A2 Key for Schools: What Parents Should Know
A2 Key for Schools (KET) is often the first "teenage" Cambridge exam. What the exam has, what level it is, and how children aged 9 to 12 can get ready.
What is A2 Key for Schools?
A2 Key for Schools (once called KET for Schools) is a Cambridge English exam at level A2 of the CEFR. It has the same level as the adult A2 Key, but the topics are chosen for school-age learners. It shows that a learner can use English in simple everyday situations: understand notices and short messages, write a short email, and talk about themselves and their opinions.
What is in the exam?
There are three papers:
- Reading and Writing (about 1 hour): short notices and messages, longer texts, a short email and a short story from three pictures.
- Listening (about 35 minutes): short conversations, notes to complete and longer talks.
- Speaking (about 8 to 10 minutes): taken with another candidate. First the examiner asks each child about themselves; then the two children talk together about pictures, give their opinions and say why.
Results are shown on the Cambridge English Scale. A strong result can show B1 level, and learners who are not quite at A2 can still receive an A1 certificate.
Is my child ready?
A child who is comfortable with A2 Flyers, reads short texts happily and can say what they like and why is usually ready to start working at A2 Key level. The biggest step up from Flyers is in reading and writing longer texts, and in giving reasons ("I prefer swimming because…").
How Little Fluent prepares children for A2 Key
Our A2 Key level has 111 lessons for children aged 9 to 12, built strictly from the official A2 Key vocabulary list. Each unit has four 25-minute lessons:
- New words: meeting, matching and spelling the unit's words, and reading definitions.
- Grammar in the picture: the unit's sentence pattern, used to find, place and compare things in a picture.
- Read and write: a story, notices like the ones in Reading Part 1, a short email, and telling a story from three pictures.
- Listen and speak: asking for and giving information, short dialogues, talking about yourself, and a "Let's talk" discussion with opinions and reasons, like Speaking Part 2.
Every third unit has a review lesson, and the level ends with a speaking check modelled on the A2 Key for Schools speaking test. Little Fluent is independent and not part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment.