How we got here: launching Language Level Check

There’s no shortage of language tests on the internet. Official ones take a week to schedule, cost real money, and tell you a level you’ll only doubt later. Short quizzes scattered across language-learning blogs fit on a single page and feel about as rigorous as a magazine personality quiz. We wanted something in between. Short enough that you’d actually take it. Structured enough that the result meant something the next morning.

That’s what we’ve been working on for the last few months, and today we’re turning it loose. Language Level Check is an iOS app that gives you an estimated CEFR level (or JLPT, HSK, or TOPIK, depending on the language) after about ten minutes of answering 40 questions.

What we wanted to fix

Three things bother us about most online level tests.

First, they’re not calibrated. A question is just a question. There’s no concept of how hard it is or how diagnostic it is at a given level. You get a number out, but the number is more vibe than measurement.

Second, they only test one thing. Usually vocabulary, sometimes grammar, almost never reading or listening. Real proficiency is a profile across skills.

Third, they hand you a number and leave. No “here’s what that level means, here’s what to study next.”

Our approach weights each item by the CEFR level it was authored for (a correct B2 answer counts for more than a correct A1 answer), scores using classical test theory with cut-score boundaries, and produces a result that includes per-skill subscores and concrete next steps.

It’s not as rigorous as a proctored Cambridge exam. We’re not pretending otherwise. It’s the test you take before you decide whether to pay for one of those, or before you tell a tutor where to start.

What’s in the box on day one

• 37 languages, with more on the way. Every test is hand-authored against a published proficiency framework. CEFR for most. JLPT for Japanese, HSK for Mandarin, TOPIK for Korean.
• Four question types: fill-in-the-blank multiple choice, reading comprehension, listening (with transcripts as a fallback), and short constrained production (typed answers and word-tile reordering).
• A weighted scoring engine that produces a CEFR estimate, a per-skill breakdown, and a fuzzy-boundary indicator when your score sits near the edge between two levels.
• A Report Issue button on every question, because the content’s going to need real-world tuning. The fastest way to find a bad distractor is to ask the person who just took the test.
• No account required. Your first test is free. A one-time $1.99 unlocks all 46 languages forever. We’re a small team. The product needs to pay for itself without chasing subscription renewals.

What we’re not doing

We’re not building a learning app. We’re not going to teach you Spanish. There are very good apps for that. We’re the diagnostic step before and during. The thing you take when you want to know where you are and what to work on next.

We’ll write here regularly as we add languages, refine the scoring, and learn from real-world test sessions. Thanks for reading. If you try the app, we’d love to hear what we got wrong.