Many individuals also rely on International English language exams like Global Language Training GEP English Exams to demonstrate their level of English proficiency. Testing well on one of these English language exams provides an additional credential which reflects a third-party certification of proficiency. In general, these language exams may not be required, however, they demonstrate the mastery of English and can be beneficial for resume building, job and internship qualifications, scholarship applications, and educational background.
Another factor to consider is that some of the English language exams are ranked in terms of difficulty. The Common European Framework is a method to self-evaluate your fluency of English. The framework uses six levels to describe language ability from A1 to C2. Depending on your level, there is a test that is geared to that level of difficulty:
Taking this into consideration, Global Language Training developed the GEP English Exams. The old classification of beginner, intermediate and advance doesn´t quite work. Precise boundaries between these, and other intermediate subcategories like pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate, for example, are needed for a proper assessment of English language proficiency.
The Council of Europe had been working since 1989, with the purpose of providing a method of learning, teaching and assessing that can be applied to all the languages in Europe. Continued deliberation and labor eventually led to the development of the Common European Framework of Reference for Language Learning, Teaching and Assessment which is the result of the collaboration of many members of the teaching profession across Europe and other places. It was in 2001 that the European Union Council recommended using the CEFR to set up systems of validation of language ability, an initiative that it is becoming widely accepted as the European standard for rating an individual's language proficiency. Global Language Training GEP English exams were designed from conception based 100% on the Common European Framework of Reference.