8 countries, one contest,
the same papers.

When a student sits The Big Challenge, they answer exactly the same questions as students in Germany, Spain, Poland or Brazil, marked according to the same scoring and distinguished according to the same ranking. This shared test changes everything.

The contest is no longer a local assessment: it’s a European event. A student who succeeds doesn’t compare themselves with the other students in their class, but with hundreds of thousands of English learners across Europe. The comparison becomes motivating rather than stigmatising: it places the student in a community rather than in a school ranking.

The identical format everywhere is a requirement: each country uses the same questions, translated for the instructions but identical in content. The scoring is harmonised and the diplomas are recognised everywhere in the network. No other English contest works this way at this scale.

It’s also a cultural exchange: the chosen illustrations evoke different English-speaking countries, the references go beyond any one nation, and students discover that English is not a school subject but an international language shared by their peers across Europe.