Business English Certificate (BEC) Vantage
Welcome to the BEC Vantage Home page, where you can find all the information and help you need to start preparing for BEC Vantage.
Click on one of the steps to learn more about the exam.
BEC Preliminary | BEC Vantage | BEC Higher | ICFE | ILEC
ABOUT BEC VANTAGE
The BEC Vantage is an intermediate-level Cambridge ESOL exam, at Level B2 of the Council of Europe's Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). What is Level B2?
What's in BEC Vantage?
The table below shows you the different parts of BEC Vantage. You can also view the BEC Vantage papers in more detail.
| Paper | Content | Time | Marks (% of total) |
|---|---|---|---|
 Reading |
5 parts | 1 hour | 25% |
 Writing |
2 parts | 45 minutes | 25% |
 Listening |
3 parts | about 40 minutes including transfer time | 25% |
 Speaking |
3 parts | 14 minutes per pair of candidates | 25% |
SUPPORT FOR BEC VANTAGE
To help you get started, Cambridge ESOL have lots of FREE material which you can download for BEC Vantage.
Information for Candidates
This short booklet explains what's in the exam in more detail.
Download the BEC Vantage Information for Candidates (English)
(562 Kb)
Sample Papers
Download the BEC Vantage Sample Papers 
(16 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.
