Cambridge B2 First. C1 Advanced. IELTS Academic. IELTS Life Skills B1. IELTS General. Oh my
goodness which exam should you do! Well I'm here to help. In this video we will cover
what each exam will allow you to do be it learn english, study abroad, apply for a British visa,
work... Then we will look at individual circumstances and decide which exam
would be the best for you! That is fantastic. My name is Toby, this is SMASH English and here
is all of the advice that I can give to you about which is the best English exam to take.
Well let's start off with my boy the B2 First Cambridge exam. If you pass the B2 First exam
then you can feel comfortable that your english level will allow you to function comfortably in
an english-speaking environment. You'll be able to go on holiday without worrying about what to say.
You'll be able to make friends... well not if you're me, but if you're you with the B2 First
exam then that should be easy! You'll be able to work in most environments and you will be
able to express your ideas in writing. But the B2 First Cambridge exam is not considered good enough
for enrolment in an english-speaking university and oh my gosh I am so so sorry! However your
B2 First certification will allow you to enrol in an english-speaking undergraduate course
in a non-english speaking country! For example you have your B2 First certification and you want to
study at the University of Oxford. I'm sorry but you can't. But you can take a university course
at the undergraduate level in english in Germany. So if you want to spend maybe one
year of your university undergraduate studies in another country, maybe for an Erasmus program or
something like that, then the B2 First certificate is a good choice for you! If you want to study
permanently in an english-speaking country though then no, no it's not.
But don't worry because if you love the Cambridge exams and want to study
in an english-speaking country at a university then you can take the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam!
If you pass the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam then you can deal with professional and informal
situations in english fluently and boy oh boy that is great. Do you want to go to university
in an english-speaking country? The C1 Advanced exam will allow you to do that! Do you want to
take a postgraduate course in english? The C1 Advanced exam will allow you to do that too!
Think of the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam as a key that will basically allow you to do anything
you want to do apart from become an English teacher. To do that you need to get the CPE,
the Cambridge Proficiency certification, but trust me you don't want that. You don't want
to be an english teacher because I'm an english teacher and I want to die.
And now we come to my good friend Mr. IELTS. IELTS is different to B2 First and C1 Advanced because
IELTS is one test for all levels and the score you get on that test is your English certification.
Your score is awarded as a level and these levels are known as bands and these go from zero to nine.
Here is how they relate to the Cambridge CEFR scale. Look at this picture. Wow. Fantastic.
You see that? IELTS and then the Cambridge scale there. The PET, the B2 First, the C1 Advanced?
Yeah. Wonderful. There are different types of IELTS exams however the two most famous are IELTS
General and IELTS Academic. IELTS General is for everyday life and work whereas IELTS Academic is
academic and mostly for studying and university admissions. If you are taking an english exam with
the only aim of immigrating to the united kingdom then you should take the IELTS Life Skills B1 exam
but please remember that this exam is not suitable for academic or professional purposes because the
level is too low. If you want to study then a 5.5 to a 6.0 score in an IELTS academic exam is
generally considered to be the equivalent of a B2 First certification. So, if you want to do a year
of Erasmus or if you want to take an undergraduate course in english in a non-english speaking
a 5.5 to a six in IELTS Academic is sufficient. A 6.5 or above is
generally considered to be the equivalent of a C1 Advanced certification so if you want to study
at university in an english-speaking country then you should be aiming for 6.5 in an IELTS Academic
exam. However I have seen some universities request a score of seven so make sure you look
at what the requirements of the university you are applying for are. And don't blame me if you've got
it wrong because god! I don't know everything! I'm just telling you what the basic rules are in
general! All right? Jesus! Another thing to bear in mind is that the B2 First certification and
the C1 Advanced certification are like dogs and that's because they last forever. They are with
you for life. However the IELTS exam is more like a hamster because after two years it dies and this
may sound terrible but actually it's not a big problem and I will tell you why in a moment. So
now we have a general idea of what we can do with each exam we should ask ourselves a very important
question: which exam should I take? Well it depends. Let's imagine that you simply want
to learn the english language. It's a personal challenge because, well, you love english. God
we all love english! If this is the case I suggest preparing for and taking either the B2 First or
the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam. This is because of the Use of English section of the exam.
It's basically a grammar and vocabulary test and requires you to have a more intimate and in-depth
knowledge of the language and if you love english that's a good thing. Seriously in the past I've
had students that could pass the IELTS exam at a level of 6.5 but couldn't complete a B2 First use
of english exercise. In an IELTS exam your grammar and vocabulary are assessed in your natural usage
of them in your speaking and your writing. This means that if you don't know an idiom,
a grammar structure, a collocation, a phrasal verb or a word then it doesn't matter so much because,
well, you won't use it in your speaking or your writing. In the Cambridge exams not only is your
grammar and vocabulary assessed in your writing and your speaking but also directly in the Use of
English section and if you don't know an idiom, a phrasal verb, a word or a grammar structure then,
well, you're just going to get questions wrong aren't you and that's a problem. As a result,
working really hard to prepare for these exams really does enrich your english vocabulary and
your knowledge of english grammar and as I said before: if you love english that's a great thing.
