The historical development of the Ethiopian SchoolrnLeaving Certificate Examination (ESLCE) - the transitionrnfrom the General Certificate Education Examination (GCE)rnto the ESLCE and the creation of a new curriculum suitablernfor the Ethiopian context has been thoroughly discussed.rnSeveral attempts have been made to change the form of thernESLCE English examination from a subjective type to anrnobjective one and to s implify the difficult items. Argumentsrnfor and against the subjective and the objective tests byrnvarious concerned people have been briefed in the review ofrnliterature . But the various attempts have not changed thernsituation any better. As a policy , the purpose of the ESLCErnhas been stated that the examination, at present, serves asrna hi gh school completion as well as college entrance examination.rnNo substantial inquiry has been made regarding therndual nature of the examination . Due to its dual purpose,rnthe writer of this thesis has attempted to make a surveyrnstudy of the effectiveness of the ESLC English examinationrnas a pro f iciency t es t , and if necessary to propose anrnalternative approach. Discussions are opened on the theoriesrnand princi ples of tests.rnOut of 758 freshmen students enrolled for the 1981-2rnsecond semes ter, 350 students have been selected for thernstudy. Data have been collected for the 1980 ESLCE and thern1981 F _'eshmen English r esults by using a table of randomrnsampling. Using the model of linear correlation coefficientrnattempts have been made to find out whether the 1980 ESLCrnEnglish results and the 1981 Freshmen English results of thernSame students correlate or not. Findings show that thernrelation between the two examinations is very low. Thosernstudents who have obtained good gr ades in the ESLC Englishrnexamination do not seem to show good English l anguage performancernat the University. Findings, therefore, prove thatrnthe ESLC English examination is ineffective in predictingrnthe English language performance of twelve grade leaversrnwhen they join the University. Conclusions are arrived,rnbased on the results, that the ESLC English examination isrnineffective as a proficiency test on the grounds thatrn(a) it cannot serve as a criterion for admission to thernUniversity. (b) it cannot be a measure for predictin~rnstudents ' language performance at the University level.rnTo avoid such ineffectivensss, the writer recommends as arnpossible alternative approach that the Ministry of Educationrnand the Univer sity should set two s eparate examinations - thernEthiopian School Leaving Certificate Examination (ESLCE)rnand COllege Entrance Examination (GCE) respectively, specifyingrnthe forms, contents and purposes of the two examinations.rnThe writ er makes it clear that the conclusion is not finalrnand perfect and sugges t s tha t further r esearch andrnevaluation on other variables (syllabus, materials,rnquality of teachers , methodology etc) are urgentlyrnneeded before moves ar e taken .