portugal, bureaucratic obstacles were likely to be thrown in my path.

Let’s first consider the European system for classifying language skills. I used to simply describe my fluency in languages on my CV, but in Europe that doesn’t cut it. The scheme for classifying language skills is called CEFR, Common European Framework of References for Languages. In the CEFR language proficiency is organized in three levels: basic, independent and proficient, corresponding to A, B, C. The rankings are further subdivided into A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. Here’s a link to a fun Substack post by Maud Your French Teacher, illustrating the various CEFR levels.

The CIPLE is aimed at level A2, which includes reading comprehension and producing limited written text, listening to recordings and answering questions, and speaking and interacting in response to a visual prompt.

Early last year Jasiel and I spoke to our attorney about pursuing citizenship since we have been here for more than five years and are thus eligible, and her office sent me some materials about the language exam. Jasiel doesn’t have to take the exam because he was born in Brazil, a Portuguese language country. I didn’t read the titles of the documents carefully, and the first one I printed out and took as practice was an absolute whopper. I easily answered most of the questions, but some were very advanced, and I sat with Jasiel to look at them together. Geez, I said, how can most people pass this? It’s crazy! I then discovered it was a diagnostic exam that included everything from A2 to C2. Phew! Sample questions and an answer key for the CIPLE are provided online, and I used those to prepare.

So fine, let’s go ahead and take the exam. Good luck with that! I went online to schedule in April 2024 and all the slots were filled for the rest of the year. “Check back later.” Okay, so I put an alert in my calendar for early January 2025. Checking in early January, nothing listed, and checking a few days later no exams listed. The second week of January 2025, listings for the CIPLE exam popped up. I clicked on University of Algarve (30 minutes from my home, where I have an appointment as a visiting professor in the medical school) and zip, nada. It reverted to exam schedules at the University of Lisbon. Knowing how tough it can be to get a slot, I registered, but I sent a message to the administrator asking if it was possible to schedule the exam at University of Algarve. To this day, I have not received a reply. A non-reply is a reply in itself, of course.

So I cognitively reframed the situation, as I am wont to do. I love Lisbon! Great! I can go do a couple of days in Lisbon, shop for décor fabric for new pillows for the sofa, and go to the Quake Museum. Given the calendar for the exam being Saturday morning, February first at the University of Lisbon, I planned to go up early on Friday. And because the final portion of the CIPLE was in the afternoon, and they wouldn’t tell you what time until the day of the exam, and because the final piece could be any time between one and 6:00 PM, I reserved two nights at my hotel.

Tram, Lisbon

I took the train from Loulé to Lisbon the morning of Friday, January 31^st. Lisbon’s Gare Oriente train station is beautiful above and from a distance, but it’s a dark rabbit’s warren as you descend levels, and many of the elevators were non-functional, as is usually the case, sadly. Happily, I was traveling light with just a cute little aircraft cabin-sized roller bag. Instead of buying a metro ticket at the usual kiosks, I went to a ticket office in the bowels of the station and stood in line to buy a ticket. I mainly wanted to understand my options. As I thought, the three-day Lisbon pass for local only (no option to take the train up to Sintra, for example) was a great deal, since I planned to bop around the city and use buses as well as the subway. I took the metro to my hotel, which involved one transfer.

I chose the hotel by studying the metro map relative to the University of Lisbon Faculdade de Letras (School of Humanities, including literary studies, philosophy, history and linguistics) where the CIPLE exams are administered. I needed to find a hotel near the metro’s yellow line. And, since I was using travel points with my credit card, I prioritized higher end boutique hotels. I was not disappointed with my choice.

My room at the H10 Duque de Loulé Hotel

I took the metro to Marquis de Pombal Square and schlepped my roller bag up the calçada sidewalks to my hotel a few blocks away. I was able to check in early, so I stashed my stuff, freshened up and went out to take the metro to the Faculdade de Letras so I would have no problems early the next day. Does it seem that I’m a little overwrought? Anxiety management, people!

Cidade Universitária metro station

And it turned out to be a good thing, because while the metro trip was easy, Citymapper (which I love, no shade) took me to the Reitor (Dean’s building). I had to ask for directions, and a nice lady directed me around the corner and down the road to the correct building. There was a small café on the first floor, and I confirmed they’d be open for breakfast the next day.

Inner courtyard, Faculdade de Letras

The next morning, I was up and ready well in advance, armed with my newly sharpened pencils, fresh new pens, a pencil sharpener, and reading glasses (which I never need but you never know, belt and suspenders and all that!). On arrival I had a coffee and pastry at the café, and went up the stairs to wait outside my assigned room. A large, diverse throng was milling about as it got closer to the time the exam was to begin, chatting in many languages.

