Teachers pointed to limited practice, exam format and study materials — though the exam board said the pass rate was typical.

The Council of Europe's official Common European Framework (CEF) global scale described C1 as "Effective Operational Proficiency" or "Advanced." It is the second highest on the CEF scale after C2.

In the third quarter of this year, 358 people across Estonia took the C1-level Estonian language exam, with 105 achieving the required result. Of 67 candidates in Narva, which is largely Russian-speaking, just 10 passed the C1 exam.

However, Maiki Udam, head of the Department of Education Quality at the Education and Youth Board (Harno), emphasized that a pass rate of around 30 percent had been typical for the C1 exam down the years. C1 pass rates could not be compared with lower levels, she added: the higher the required level, the more difficult the exam and so the smaller the proportion who passed.

According to Narva College lecturer Inguna Joandi, transitioning from B2 (the next level down from C1, or upper intermediate) to C1 did not simply mean learning more grammar or new words. What changed was the range of topics a person had to be able to discuss, and the depth of those discussions.

"C1 requires a very broad outlook. A person must be familiar with what is happening in Estonia, what the different points of view are and how events in the world are interpreted. They must be able to express their thoughts in Estonian," Joandi explained.

Darja Berestova, head of the B-Lingua language school in Narva, described the transition from B2 to C1 as a major leap. For a start, much depended on the individual's B2 result: someone who scraped a pass with 61 percent was unlikely to pass C1 come the following spring; a result over 80 percent offered considerably brighter prospects, however. Berestova estimated that preparing properly for C1 might require 200–250 contact hours.

In Narva, learners sometimes have to create their own language environment

One difficulty both teachers highlighted was the limited opportunity to use Estonian outside lessons, for instance at home. Berestova said everyday practice might not be sufficient to reach C1, and in Narva people often had to actively seek out chances to communicate in Estonian. She compared the situation with Tartu and Viljandi, where she said there were more opportunities.

Joandi, however, believed the lack of a language environment could not be used as an excuse not to use the language. If suitable opportunities were scarce, learners should seek them out themselves, including via the broadcast media.

"In Narva, people often say that there is no Estonian-language environment here. So in that case a person has to create one for themselves. There is television and radio. In every institution, you can find someone who speaks Estonian. You simply have to cross that barrier and start speaking Estonian with them," Joandi advised. Newspaper articles, radio, lectures and other materials also helped, she said.

Memorized texts not enough to pass the exam

According to the teachers, another obstacle might be that candidates prepared too narrowly, learning typical expressions and texts but being unable to adapt them to different situations. Joandi said this could happen particularly if a person lacked the ability to produce a coherent text even in their native tongue.

"These texts may be structurally correct, but the exam assesses how well a person can cope independently in a specific situation. If they speak only in memorized phrases and cannot freely explain their thoughts, that is a problem," Joandi continued. She added she considered the first component of the oral exam, a presentation on an assigned topic, among the most difficult — some candidates talked about themselves or their work, when the task required public speaking.

Berestova also said candidates struggled with the need to use language flexibly. Beyond grammar and vocabulary, they required phraseology and functions, colloquial expressions and an awareness of linguistic nuance.

Udam meanwhile said writing and speaking were often the most difficult parts of the exam, because candidates had to produce their own texts rather than rely on input material provided.

Berestova said there were too few practical sample tasks in Harno's public online environment, meaning teachers often had to create exam-format tasks themselves. She would have liked at least eight to 10 recent past papers to be made publicly available, so learners could practice the structure and timing as well as individual skills.

Joandi agreed more materials could have been available, but pointed out that study material generally was plentiful. Harno's Udam explained that sample materials were meant to introduce task types and difficulty, not replicate the exam, and that older samples did not lose value because Estonian did not change so quickly.

From 2027, candidates would have to pay for their third and subsequent exam attempts. Udam said this could reduce the number of people taking the exam every three months without significant improvement.

One student learned Estonian mostly on her own, passed C1 on the second attempt

For all the structural explanations, individual cases showed what was possible, including aspects of self-learning and with a clear motivating reason. The experience of Narva College student Anastasiia Vorobiova demonstrated that attaining C1 did not necessarily require years at an Estonian-language school. She moved to Estonia from Ukraine around four years ago, began learning Estonian after arriving, and had studied it for just over three years. A qualified teacher, she realized she needed a C1 certificate to be able to work in Estonia.

After a B1 course and exam, she pressed on, but largely independently — using for instance the Videoõps YouTube channel, textbooks and grammar materials, reading books from the simpler to more complex as time went on, and borrowing Estonian translations of English-language books from Narva Library.

Despite all this Anastasiia did not pass C1 on her first outing. Grammar alone was not enough at C1, she confirmed: a candidate had to be able to express their thoughts freely and speak on a wide range of topics. She prepared for the second attempt at Narva College, and benefited from the language buddy program thanks to which she found an Estonian conversation partner. These two spoke Estonian with each other once a week, bringing her more practice and developing her grammar. Most of Anastasiia's vocabulary was derived independently, however, through literature, film and video clips. She also said she found the listening task hardest — following a longer lecture, concentrating, taking notes and recapping it afterwards.

Anastasiia said she did not regard her certificate as a sign that her language learning was over. "Don't learn a language just for the exam. It's important to understand why you need it and to have an interest in the language," was her advice to other learners.

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