Also you'll have the qualification forever. It will never expire so you can take the certificate
and put it on your wall and kiss it every single night before you go to bed because if you love
english why wouldn't you do that? Go on! Prove how much you love english. Do it! No no. That's weird.
Don't kiss anything that you don't want to kiss... What am I saying? Now let's say you are limited
in time you want to apply to a university and you already speak pretty good english. The university
requires either an IELTS level of 6.5 and above or a C1 Advanced certification. What should you
choose? In this situation I would suggest IELTS Academic and that is because if you already have
pretty good english IELTS preparation is mostly examination technique. For the reading part of
the exam you need to learn how to skim read a text to understand the gist, or the general idea. You
also need to know how to scan to find, isolate and identify specific pieces of information quickly.
In the listening part of the exam you need to be able to isolate information and note down letters,
names and numbers at high speed and that's not as easy as it sounds. Cambridge does not ask you to
do that. These are skills that can be learned and are very useful for studying at a university. The
C1 Advanced Cambridge exam, especially in the reading, has a different emphasis. Instead of
asking you to pick out little bits of individual information it requires you to understand the
intent and the tone of the text. What is the author trying to say? What is the author
emphasizing? It's more poetical and literary in a way whereas IELTS is more academic and analytical.
Furthermore the IELTS academic writing exam is perfect for students at university. Part one of
the writing exam will require you to describe a graph, a bar chart, a diagram, a process
or a map and this is not easy to do and you should learn how to do it! Many students that complete
the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam will have trouble doing this! Many native English speakers have
trouble doing this! It's nothing to be ashamed of and preparing for the IELTS Academic exam really
will help. In short, IELTS is more functional in an academic sense than Cambridge. IELTS will teach
you how to convey meaning and also to isolate pieces of information in an analytical sense
whereas Cambridge has a whole section called Use of English which will make you very very good at
passing the Use of English section... and it's it's not so useful to you as a student. The C1
Advanced Use of English section is also really, really difficult to prepare for
quickly because there is so much that you need to know so yeah it's not a good idea trying to learn
that stuff in a rush. And yes yes I know your IELTS certification will expire after two years
but that's not a problem and here's why. Let's imagine that you did your IELTS test to apply
for a postgraduate degree in London. You got a 6.5 and two years later you have
finished your postgraduate degree but now you don't have your IELTS certification!
Oh no± Well guess what... Your postgraduate degree in lLndon is now your english speaking
qualification! So don't worry about it! Everyone knows you can speak english. You've done great.
Well done. Now what if you want to move to another country and they give you the option
of the Cambridge exams or the IELTS exams. Well which Cambridge exam and which IELTS exam should
you take? I personally would not bother with IELTS Academic and this is because you would
have to spend time learning how to analyze and describe graphs and unless you plan on doing this
professionally or at a university it's a waste of your time. So don't spend your time doing it.
Pointless. This leaves us with C1 Advanced to IELTS General and B2 First. C1 Advanced
is advanced and as I said before it is the key to everything and if you want to do anything and
everything apart from becoming an english teacher then C1 Advanced is the one for you. However it is
advanced and in general - in general - not always - but in general - employers don't require the C1
Advanced. The b2 first will be enough. My boy the B2 First exam is a fantastic choice! If you can
take your time to enjoy learning the language and to treat learning english as a journey in and of
itself. Like I said, there's a use of english section and this really does require you to
understand the components of the language how to form words and how to structure sentences.
So if you have time to leisurely learn the language then please take the B2 First exam. But
if you already have a pretty good grasp of english and you just want the qualification because
you want to go to that country then get IELTS General. This is because it will make your life
slightly easier. In the writing exam you just need to write an essay and a letter so
you don't have to waste your time learning how to write a report or a review or an article.
It's not necessary. Also there's no Use of English section so yeah there's that. Okay so let us try
to summarize! You want to go to a university in an english-speaking country you already speak
pretty good english and you do not have a lot of time to prepare. Well, that means that you should
take IELTS Academic! Yeah... You want to spend a year at an undergraduate level studying in english
in a non-english speaking country, perhaps for something like Erasmus, well B2 First! My advice
with this is to get your B2 First certification before this is even a problem. Try and get it
when you're 16, 17 or 18, before you even think "Oh no! Now I need this certification! God!".
B2 First is great! Try and get it as soon as possible because it's fun learning. Love it. Love
it. You want to immigrate to the united kingdom, Great Britain! The best country in the world!
Ttry and get the IELTS Life Skills B1 if your level is low or IELTS General if you are already
comfortable with the language. And lastly you love english ,you love it so much! You want to learn it
and enjoy the language! B2 First, C1 Advanced and then you can get proficiency, become an english
teacher, fall into a depression and think "What have I done? What have I done with my life?!".
And with that we are finished! Now you know every single thing you need to know about
choosing the perfect english exam for your specific needs! If you liked the video don't
forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe if you haven't already, leave a comment down below!
My name is Toby and this was SMASH english....