Our group was invited into one of the exam classrooms exactly at 8:30, and just like everywhere in the world, there were stragglers who arrived almost too late and disrupted things a bit. But the door was closed just after 9:00 AM as scheduled. The proctors were very nice and professional, and administered the exam in a reassuring manner.

The first portion, where you read text and answer questions, includes examples such as schedules for public places like museums. You are required to write a couple of messages and while online instructions say you can’t go over the word count or it will be disqualified, in practice it seemed a little less rigid. However, I obsessed (of course) and counted my words several times. This part of the exam takes one hour and fifteen minutes and is graded at 45% of the total. I finished early and sat quietly until time was called.

The oral comprehension portion takes 30 minutes and counts for 30% of the total grade. All examinees should practice this carefully. Use scratch paper to list the answers and use the time allotted wisely to answer the multiple choice responses. Don’t jump the gun assuming you understand—in my practice beforehand I learned I had a tendency to do that.

Some of the audio recordings are tricky. And gee whiz, do they all have to have those heavy, guttural European accents and swallow word endings, just like real life here in Portugal? I’m often reminded of the Mexican telenovela (soap opera) industry, where they teach the actors neutral Spanish so they can market their series everywhere in the Spanish-speaking world. The Portuguese consider their version of the language to be the correct one and the rest of us must adapt. The President of Portugal has to be subtitled when he is interviewed on TV in Brazil.

After these first two phases are complete, candidates are notified of the time of their oral production and interaction test, where you are paired up with another candidate for 15 minutes. This counts for 25% of the exam. Exam slots are all afternoon, so I was thrilled when I was given a time just after lunch. My exam partner was a lovely gentleman from Northern India who had clearly prepared in order to do his best, though his Portuguese was limited.

There are three papers face down on the table as you sit in your assigned places. The first examinee is instructed to turn over their page and talk about what they see. My partner went first, and his was a photo illustration of a man and woman in a typical day-to-day situation and he had to discuss it. He did fine, with some friendly questioning by the examiner. Mine came next, and it was a series of illustrations like cartoon panels, which I turned into a graphic novel (hey, I’m a fiction writer!) and threw in some feminist commentary, causing the examiner (a woman) to suppress a glimmer of laughter. The third paper was for my partner and I to discuss together, providing a photo illustration of an activity we were to pretend to undertake together. I made it my mission to help him do well by speaking clearly and at a measured pace and trying not to use obscure words.

Oral exam partner and I left the room together and chatted as we went downstairs and left the building. He said, “Excuse me, would you mind if I asked you a question?” I said no, go ahead. “You’re an American, why do you need to take this exam? Why would you want to live here permanently?” I smiled and said, “Have you seen our president?” He laughed and said, oh, of course. He told me he had relatives in the northeastern US, but they have green cards. I urged him to tell them to carry their ID and residency cards with them everywhere, just in case the administration started rounding up people who were legal. This was on February first.

We were told our general results would be available on March 24^th, and of course I checked that very day. I received a grade of muito bom, very good, and I got a little huffy thinking it should be excellent, until I checked the scoring categories and very good is the highest, corresponding to 85-100%. A score of 55% or higher is required for passage, and I think that is doable for a person who has taken the course offered and prepared diligently.

Here are some suggestions based on my experience learning languages over the years. Obviously, try to find people you can talk with. And use the language in day-to-day interactions as much as possible. This can be difficult because so many people in many areas of the country speak English and will revert to this to be helpful to you. Learn phrases such as “I’m trying to learn, may I try to speak?” and blunder ahead. People take one look at me and speak English, but I just keep speaking Portuguese.

The television is your friend. Watch the news every night, don’t worry about understanding everything. It will begin to osmose, and you have visual cues! Watch telenovela series and turn off the English subtitles. I recommend Glória on Netflix; I love the midcentury sets and clothing and the Alentejo scenery, plus espionage, it’s so good. Another of my favorites is Equador, the longest and most elaborate Portuguese series ever produced, which is available in Portugal on Max. Just make sure you’re watching Portuguese series, not Brazilian ones.

So, I’m happy with my exam result. Won’t it be nice to have the certificate in my hands when they mail it to me, or send it by email attachment? Ah, dear reader, remember the thing about bureaucratic obstacles? Here’s the punch line: I have to go back to Lisbon to pick up the certificate at the Faculdade das Letras, during business hours. Time for another trip. This time I think I’ll go shopping at El Corte Inglés and to see the Monet/Klimt experience. I have to go to Lisbon, after all!