One-to-one online preparation for the Cambridge business exam: adaptive format, business vocabulary, email and report
Prove your level of business English for an employer, a promotion or a training-needs review
Universities use Linguaskill for admission and graduation when a recognisable Cambridge certificate is needed
The test is fully online and on demand, with no rare exam sessions
A starting snapshot and a goal for your exam and the modules you need
Meetings, correspondence and negotiations; email and report to the criteria
Getting used to the online interface and full runs in the exam format
The vocabulary that sticks fastest is the one you apply straight away in real emails and calls. So we build preparation around your own work situations
Linguaskill Business is an online business-English test from Cambridge English. It assesses levels from B1 to C2 on the CEFR, runs on adaptive AI technology and ends with a certificate and a skill-by-skill score report.
Cambridge has discontinued the BEC (Business English Certificate) exams in every country except mainland China. For Ukraine and Ukrainians abroad the BEC line is effectively unavailable, and its role has passed to Linguaskill Business. It tests the same business English, but fully online and on demand, with no dependence on rare exam sessions.
The test is modular: you can take all four skills or only the ones you need. Here is what each module contains.
| Module | Length | What is inside |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | ≈40 min (59 max) | Adaptive: the number of questions varies; reading business texts and gap-fill tasks |
| Listening | ≈40 min (59 max) | Adaptive: understanding workplace dialogues, monologues and presentations |
| Writing | 55 min | Two tasks: an email (from 50 words, 25% of the score) and a report (from 250 words, 75%) |
| Speaking | 16 min | Five parts on a computer with a microphone and headphones; three warm-up questions are not marked |
Reading and Listening are adaptive: question difficulty adjusts to your answers, so there is no fixed number of tasks, and the test ends as soon as the system can identify your level accurately. In Writing, the first Business task is a short email and the second is a report. Speaking has five parts: a presentation on a topic, a short summary of what you heard, answers to follow-up questions, a recommendation to fit given requirements, and an argument for and against a statement.
Reading and Listening are marked automatically by computer, so those modules come back fastest. Writing and Speaking use hybrid marking: human examiners and auto-marking technology work together. This approach gives both speed and accuracy.
Each skill is reported separately on the Cambridge English Scale and mapped to a CEFR level. Here is how scores and levels match up.
| CEFR level | Score |
|---|---|
| C2 | 200–210 |
| C1 | 180–199 |
| B2 | 160–179 |
| B1 | 140–159 |
If a module comes out below B1, no score is reported and that module is not shown on the certificate. The final report shows your score for each skill taken and an average score across the exam.
Results are usually available from three working days. The exact time depends on whether you took the test in a centre or remotely, and on the session size. For groups of up to 500 candidates it is roughly 3–5 days in-centre and 6–8 days for remote testing; larger groups take longer. The computer-marked Reading and Listening arrive before Writing and Speaking.
A Linguaskill certificate has no official expiry date, so it is convenient to keep on hand. That said, an individual employer or university may decide how recent a result they will accept. The «My best score» feature lets you retake a single module without redoing the other three skills, and your best result is the one recorded on the certificate.
In 2026 Linguaskill was awarded the ALTE Q-mark, an international quality mark in language testing. It means the exam passed an independent audit against the quality framework of ALTE (the Association of Language Testers in Europe): test design, administration, scoring and results communication.
If you need to prove your English for working in a company, business correspondence and negotiations, choose the Business version: its topics and vocabulary come from the workplace, namely buying and selling products or services, the office, business travel and human resources. If instead you need general English for admission or everyday tasks, standard Linguaskill fits. The versions share the same format, scale and result times; the only difference is the topic of the tasks.
Linguaskill Business does not fit every case. If admission, a visa or a specific employer requires IELTS, TOEFL, B2 First or C1 Advanced, Linguaskill does not replace them. Many organisations accept Linguaskill, but each sets its own rules on which certificate and how recent a result it accepts, so check the requirements of the specific organisation you are testing for first.
Business tests check not abstract grammar but how you use English at work. So the core of preparation is the vocabulary of meetings, correspondence and negotiations, plus the ability to build typical business texts quickly. It helps to practise writing a short email and a report within the timing, to listen to workplace dialogues and presentations, and to rehearse Speaking in the on-screen, into-a-microphone format rather than with a partner across the table. It is also worth getting used to the adaptive online interface so the test itself does not cost you attention on the tech. In corporate groups we see that the vocabulary that «sticks» fastest is the one a person applies straight away in real emails and calls, so we build preparation around your own work situations.
Check the format, scores and conditions on the official Cambridge pages: the Linguaskill overview, the Linguaskill Business page and the exam format and task types section.
A full 60 minutes · your teacher’s full attention and a programme tailored to you
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Business vocabulary, the email and report formats, the adaptive test
Take the level test before preparing for Linguaskill Business