The paper presents theoretical substantiation of the new paradigm of communicative competence testing and evaluation and the practical development of the construct of the unified language exam, qualifying the Russian university graduates of non-philological profiles is a task that stems from the array of tasks of modern linguo-didactics and logically continues its development. At the same time, it is associated with the challenges of the current state of society, not yet fully realized - the comprehensive use of the institute of testing as a tool of control, promotion and punishment, the reverse effect of test results on the education system and on the future of the individual citizen. The psychological component is important in the ability of a test-taker to pass or fail the test. Finally, it is impossible to overestimate the correctness of the construction of assessment scales based on modern mathematical models of test data analysis. All these interdisciplinary issues are studied from the point of view of a unified invariant-variable exam in professionally-oriented foreign (English) language, corresponding to domestic and international educational and professional standards and meeting the challenges of globalized, mobile, polylingual world.