Business English (B1) Exam takers

The Business English (B1) examination is structured as follows:

Note that the use of dictionaries is not permitted during the exam.

The course outline (Skript) and the outline of the exam can be downloaded below.

To practise for the reading questions in the exam, you can do the following:

• go to this page to see examples of the two types of question you will have in the exam: Exam reading practice

• do this practice activity: BEC Preliminary Reading Test - Part 4
  you can check your answers here: Answer key 1

• use the coursebook to do as much reading as possible.

To go over the vocabulary that was covered in the course using the course book Simply Business B1+, you can do the following:

• Go to this page to see examples of the three types of question you will have in the exam: Business English (B1) – Lesson 6 Self-study and do the Vocabulary review activity in the 'Vocabulary' section.

• Review your class notes and the Präsenzskript files made available in the Online Campus.

• Do (or re-do) the relevant vocabulary activities in your coursebook Simply Business B1+.

• Do (or re-do) the vocabulary practice activities in the Simply Business B1+ Online exercises that were set in the Lessons 1 - 7 Self-study pages.

• Do any additional exercises in the 'Vocabulary' sections set in the Lessons 1 - 8 Self-study pages.

• If you haven't already sone so, download the word list for the Simply Business B1+ coursebook (See below).

• If you find studying with your mobile phone helpful, you can use the Quizlet app, to create your own vocabulary sets. Make the individual sets about 10 - 12 words or phrases as this is a good number to study at one time. You will probably need to create more than one for each unit.

• Alternatively, Cornelsen offers a Vokabeltrainer app which is available in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Alternatively, use your own word lists or cards to learn the vocabulary required.

To go over the grammar that was covered in the course, do the following:

• Review your class notes and the Präsenzskript files made available in the Online Campus

• Do (or re-do) the grammar activities in your coursebook Simply Business B1+

• Do (or re-do) the grammar practice activities in the Simply Business B1+ Online exercises that were set in the Lessons 1 - 7 Self-study pages.

• Do (or re-do) any exercises that were set in the 'Grammar' sections in the Lessons 1 - 7 Self-study pages.

Task

In this section of the exam, you will be asked to write an email choosing to write in a formal or less formal style as appropriate.

Preparation

To prepare for the email writing question in the exam, you should use the following:

• your class notes and the Präsenzskript files made available in the Online Campus (especially lessons 3, 4 & 8)

• the emailing activities in the Simply Business B1+ Online exercises that were set in the Lessons 1 - 8 Self-study pages.

• the activities covering different aspects of emailing on this page Email practice.

Instructions

1. In the first step in your student consulting research project, you were asked to think of ONE of the following that relates to your work, company or business sector:

• A process
• A problem
• A project
• A product or service
• Something else you find interesting (please be specific)

2. In the final exam, you will have 20 minutes to write a minimum of 275 words and a maximum of 300 words in which you cover the following points:

• Briefly describe your research topic and why you chose it (e.g. how it relates to your work, your company or industry).

• Summarise your findings (e.g. the results of your research). This should be the main part of your text.

• Conclude with a proposal, recommendation or perhaps some speculation on the future as appropriate to your chosen topic.

3. The 20 marks available are awarded for:

• Appropriateness and quality of the content (i.e. how well you answer each of the 3 parts of the question and clearly demonstrate that you have prepared well for this task)
• Good use of academic writing style
• Paragraphing (i.e. structure of individual paragraphs, logical connection between paragraphs)
• Correct use of English (i.e. grammatical correctness, choice of vocabulary)
• Presentation (i.e. layout)
• Keeping to the word limit

4. Producing formal academic writing involves the following:

• Do not use contractions (e.g. write ‘who is in charge.’ not ‘who’s in charge.’)

• Avoid phrasal verbs (e.g. use ‘postpone’ rather than ‘put off’)

• Use more formal vocabulary (e.g. longer words of Latin or French origin rather than shorter informal vocabulary: ‘require’ rather than ‘need’, ‘retain’ rather than ‘keep’, or ‘repeatedly’ rather than ‘again and again’)

• Use transitional devices to guide the reader and link ideas and information (e.g. ‘whereas’ to compare or ‘in addition’ to add information, etc.)

• Avoid ellipsis and make sure you use complete sentences that are correctly and clearly structured. (e.g. ‘I am going to the office today.’)

• Use paragraphs that are well-structured and cohesively linked to each other so that they form a coherent text that is easy to follow and convincingly organised.