How Many Hours Does It Take to Go Up One CEFR Level?
Hiroki Obara · DeveloperAlphaGeorgeHow-To
Cambridge English’s help pages give the approximate number of hours a complete beginner needs to reach each CEFR level (Guided learning hours):
| CEFR | Exam | Total hours from beginner |
|---|---|---|
| A2 | A2 Key | about 180 to 200 |
| B1 | B1 Preliminary | about 350 to 400 |
| B2 | B2 First | about 500 to 600 |
| C1 | C1 Advanced | about 700 to 800 |
| C2 | C2 Proficiency | about 1,000 to 1,200 |
I included this table in Which Cambridge English Exam Should You Take? In this post I read the same numbers a different way, as the time it takes to go up one level, and show how to use them to plan for an exam.
Hours to go up one level
The figures are totals from zero. The time from one level to the next is the difference between neighbouring figures. Taking the middle of each range, the result is:
| Step | Approximate difference |
|---|---|
| A2 to B1 | about 190 hours |
| B1 to B2 | about 180 hours |
| B2 to C1 | about 200 hours |
| C1 to C2 | about 350 hours |
Up to B2, each step is a little under 200 hours. C1 takes slightly more, and C2 jumps. You sometimes see “about 200 hours per level.” That holds up to C1, but C2 is different.
What “guided” means
The page is titled “Guided learning hours,” and in British qualifications “guided” has a set meaning. In the criteria of Ofqual, the regulator of qualifications in England, Guided Learning is learning done under the immediate guidance or supervision of a lecturer, tutor or similar. Study a learner does as directed but without that supervision, such as homework and preparation, is counted separately (Ofqual criteria).
One way to read Cambridge’s figures is in a similar sense: as hours of teaching, not including the self-study around them. The same page also says the hours needed vary a great deal with factors such as previous language learning, the intensity of study, age and the amount of study outside class.
Why real learners differ from the guide
Real learners’ hours can be far from these figures. Here are three reasons.
Different starting points. If you studied English at school, you are not starting from zero. Use only the difference between your current level and your target.
Different hours. An hour of conversation with a teacher and an hour of looking at a word list are not the same hour. Self-study can be denser than a class when you are focused, and much thinner when you are not.
Uneven skills. Many learners read at B2 but write and speak at B1. Cambridge exams combine the four skills into one score, so the weakest skill decides how long the whole takes.
So the table works not as a promise that a number of hours will get you up a level, but as a lower bound: a plan much shorter than this is unrealistic.
Working back from your daily study time
Say you are solidly at B1 and want to take B2 First. The difference is about 180 hours.
| Study per day | Days needed | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 30 minutes | 360 | 12 months |
| 1 hour | 180 | 6 months |
| 2 hours | 90 | 3 months |
If you can’t study the same amount every day, a weekly total is more realistic. Thirty minutes on five weekdays plus an hour and a half on each weekend day is five and a half hours a week. At that pace, 180 hours takes about 33 weeks, a little under eight months.
The steps:
- Decide your current level and your target. Check your current level with the official level test or a diagnostic test.
- Take the difference between the two levels from the table.
- Divide by the hours you can reliably study each week to get the number of weeks.
- Add 10 to 20 percent. There will always be weeks when you are ill or busy.
- Choose an exam date after that.
If your exam date is already fixed and the numbers don’t add up, you either study more each day or take the exam one level down. Cambridge exams also report the levels above and below the target, which I explain in What Is the Cambridge English Scale?
Counting short study sessions
What about five or ten minutes on the train or in a queue? One view is that those count, with two conditions.
The first is to use them for practice that suits short sessions: vocabulary review, short listening, a few grammar questions. Writing an essay or reading a long text to the end needs a block of time.
The second is not to fill your plan with short sessions alone. Ten minutes a day, every day, adds up to about 60 hours in a year. Keeping that up means a lot, but reaching 180 hours needs longer sessions as well. Short sessions can be seen as time to keep what you learned in the longer ones from fading.
Why higher levels take longer
There are possible reasons why the hours grow so much at C2.
The words you need are met less often. A2 and B1 words appear again and again in any English text. Higher-level words appear less often, so you get fewer chances to learn a word by meeting it many times.
The demand changes from understanding to choosing. At higher levels, getting the meaning across is not enough; you are expected to choose the expression that fits the situation. Telling similar expressions apart takes a lot of exposure.
Progress becomes harder to see. At first, what you can do grows visibly. At higher levels there are stretches where 100 hours of study make no difference you can notice yourself. Preparing for C1 is covered in How to Prepare for C1 Advanced (CAE).
Tracking your study and progress in AlphaGeorge
AlphaGeorge, an app I make for iPhone and iPad, is for preparing for the Cambridge exams. It has a course of six levels from A1 to C2 with 66 units in total, and the levels from A2 to C2 match A2 Key through C2 Proficiency. The app’s interface and explanations are in English and Japanese.
For step 1, finding your current level, there is a Diagnostic Test of about five minutes. It gives your level on the CEFR, and you start the course there. You can retake it at any time.
Each level has a Mid-Course Test and an End-Course Test. When you finish one, the report shows an estimated level and score, and your standing at each CEFR level, marked Strong, Progressing or Below. After a few dozen hours of study, these give you a checkpoint to see whether your plan is on track.
On the home screen, you can stamp the calendar on days you study. The daily Warm-up of five questions is a short practice that suits a train ride, and reminder notifications can be set for each day of the week.
AlphaGeorge is free to start, with ads and a limit of hearts. AlphaGeorge Premium, a monthly or yearly subscription, removes ads, makes hearts unlimited and lets you replay finished lessons. Keeping up daily practice is in AlphaGeorge Tips, and Getting Started with AlphaGeorge walks through the first session.
