The arrival of thousands of refugees from the Spanish Civil War and occupied Europe into the UK had created a growing need for language assessment.
By 1944, 18 languages were catered for in the translation paper, including Polish, Arabic, Hebrew, Czech, Persian and Swedish.
A special version of the exam was also made available to prisoners of war detained in Britain and occupied Europe.
Its Speaking test format used two candidates and two examiners and the five papers were equally weighted, each representing 20% of the available marks.
Pre-2015, the Statement of Results had the following information, reflecting the total combined score from all four papers: Pre-2015 Statement of Results also had a Candidate Profile, which showed the candidate's performance on each of the individual papers against the following scale: exceptional, good, borderline and weak.
B2 First demonstrates language proficiency at Level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and is used for study and work purposes.
It is an upper-intermediate qualification used to demonstrate that a candidate can use everyday written and spoken English for work and study purposes.
[9] By taking up and passing the B2 First (formerly known as the FCE and First Certificate Exam), the candidate certifies that they can understand the main ideas of complex communication, interact with some degree of fluency and spontaneity without great difficulty, engage in discussion in both familiar and unfamiliar situations, interact spontaneously without too much trouble, and communicate in detail, appropriate to the purpose and audience.