General English and for School
KET (Key English Test): elementary
KET for Schools (Key English Test for Schools)
PET (Preliminary English Test): intermediate
PET for Schools (Preliminary English Test for Schools)
FCE for Schools (First Certificate in English for Schools)
Business English
BEC (Business English Certificates): This exam in Business English can be taken at three levels (Preliminary, Vantage and Higher).
BULATS (Business Language Testing Service): This is an assessment service for companies, for showing language skills in English, French, German and Spanish. In Japan, the online versions of Reading&Listening, Speaking and Writing tests became open to individual test takers in September 2011.
Legal English
ILEC (International Legal English Certificate): A high-level language qualification for lawyers set at levels B2 and C1 of the CEFR. ILEC is equivalent in level to the FCE and CAE, and assesses language skills in a legal context. Examinations at the C1 level may be used as proof of the level of language necessary to work in an international legal context or to follow a course of legal study at university level.
Academic and Professional English
FCE (First Certificate in English): upper intermediate
CAE (Certificate in Advanced English): advanced
CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English): very advanced/proficient
IELTS (International English Language Testing System): IELTS is managed by an international partnership of not-for-profit organisations - the British Council, Cambridge ESOL and IDP Education, and is administered through more than 400 test centres in 150 countries worldwide. More than one and a half million candidates sit the test each year, which is used by more than 1,000 universities and colleges in the Anglosphere, including more than 700 institutions in the USA, as a standard entrance requirement. Its main competitor is the US-based TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Both exams test not just general English but also English for academic purposes.
Young Learners' English
YLE (Cambridge Young Learners' English Tests): English exams for children aged 7 to 12.
Skills for life
Most Cambridge exams are available around the world and suit anyone who wants to use English in their studies or work, in other words, English as a foreign language. These exams, uniquely, are tailored to the needs of those who have moved to Britain, i.e. immigrants needing English as a second language.
Certificates in ESOL Skills for Life: These certificates also give separate marks for each type of ability. The exam is for ESOL learners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. (Scotland has its own education system.)
Discontinued exam
CELS (Certificates in English Language Skills): These exams (now discontinued) allowed students to prove what they could do in each skill (reading, writing, speaking, and listening); a separate mark was given for each section.
Teachers
TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test): This exam is aimed at teaching English to speakers of other languages, aka TESOL. It is given in three modules, each consisting of eighty questions, that can be taken together or separately in any order. It tests candidates on their knowledge of concepts related to language, language use, and the background and practice of language teaching and learning.
There are four optional modules of TKT - these can be added to the three core modules above, or can each be taken completely independently: TKT: Practical, TKT: Content and Language Integrated Learning, TKT: Knowledge About Language, and TKT: YLE.