Exams 101: Business exams, IELTS, TOEFL, Linguaskils

If you or your students need a certificate to add to a resume or because of job requirements, it can be a good idea to consider taking one of BEC exams. BEC, or Business English Certificate, comes in 3 levels: B 1 Business Preliminary, B2 Business Vantage and C1 Business Higher. These exams work the same way as Cambridge general English exams do: an examinee can achieve the level of the exam (grades C and B), a level higher (grade A) or a level lower. BEC exams consist of 4 parts: Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. All of the parts are business-oriented, although they do not require an examinee to have profound knowledge of business (or any area of it in particular). An examinee should be able to understand and discuss business processes that may occur at a workplace.

IELTS

IELTS is usually taken by people who want to study or work abroad, it can also be required if a person wants to emigrate to some countries (the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and so on). The exam determines an examinee’s level on the scale of A1 to C2. The score is estimated in Bands (0-9). IELTS certificate is valid for 2 years only, as opposed to Cambridge exams whose certificates do not expire. On the bright side, IELTS results are ready within 2 weeks.

There are 4 parts to the exam: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. All recordings in Listening section are played only once.

There are two variants of IELTS: General and Academic. If a person needs IELTS for studies, Academic is required, for emigration (and usually for work) General is enough. Nevertheless, Listening and Speaking are the same both for General and Academic IELTS. Reading and Writing differ in terms of topics.

IELTS Life skill

IELTS Life Skills is for people who need to prove their English speaking and listening skills at Levels A1, A2 or B1. It is only needed for people who are applying for a UK visa (only for specific types; it is not needed for a tourist visa). IELTS Life Skills is available at three levels:

IELTS Life Skills – A1 Speaking and Listening IELTS Life Skills – A2 Speaking and Listening (offered in the UK only) IELTS Life Skills – B1 Speaking and Listening.

TOEFL

TOEFL tests an examinee’s skills of reading, listening, speaking, and writing in a way that they are used in an academic environment. Many universities around the world require their applicants to take TOEFL in order to get a unified assessment of their English.

TOEFL is provided in paper-based and computer-based forms. The latter is the most common. One of the main features of the exam is its Listening section. It is designed to imitate a lecture at university, that is why an examinee first listens to a recording, takes notes, and only after the recording has finished, gets a task. Similarly to IELTS, TOEFL results are valid for 2 years only.

Linguaskill

It is an exam designed for a rather quick assessment of a person’s level of English. It tests 4 skills - speaking, writing, reading and listening - in modules. This means that an examinee can choose only the modules they need. The exam is computer-based. The results are ready within 48 hours. Linguaskill is popular with companies that need to test their applicants or employees, as it is convenient and quick.