Around 62 from more than 500 participants from the Philippines are qualified to move on to the next round in the 2018 HIPPO 6th International English Language Competition better known as “English Without Borders” conducted on Saturday, February 24, 2018.

The qualifiers who made it to the top 10% from the Philippines are invited to the semi-final round which will be held at MTG centers nationwide on Saturday, March 17, 2018. Contest will start at 1:00 pm until 2:30pm.

All semi-finalists in Hippo levels I, II, and IV obtained perfect scores while most qualifiers in Hippo levels III and V achieved a point below the full mark.

The exam level for the semi-final round will be one CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) level higher than the one in the preliminary round. The tests for the semi-final round of the competition will consist of: a reading test, a writing test, and an essay. There is only one correct answer to every question. There are no negative marks. The ranking is based on the average number of marks achieved on both the reading and the writing test.

The writing test will consist of a free-writing task (100 – 200 words depending on the category) and 30 questions. The essay will be assessed only in case two or more candidates have the scores on both the reading and the writing test.

The final round of the competition will be held in Lido di Jesolo, Italy, on May 12 – 13, 2018 and the participants will most likely come from these 27 countries: Albania, Angola, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Latvia, Macedonia, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Below are the names of the semi-finalists. You can visit the HIPPO website for the result:  http://www.hippo-competition.org/eng/results.html