Business English Certificate (BEC) Preliminary
Welcome to the BEC Preliminary Home page, where you can find all the information and help you need to start preparing for BEC Preliminary.
Click on one of the steps to learn more about the exam.
BEC Preliminary | BEC Vantage | BEC Higher | ICFE | ILEC
ABOUT BEC PRELIMINARY
The Business English Certificates (BEC) from Cambridge ESOL are for learners who want to have an internationally recognised business-related English language qualification. BEC Preliminary is a pre-intermediate-level Cambridge ESOL exam, at Level B1 of the Council of Europe's Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
What is Level B1?
What's in BEC Preliminary?
The table below shows you a summary of the different papers of BEC. You can also view the BEC Preliminary papers in more detail.
| Paper | Content | Time | Marks (% of total) |
|---|---|---|---|
 Reading and Writing |
Reading: 7 parts Writing: 2 parts |
1 hour 30 minutes | 50% |
 Listening |
4 parts | about 40 minutes including transfer time | 25% |
 Speaking |
3 parts | 12 minutes per pair of candidates | 25% |
SUPPORT FOR BEC PRELIMINARY
To help you get started, Cambridge ESOL have lots of FREE material which you can download for BEC Preliminary.
BEC Preliminary Vocabulary List (PDF, 487 Kb)
BEC Preliminary Sample Speaking Task (PDF, 61 Kb)
BEC Preliminary Information for Candidates (English)
(694 Kb)
Understanding your Statement of Results (1.6 Mb)
Summary Regulations for Candidates (44 Kb)
Sample Papers
BEC Preliminary Sample Papers 
(13 Mb)
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT BEC
Margrit Walter-Wettstein, Berufsbildungszentrum Weinfelden, Switzerland
At our school we prepare our students for BEC Preliminary because it is a realistic goal for a 3-year course. We encourage them to attend the BEC Vantage course on a voluntary basis.… It is a good opportunity for them to get in addition an international language certificate during their commercial training.
