How to prepare for the Romanian A2 exam: skills, 12-week plan and common mistakes

What A2 actually means

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) describes six levels, from A1 to C2. A2 sits in the group of basic users. The Council of Europe describes an A2 speaker as someone who can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of immediate relevance, such as basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography and employment. An A2 speaker can communicate in simple and routine tasks that need a direct exchange of information on familiar matters, and can describe in simple terms their background, their immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.

In everyday terms: you are not expected to discuss politics or write an essay. You are expected to introduce yourself, ask for and give simple information, handle a shop or a doctor's appointment, understand a short announcement and write a short message or fill in a form. The exam checks that you can do those things in Romanian, slowly if necessary, but correctly enough to be understood.

The four skills

Language certificates at A2 normally test four skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking. The exact format, the number of tasks, the timing and the scoring depend on the institution that issues the certificate, so always get the current specification and sample papers from your exam centre. Do not rely on a friend's description of an exam they took years ago, or on a different centre.

• Listening: short dialogues, announcements and messages about everyday topics, for example a train announcement, a phone message from a clinic or a conversation between colleagues.
• Reading: short texts such as signs, notices, advertisements, timetables, simple emails and forms. You answer questions that check whether you found the key information.
• Writing: very short pieces, such as a message to a colleague, a note to a landlord, a short postcard or filling in a personal details form with a few sentences.
• Speaking: a short conversation with an examiner: introducing yourself, answering simple questions, describing a picture and handling a basic role-play in a familiar situation.

Find official sample papers first

The fastest way to reduce exam stress is to look at a real paper before you study. Two public sources are useful. The Romanian Language Institute publishes test materials for foreign learners at levels A1 and A2, with audio files for the listening part. The UBB Cluj and Romanian Cultural Institute consortium behind the RoExam site publishes model exams for each level, including recordings, and explains the components, task types and scoring. Use them to see what the questions look like and how fast the audio is.

Then ask the centre where you plan to sit the exam for three things: the current specification for A2, the date and time slots, and the fee. Fees are set by each centre, so they differ, and you should confirm the price in writing before you pay. Also confirm that the centre's certificate is accepted for your purpose, whether that is long-term residence or something else.

The twelve-week plan

Most working adults can manage thirty to forty-five minutes a day. Twelve weeks at that rate gives you roughly forty to sixty hours of focused practice, which is a realistic investment for a first certificate when you already know some Romanian. If you are starting from zero, allow longer, or start with a course and use this plan for the last three months.

• Weeks 1 to 3, foundations: the alphabet and the special letters ă, â, î, ș and ț; numbers, dates and times; greetings; present tense of a fi (sunt, ești, este, suntem, sunteți, sunt) and a avea (am, ai, are, avem, aveți, au). Say ten sentences about yourself out loud every day.
• Weeks 4 to 6, daily life: shopping, prices, food, transport, directions, housing. Practise short dialogues such as Cât costă? Aș vrea o pâine, vă rog. Unde este stația de autobuz? Start listening to slow Romanian audio every day, even if you only catch half.
• Weeks 7 to 9, work and health: describing your job, your schedule and your tasks; making an appointment; explaining a simple health problem. Write one short message a day: to your employer, to a landlord, to a friend.
• Weeks 10 to 11, exam skills: take full practice papers under time limits. Review every mistake and write the correct form in a notebook. Practise the speaking tasks with a recording or with the A2Ready examiner.
• Week 12, consolidation: repeat the weakest skill, rest the day before, and check the logistics of the exam day.

Speaking: the part most people underestimate

Reading and listening improve passively, because you meet Romanian every day on the street, at work and on your phone. Speaking does not, because it only improves if you actually speak, and many foreign workers use English, their own language or gestures at work. That is why the speaking section is often where people lose points even after months in the country.

The solution is deliberate speaking practice. Say your answers out loud, not in your head. Use full sentences, even short ones: Mă numesc Ana. Sunt din Nepal. Lucrez într-un restaurant din București. Record yourself and listen back. Practise with a person if you can, and when no person is available, practise with an AI examiner that answers at any hour, asks follow-up questions and does not mind when you repeat the same task ten times. This is what A2Ready was built for.

In the exam, speak slowly and clearly. If you do not understand a question, ask for it to be repeated. Examiners at A2 expect hesitation, and clear but simple language scores better than an ambitious sentence that falls apart halfway.

Listening and reading

For listening, use short, repeated exposure rather than long, passive sessions. Take a one-minute dialogue from an official sample paper, listen once without the text, answer the questions, listen again with the text and mark the words you missed. Repeat the same dialogue the next day. Shadowing, where you speak along with a recording, trains both your ear and your pronunciation.

For reading, concentrate on the document types you will meet in real life: bus timetables, supermarket offers, notices in the building, work schedules, messages from the landlord and forms. Underline numbers, dates, times and names first. At A2, most reading questions ask you to locate a specific piece of information, so a calm scan for key words beats trying to translate every word.

Writing and grammar

A2 writing is short and practical. Practise three templates until you can produce them quickly: a short message asking for something or giving information, a message arranging a time and place, and a few lines about yourself, your family and your work. Use simple sentences with correct basic forms rather than long ones with errors.

Romanian grammar has a few points that appear again and again in learners' mistakes. The definite article is attached to the end of the noun: carte becomes cartea, om becomes omul, casă becomes casa. Nouns have gender, which changes the articles and the adjectives. The present tense forms of a fi and a avea must be automatic. And the construction vreau să plus a verb is useful in many situations: Vreau să plătesc. Vreau să fac o programare. Learn these in chunks rather than as separate rules.

Common mistakes

These are the mistakes that cost people time and money.

• Starting too late and discovering that exam dates are full.
• Studying only vocabulary and skipping speaking practice.
• Using a centre whose certificate may not be accepted for your purpose, without asking first.
• Taking the exam without ever seeing a sample paper.
• Trying to sound advanced instead of being clear and correct.
• Forgetting the identity document or the payment receipt on the exam day.

Start with a baseline

You cannot plan well without knowing where you are. A2Ready's free three-minute speaking test gives you a readiness score and shows which areas need most work. Use it at the start, again after six weeks and once more in the last week before your exam. The practice dashboard then lets you work on speaking, listening, reading and writing in short daily sessions.

A2Ready is a practice tool and not an official exam, so it does not replace the certificate. It makes sure that when you sit the official test, nothing in it is a surprise.