The article gives a detailed account of the specificity of the unified state exam (USE) in a foreign language. The authors claim that the peculiarity of USE lies in the fact that all tasks simultaneously check the level of acquisition of certain types of speaking skills and the vocabulary of the examinee. It is claimed that for the successful implementation of USE tasks it is necessary to have a high level of formation of communicative skills and abilities and a rich vocabulary which requires serious and systematic training.

The article deals with the features of the system of monitoring the quality of students’ knowledge in a foreign language. Modern monitoring is considered as a tool for finding the degree of solving the tasks set by the teacher and includes constant collection and interpretation of information about the course of training. Aimed at the analysis of difficulties that students have, monitoring at higher school involves the development of such documents as educational programs with a schedule of testing points, evaluation criteria, fund of evaluation tools.