Every English level, and what it actually means

Six, in ascending order: A1 and A2 (basic user), B1 and B2 (independent user), C1 and C2 (proficient user). Cambridge publishes one exam per level from A2 Key up to C2 Proficiency, and IELTS and TOEFL scores are mapped onto the same bands. Leo covers A1 through C1, which is the range that matters for study, work and immigration.

It depends on the country. The UK asks for A1 on a spouse visa, A2 to extend it after 30 months, and B1 for indefinite leave to remain and citizenship. Australia and Canada score English on their own scales (IELTS bands feed both) rather than on the CEFR directly. Universities almost everywhere want B2, and postgraduate or professional registration - nursing, medicine - typically wants C1, often IELTS 7.0. Immigration thresholds move; confirm the current one with the authority itself before booking an exam.

Cambridge publishes guided-hour ranges per level; stacked from zero they come to roughly 1,000-1,200 hours to reach B2. At one focused hour a day that is about three years; at twenty minutes a day, considerably longer. Your first language moves the number more than any study method does - a Spanish or Portuguese speaker starts with thousands of shared Latin cognates, a Japanese or Korean speaker starts with almost none and a different word order.

If you have never studied English, A1, without exception - it holds be, have, do and the present tenses everything else is built on. If you studied it at school and stopped, you are usually somewhere between A2 and B1 passively and a level below that actively, so starting at A2 and moving fast is more productive than starting at B1 and carrying gaps upward.

No. The CEFR is a descriptive scale; IELTS is a test that produces a band score from 1 to 9, which is then mapped onto that scale - roughly 4.0-5.0 for B1, 5.5-6.5 for B2, 7.0-8.0 for C1. The practical difference is expiry: the Cambridge certificates are diplomas and do not expire, while IELTS and TOEFL results are usually only accepted for two years.

B1 is coping: you follow clear speech on familiar subjects and can explain a point of view simply. B2 is operating: you follow technical discussion in your own field, argue a position and hold your own with native speakers without either side slowing down. Grammatically the frontier is the full conditional and hypothetical system, the passive used to shift focus, register, and the ability to build a paragraph that concedes a point before countering it.