To counter a lack of interest in the Business Chinese Test, Chinese language educators will soon roll out a redesigned version of the exam, which emphasizes Mandarin skills in the workplace as a supplement to the HSK, a test of general Chinese proficiency.

Han Hong, executive director of the International Business Chinese Language Teaching and Resource Development Base, gave a preview of the new test on Tuesday at an event to mark the second anniversary of the development base.

Han said in the past the Business Chinese Test did not attract as many examinees as expected due to its high difficulty and lack of brand promotion. So a team carried out field research in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province as well as France and Saudi Arabia.

The development base, which is attached to the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, was authorized to conduct research on teaching Chinese in a business context in 2010 by Hanban, a national agency that promotes Chinese language education for non-native speakers. The researchers at the base also started to retool Hanban's Business Chinese Test.

"By the end of June, we will submit the redesigned test to Hanban for inspection and approval," Han said.

Hanban declined to make comments on the new test, saying that they could not comment while the redesign is in progress.

The number of people who took the test has consistently been less than 10,000 since it was established in 2006. Many students of the Chinese language do not know about the test. In 2010, nearly 8,700 students took the test, but the number fell to a little over 4,900 in 2011.

Language educators say it is hard to find a one-size-fits-all approach that appeals to students across the spectrum.

"We find that the demand for the test is polarized. Some companies engaged in small commodities only need a workforce with basic Chinese language skills, while other large companies require good Mandarin communication skills for their employees," said Liu Yun, a lecturer of the School of Chinese Language and Literature at UIBE.

"As a result, we lowered the difficulty level when designing the new exam. Also we introduced a self-adjusting function to the computer test system, which means that the system would reduce the test difficulty level automatically when it finds the text too difficult for an examinee or increase the difficulty level when it turns out to be too easy," Liu said.

"If possible, we want the BCT to be like the Chinese version of TOEIC (Test Of English For International Communication), but now we are still far away from that," he said.

TOEIC is a popular test that measures the ability of non-native English-speaking examinees to use English in everyday workplace activities.

Zhang Xiaohui, director of the Confucius Institute Office at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said the Confucius Institutes should play a bigger part in promoting BCT.

"The HSK is developing fast, while the BCT is developing rather slowly. In the 17 Confucius Institutes I polled in the past year, only two students had taken BCT," Zhang said.

"However, what most foreign students need to learn are the language skills to help them doing business in China, not Chinese literature. But currently, most of our Mandarin teachers are not capable of giving business lectures," Zhang said.

"So we should send more qualified business Chinese teachers to the Confucius Institute to make the BCT more popular."

However, some students said its not the difficulty of the test that is keeping them away. The test is just not recognized as much by employers.

Jin Rokuhara, 21, has stayed in China for eight years and passed nine levels of the HSK, which he said is "enough to show off in front of friends".

Although Rokuhara majors in finance, he never thought about trying the BCT.

"The test is useless. No company will value it very much when I graduate and hunt for a job," Rokuhara said.

"I would take it if it were as useful as the HSK."