PEIC YL Breakthrough study guide
PEIC YL Breakthrough · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
PEIC YL Breakthrough is an early-level English certificate from Pearson designed for young learners, typically children in their first years of English study. It sits at the entry stage of the Pearson English International Certificate Young Learners suite, so it suits a child who can understand and produce simple words and short phrases about familiar topics: family, school, food, animals, colours, numbers and everyday routines. The exam is computer-based and built around child-friendly illustrated tasks, so children respond to pictures and short prompts rather than dense text. It assesses four skills separately - Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking - each weighted equally at 25%, which means a child who is strong orally but shy with writing still earns credit for what they can do. The PEIC YL Breakthrough study guide has 4 sections and about 1,520 words.
01Listening - Breakthrough (A1)
Breakthrough sits at A1 on the CEFR and is taken by young learners, typically aged nine to twelve. The listening paper uses short, slow, clearly articulated dialogues and monologues about concrete, familiar topics: family, pets, school, food, toys, colours, numbers, times, prices and places.
338 words, about 2 min02Reading - Breakthrough (A1)
The reading paper at this level works with short real-world texts: signs, notices, labels, menus, timetables, postcards, simple emails and three-to-five-sentence descriptions. Topics stay concrete - a school trip, a birthday party, a pet, a shop.
391 words, about 2 min03Writing - Breakthrough (A1)
Writing at Breakthrough is short and controlled. Expect to copy or complete words, finish sentences with a given structure, and write a short message - a note, postcard or email of roughly 20–30 words - that covers two or three content points given in the prompt.
408 words, about 2 min04Speaking - Breakthrough (A1)
Speaking is a short one-to-one interview with an examiner, usually five to seven minutes. It moves through personal questions (name, age, family, school, likes), a picture task where you say what you can see, a find-the-differences or information-exchange task, and a few questions on a familiar topic.
383 words, about 2 min