Below 1 is awarded if the candidate has not been able meet the criteria set for level 1. This is the test for adults who occasionally use the language they are learning both in everyday and in work situations but cannot yet take an active presenters, negotiators or experts role in the foreign language. Their knowledge of the language and their skill in using it is already fairly good. The testing time is about 3 hours 30 minutes in all. The questions concentrate on the comprehension of the main points and the most important details.
Topics vary from writing letters to contacting companies for various purposes.
The main requirement for a successful accomplishment of the task is to convey the message to the reader as comprehensibly and naturally as possible. The candidates are expected to demonstrate their knowledge of Finnish structures and vocabulary at this level. The tasks are mainly contextualised, but when appropriate, decontextualised task -types may also be used. Several task types, both constructed response and selected response, are used. This subtest is conducted either face to face or in a language laboratory.