1.1 Exam Overview & CEFR A2 Standard

1.1 Exam Overview & CEFR A2 Standard

Quick Answer: A2 Flyers (Young Learners English Flyers) is the third and highest Cambridge English Qualification for young learners. It is targeted at CEFR A2, typically for children aged about 9–12. Three papers last about 1 hour 15 minutes in total: Listening (about 25 minutes, 5 parts, 25 questions), Reading and Writing (40 minutes, 7 parts, 44 questions) and a face-to-face Speaking test (7–9 minutes, 4 parts). There is no pass or fail.

Where Flyers sits on the Cambridge pathway

Cambridge English Qualifications for young learners are a three-step bridge from beginner to basic user:

1. Pre A1 Starters — first contact with an international exam; colourful, short and heavily picture-supported.
2. A1 Movers — targeted at Pre A1 and A1, with a strong performance indicating A1.
3. A2 Flyers — targeted at A1 and A2, with a strong performance indicating A2.

That last sentence, from the Handbook for Teachers 2024, is the most important placement fact in this chapter. Flyers is not an exam that every finisher automatically “is A2 in every skill”. A child can finish with four or five shields in Reading and Writing and three in Listening, and the back of the certificate will show that the skills are not all sitting at the same CEFR point. The test samples A1–A2 language; strong performance is what indicates the A2 standard. Cambridge does not publish a shield-by-shield CEFR conversion table, so do not quote one (section 1.2).

After Flyers, the next school-aged qualifications are A2 Key for Schools and then B1 Preliminary for Schools. Flyers is roughly equivalent in difficulty to A2 Key for Schools, but the words, pictures and situations stay inside a child’s world: clubs, family, school trips, animals, hobbies, weather. Key for Schools re-uses the A2 band with older-teen topics and a different report: it has three papers (Reading and Writing together, Listening, and a paired Speaking test) and it reports a graded Cambridge English Scale score with a CEFR level, not shields. Do not treat the two certificates as interchangeable, and do not skip Flyers “because Key is the same level” if the child still needs picture support, a closed wordlist and a no-pass/fail report.

What CEFR A2 actually looks like for a child

On the Cambridge English Scale, A2 Can Do statements sit at 120–139. A1 sits at 100–119. Pre A1 is below 100. Cambridge publishes Young Learners Can Do statements that translate those bands into child language. At A2 a learner can typically:

Listening and Speaking

• understand instructions given in more than one sentence
• understand simple spoken descriptions of objects, people and events
• understand simple conversations on everyday topics
• ask basic questions about everyday topics
• tell short, simple stories using pictures or own ideas
• give simple descriptions of objects, pictures and actions
• talk briefly about activities done in the past

Reading and Writing

• understand simple written descriptions of objects, people and events
• understand simple, short stories containing narrative tenses
• read and understand short texts, even if some words are unknown
• link phrases or sentences with connectors such as and, because and then
• write simple descriptions of objects, pictures and actions
• write a short, simple story using pictures or own ideas

These statements are a target-level portrait, not a mark scheme. A child who can already do most of them in class is in the right zone for Flyers. A child who still answers only in single words, cannot follow a two-sentence instruction, and cannot write a connected picture story is usually still in Movers territory.

Worked example: two Year 6 classmates

Maya, 11, finished A1 Movers last year with four or five shields in every skill. She now uses past simple and past continuous in stories (“The children were walking to the castle when Paul fell”), can spell because, friend and beautiful reliably, and can ask “How many people work there?” without a script. Flyers is the right next exam: the papers will stretch her into present perfect, be going to, might/may, tag questions and a 20-word-plus picture story, without jumping to teenage Key topics.

Leo, 10, sat Starters six months ago and can name colours and animals but still confuses he/she, cannot write more than four or five words, and freezes when the recording is a conversation rather than a single instruction. Entering Leo for Flyers because “the class is doing Flyers this term” wastes a test fee and a Saturday. Movers is the honest next step; Flyers comes when A1 is stable.

The three papers at a glance

The 2024 Handbook totals the papers at approximately 1 hour 14 minutes. Cambridge’s public exam page rounds the same test to approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. Use either figure; they describe one exam, not two versions.

Compare that with the rest of the Young Learners suite so the “step up” is concrete:

The Listening paper does not get longer from Movers to Flyers (still about 25 minutes and 25 questions). The jump is in Reading and Writing (30 → 40 minutes; 35 → 44 questions; a real story-writing task) and in Speaking (5–7 → 7–9 minutes; six differences; a five-picture story).

Listening (Paper 1) — what the 25 minutes contain

Each part begins with one or two examples. Children hear each recording twice. Test writers stay inside the published wordlists and grammar lists, and the recordings use a range of adults and children speaking clearly in standard British and American English.

1. Part 1 (5 questions, 5 marks): draw lines matching names to people in a big picture. Unisex names on the list — Alex, Kim, Pat, Sam — may be a boy or a girl.
2. Part 2 (5 questions, 5 marks): note-taking on a form or notepad; write a word or a number. Some misspellings are allowed for words that are not spelled out on the recording.
3. Part 3 (5 questions, 5 marks): match illustrated words or names to lettered pictures by writing a letter in a box. Speakers mention distractors; the first picture named is not always correct.
4. Part 4 (5 questions, 5 marks): five short dialogues, each a 3-option picture multiple choice. The answer may appear anywhere in the dialogue, not only at the end.
5. Part 5 (5 questions, 5 marks): colour objects and write two words on a big picture. Colours are black, blue, brown, green, grey, orange, pink, purple, red, yellow. Children must not colour anything they are not told to colour. Flyers has no drawing task.

