Name __________________________________________ Class ______________________________

Intelligent Business Skills Placement Test

Complete all four sections.
SECTION 1: READING
1 Which paragraph mentions the following?
1 What the company does. _____
2 Staff training. _____
3 Problems with competitors. _____
4 Management discussions about difficulties. _____
5 Location of head office. _____
6 Future hopes. _____
7 Number of employees. _____
8 The person who started the company. _____
9 A regular yearly meeting. _____
10 Location of factories. _____
11 The majority shareholder. _____

A) GD International is a multinational company with its headquarters in Moscow. The

founder of the company, Georg Drax, still owns sixty per cent of the shares and he is the
Chairperson. The CEO is Mr Jackson who has a lot of experience working in multinational
companies. He used to work in South America.

B) Mr Jackson believes that working in international teams is very important nowadays. All
the staff, who do not speak English as their first language, are encouraged to take English
language classes provided by the company.

C) The main activity of the company is manufacturing car parts. There are two factories in
India, one in China and one in Brazil. It employs thousands of staff in these factories. The
founder visits each factory at least once a year.

D) There is an annual conference for all the company managers. Last year it was in Rio de
Janeiro and this year it will be in Nairobi. The managers have a chance at the conference to
exchange ideas and talk about problems with production or sales.

E) Huge amounts of money have been invested in the Research and Development
Department of the company and its engineers have developed some of the cleanest technologies
for vehicles. As a result they have won several awards.

PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2008 Pearson Longman ELT 1

F) The company hopes that by 2010, nearly all car manufacturers will use the technologies
developed by GD. The future looks very bright indeed. However, their competitors are always
trying to discover what their next invention or development is. It is a very competitive market.

/ 11

SECTION 2: WRITING
2 Part 1: Read this email. Each line contains a mistake. Underline the mistake and
correct it.
e.g. I are interested in working for your company. ____am____
1 I have five years’ experience as the accountant. __________
2 I study accountancy at London University from 2001─2003 __________
3 and I got my degree on 2003. I have also got professional __________
4 qualifications. I work for a small company and I have __________
5 responsible to all the accounts. I had like the opportunity __________
6 to work for a biggest company. __________
7 I look forward to hear from you. __________

3 Part 2: Write a reply to the email in Part 1. Write on lines 1─5 below. Your email
should:
 Thank him for his email. (line 1)
 Say his details are interesting. (line 2)
 Explain there are no jobs at the moment. (line 3)
 Say you will contact him when there is a job. (line 4)
 Suggest he looks at the company website. (line 5)
1 ________________________________________________________________________

2 ________________________________________________________________________

3 ________________________________________________________________________

4 ________________________________________________________________________

5 ________________________________________________________________________

/ 12

PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2008 Pearson Longman ELT 2

SECTION 3: LISTENING
Track 6

4 Listen to Sam Reynolds talking to Alexa about people going on a course and
complete the table.
People on next (1) ________________ course.
Name Company name Type of company

John Jacobs (2) ________________ Makes (3) ________________

(4) ________________ Project Play Builds (5) ________________

Sanja Berkovic (6) ________________ Employs (7)
Industries ________________ people

/7

TOTAL / 30

SECTION 4: SPEAKING
Instructions for the teacher:
Use the following questions or discussion points to assess a student’s level. Begin with
questions from the pre-intermediate level questions. If the student answers effectively and
confidently, choose another from the same level or from the pre-intermediate level. As the
student becomes less communicative, choose questions or discussion points from the lower
level until you establish the level of questioning or discussion a student can confidently handle.
Elementary
 What’s your name?
 How do you spell your name?
 Where are you from?
 Where do you live?
 Do you work or are you a student?
 Tell me about your work/study.
 What do you like about your work/studies?
 Why are you learning English?

PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2008 Pearson Longman ELT 3

  What do you do in your free time?
 When were you born?
 What did you do yesterday?
 Tell me about the company you work for or would like to work for?

Pre-Intermediate
 What’s your job? What are you studying?
 What do you do in your job/on your course?
 What does your company do? What kind of company do you work for?
 Tell me about your typical day. What time do you have lunch? What do you normally
eat for lunch? What time do you usually start work/college?
 When did you start learning English? What advice would you give to someone who
wants to learn English?
 How often do you attend meetings/lessons? What are they about? Are they useful?
 Tell me about our product or service? Compare it with your competitor’s.
 What are three key events in your life?
 What do you hope to do in the future?

PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2008 Pearson Longman ELT 4