FAQs

• Does the TOLES exam certificate ‘expire’ after a certain period of time?

  No. Your TOLES certificate is valid for life.

• How can I book a date to take the TOLES Exam?

  TOLES Exam is only held 5 times a year and the schedule is fixed. If you want to take the exam, contact us. The test dates for the official exam test in 2017 are: January 26, 2017; March 23, 2017; June 22, 2017; August 24, 2017; November 23, 2017 (Closing date for applications: 28 working days in advance of exam date)

• Who recognizes TOLES?

  The TOLES certificate is evidence of your level of legal English. Most of the world’s leading law firms recognize the value of the TOLES exams as part of your CV and several leading law firms use TOLES in their recruiting and assessment processes.

  Law firms and organizations that have already entered candidates for the TOLES exams include:

  • The Law Society of England and Wales

  • Linklaters Oppenhoff and Radler

  • Allen and Overy LLP

  • Baker and McKenzie

  • Price waterhouse Coopers

  • KPMG

  • Sony Ericsson

  • Daimler Chrysler

  • European Court of Justice

  • European Central Bank

  • Deutsche Bundesbank

  • Qatar Steel Company

  • Qatar Petrochemical Corporation

  • DuPont

  • Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

  • Siemens

• Why is it important for lawyers and law students to take the TOLES examinations, especially the Legal English skills?

  Learning Legal English through specialized book is a good thing but it’s not enough for Legal English skills. Why not? All the practicing lawyers will recognize this, and for future graduates, you should know when you become a lawyer, 80% of your time will be filled by reading and analyzing contracts or drafting them. So most of your time spent actually writing, not speaking.

• What level of general English do I need to take the TOLES exams?

  The exam series is designed to allow every student of Legal English to make a start at gaining a certificate. The TOLES Foundation is a huge support towards learning legal vocabulary and students can do well in the exam even if they are just at the stage of learning basic grammar structures. The TOLES Higher requires at least an intermediate level of general English and the TOLES Advanced requires high intermediate to advanced level of general English.

• Must I complete Foundation level before progressing?

  There is no obligation for you to progress through all 3 levels of the exam. However, we strongly recommend that they do so. Students who are familiar with the many fluency-based English tests on the market may dismiss Foundation as ‘too easy’ upon first sight and not realize that this is an accuracy-based exam. Learners who already have very advanced certificates from other exams and courses have been very surprised by the demands of TOLES Foundation once they try a range of testing material. However, all of them are designed to be beneficial in their own right and if teacher and student agree on a course of training followed by a particular exam then that is fine with us.

• Why is there no speaking skills to the TOLES exams?

  There are several reasons for this. We encourage a great deal of speaking in the classroom and the fact that we have no Teacher’s Book encourages more genuine debate and interaction in class. Students should constantly talk about the law and language under scrutiny and should constantly be comparing legal concepts and systems to their own. However, there is no speaking skills in the final exams. This is because of advice from employers, whose overwhelming priority is strong and accurate writing skills. They tell us that they can test English speaking skills at interview and, very importantly, that a lawyer can make mistakes when speaking which would be unforgivable mistakes during the process of legal drafting.