Reading and Writing (Paper 2) — 44 questions, 48 marks

Correct spelling is required in every part. Part 7 is the only task that is not one-mark-per-question: it is one question worth 5 marks, which is why 44 questions add up to 48 marks.

1. Part 1 (10): 15 words and 10 definitions; copy the correct word.
2. Part 2 (5): complete a continuous dialogue by choosing responses A–H (two unused).
3. Part 3 (6): gapped narrative from a word box (nouns, adjectives, verbs) plus the best title from three options.
4. Part 4 (10): factual 3-option grammar/lexis cloze.
5. Part 5 (7): read a story; complete sentences with 1–4 words. The picture gives context, not answers.
6. Part 6 (5): open cloze (diary, letter or email); one word per gap; no word box.
7. Part 7 (1 question, 5 marks): write a short story from three pictures; more than 20 words. Quality over quantity. Past tenses or present continuous picture description are both acceptable.

Speaking (Paper 3) — 7–9 minutes, one examiner

An usher who speaks the child’s language (often a teacher) explains the format in the child’s first language, then takes the child in to meet the examiner. The standard format is one candidate and one examiner.

1. Part 1: name, surname and age; then identify six differences (Handbook 2024) between the examiner’s statements and the candidate’s picture. Differences relate to number, colour, position, appearance, activity, shape and relative size.
2. Part 2: answer and ask questions from cue cards, including question-word, yes/no and alternative questions (cheap or expensive?).
3. Part 3: a five-picture story. The examiner names the story, describes picture 1, and the candidate describes the other four. A few words per picture is enough; narrative skill is not required.
4. Part 4: personal questions on school, holidays, birthdays, family and hobbies. Tenses include present, past, present perfect and going to.

If a public format summary currently lists fewer differences or fewer pictures, teach the Handbook for Teachers 2024 specification. Later chapters drill each task; this chapter only locks the official counts.

Who the exam is for, and how long preparation usually takes

Cambridge exams have no age limits, but Flyers is designed for learners in primary and lower secondary education. Typical candidature is about 9–12. Younger or older children may sit it if their English, not their birthday, matches A2.

Teachers and preparation materials commonly cite around 250 hours of English lessons — often two to three years of learning English as a second language — as a planning benchmark for children reaching A2 Flyers. Cambridge does not publish a single official Guided Learning Hour requirement as a condition of sitting or of receiving a certificate. Treat 250 hours as a teacher-prep estimate: a child with 120 hours and shaky A1 should not be entered because a brochure mentioned 250, and a child with 180 hours who already performs at A2 in class should not be delayed because the hour-count is “not finished”.

Language variety and the closed wordlist

A guiding design principle is to close the gap between classroom learning and testing. Cambridge therefore publishes the full vocabulary list and grammar and structures list. Test writers keep strictly to those lists. Occasionally a text contains a word that is not on the list; those words are glossed and never tested.

British and American English terms both appear on the lists, and the thematic lists print both members of a pair (for example lift/elevator, autumn/fall, and grey (US gray) alongside gray (UK grey) on the colour list). Listening versions contain both British and American accents. Throughout the test, answers in either standard British English or standard American English are accepted. Input language is generally a standard British variety, with care taken to avoid terms that would confuse American-English learners.

Flyers-new grammar (on top of Starters and Movers) includes past continuous, present perfect, be going to, will, might, may, shall (suggestions), could, should, tag questions, adverbs such as yet, conjunctions such as so, zero conditionals, where clauses, before/after clauses, be/look/sound/feel/taste/smell like, make somebody/something + adjective, What time…?, What else/next?, See you soon/later, and be made of. Those structures are why Flyers, not Movers, is the A2 exam.

How the exam is delivered, and what it costs

The current A2 Flyers exam page and the 2024 Handbook describe a paper-based test with a separate face-to-face Speaking test. Entries must be made through an authorised Cambridge English exam centre. Cambridge lists more than 2,800 centres in over 130 countries. Some centres also offer digital Young Learners tests; children who take a digital exam may later see the customised avatar they created during the test printed on their certificate and Statement of Results. Confirm the mode with the local centre; do not assume every centre offers both.

Cost is set by the authorised centre, not by a single global Cambridge price list. Centres can give current local fees, dates and entry rules. There is no official worldwide Flyers fee to memorise for this exam.

Traps that waste a year of prep

• Treating Flyers as a school test the child can fail. Everyone who completes the test receives a Statement of Results and a certificate.
• Counting Reading and Writing as 44 marks. It is 44 questions and 48 marks because Part 7 carries 5 marks.
• Inventing a drawing task in Listening Part 5. Flyers candidates colour and write two words; they do not draw a missing object.
• Using a website summary that lists four Speaking differences or four story pictures. Handbook 2024 specifies six differences and a five-picture story.
• Confusing OpenExamPrep practice-bank size with the real exam. Official counts are 25 Listening questions and 44 Reading and Writing questions; those numbers describe Cambridge’s papers, not our question bank.
• Quoting a global fee or a mandatory 250 Guided Learning Hours as if Cambridge published a pass rule.

Lock this overview before later chapters drill each part. The rest of the guide is task training; this section is the map.