3.3 Unified State Examination in a Foreign language In 2008, the experiment on the introduction of the unified state exam (USE) ended, and since 2009, the USE has become mandatory for all graduates and those wishing to enter universities. The purpose of this exam is to determine the level of students ' learning in the subject set by the standard for foreign languages (the criterion aspect), and to differentiate them by the level of preparation for selection for admission to higher educational institutions (the normative aspect). In the Russian Federation, only the Federal Institute of Pedagogical Measurements (FIPI) is engaged in creating variants of control measuring materials (CMM) for the Unified State Exam in 13 general education subjects. The annual CMM development procedure consists of several stages, including multiple external examinations of individual test tasks and entire variants. All test tasks of the Unified State Exam are stored in the Federal Bank of Exam Materials (FBEM). To replenish the bank with test tasks, a contest "Control measuring materials and test tasks for the unified state exam"is organized annually. Replenishment of the bank with the necessary test materials is also carried out on the basis of a target order. Currently, there are more than 100,000 tasks in the FBEM.
According to the decision of the Board of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, every year after the examination, FIPI opens several options for all general education subjects.
The specifics of the subject "Foreign language", namely its focus on interpersonal and intercultural interaction/ communication, its multi-level and multi-purpose nature, including various types of speech activity: speaking, listening( listening), reading and writing; language means (phonetic, lexical, grammatical) and socio-cultural knowledge and skills, as well as the integrative content of foreign language communication, affecting various areas of communication (family and household, educational and labor, socio-cultural, etc.) determines the choice of control objects of different levels of complexity when conducting the final certification of graduates.
Thus, the main objects of control are the above-mentioned types of speech activity (speech competence), language knowledge and skills (language competence), socio - cultural knowledge and skills (socio-cultural competence), which constitute the integrative goal of training-communicative competence.
The examination paper in a foreign language consists of two parts: written and oral, which differ in the purpose, content, and types of tasks. Students ' speech competence in listening, reading and writing, as well as language competence (lexical and grammatical skills) are tested in writing.
Speaking skills (in dialogical and monological form) are tested in the process of direct oral communication between the graduate and the examiner. Socio-cultural knowledge, skills and abilities are tested indirectly through the content of texts for listening and reading, as well as through the topics of oral and written speech. At the same time, it is important that students ' ability to comply with the norms of oral and written speech adopted in the country of the language being studied.
In order to differentiate graduates by the level of foreign language proficiency and for selection to universities, in addition to the basic level tasks, both parts of the examination work include tasks of increased and high level of complexity in accordance with the State Educational Standard (basic and profile levels). The basic, advanced and high levels of complexity of the Unified State Exam tasks correspond to the levels of foreign language proficiency defined in the documents of the Council of Europe (Common European competences of language proficiency: Study, teaching, assessment. MSLU, 2003) as follows:
Baseline-A2
Increased level-B1
High level-In 2
The level of difficulty of tasks is determined by the level of complexity of the language material and the skills being tested, as well as the type of task.
The examination paper in a foreign language consists of four sections, including 46 tasks. After completing the tasks, you must transfer the answers to the answer forms. When completing tasks from the "Letter" section, draft notes are made directly on the task sheet (they are not evaluated), and only the full answer is entered in the answer form.
The net time of the exam per person (excluding waiting time and briefing) is 180 minutes.