Sites and Dates

The exams are coming closer. The FCE is on the weekend of the 12th and 13th and the CAE the Wednesday after. Get studying...
An interesting aside. I recently tested two similarly levelled classes, one well schooled in the Cambridge exam and one not? The difference between the two classes? 25%! The students who were used to the exam were 25% better. That's huge!
Keep practising!


By the way, here's a new site that is as good as the great flo-joe.co.uk for exam prac.
http://www.examenglish.com/

It has excellent Use of English CAE Part 4 (of which I have very few examples)

Simple Stuff

A busy day examining yesterday - FCE and CAE students in a city near here. The students were good, and well prepared. But there were some simple errors which I really should not be hearing at this level. One girl, perhaps over-reacting to the Portuguese tendency to overuse articles, used none! Another student decided that there were only two prepositions in English (for and in)although might have been saved a fail by excellent vocabulary (which we suspected had been learned from computer games). The thought for today therefore is: cut out the simple mistakes. Much easier to say than do, but by focusing on the simple tasks, and with good exam technique, a really low level student can pass these exams.

Think... and Blink

My Guys,

You've got until 20th March to sign up. I was looking at the list yesterday and many of you haven't. If you don't sign up now you'll have to wait until December. I'll warn you again in class this week.... it's your call.

On a similar subject...

I was working Saturday, invigilating the FCE exams and also being an Oral examiner. Some more points:
The Writing paper is to be written in pen. Not pencil. It says so on the front of the paper and I told the students but somehow the message did not get through. I can't see Cambridge docking marks because of this but it hardly shows you in a good light if you get simple instructions wrong. And again.... HANDWRITING! None of my guys took it yesterday. Which is good for me seeing such dreadfully formed letters dancing across the page.
The Listening Paper. You need to write your name on the question sheet as well as the answer sheet. I haven't mentioned this to you before (as I didn't know). I imagine it's so that if you appeal your mark it can be moderated.
The Use of English Paper. Some guys left this exam very early. Check, check and check again, but only change an answer if you are sure. Often your first answer is the best (read BLINK, by Malcolm Gladwell. It tells us that we know stuff when we have a hunch... we just don't know why we know stuff, and often we don't trust the stuff we know because we don't know the why... if you catch my drift).
The Reading Paper. I know the notes say 'please don't write on the exam paper'. But as there's no name on the question paper (unlike the Listening) I suggest you make notes, draw diagrams, use high-lighter pens. Anything that will help you get the answer right.
The Speaking. Fossilised errors really hurt marks. Nice vocab and good, appropriate fixed phrases saved a couple of students from lower marks. Exam technique and good preparation for the interview part of this exam will get weaker students through...
Good luck in May and June... and

DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP!

Saturday Mocks

I spent my Saturday invigilating and correcting exams, our Mock-Cambridge exams which we use to see if students are ready for June. The results were pretty good, though I kept seeing the same errors again and again. Exam technique and attention to detail are worth between 5 and 10% in these exams to my mind. I have seen the usual mistakes... I'll list them here so you can shake your head in wonder that students still make them and nod sagely and think 'I would never do that' (but someone ALWAYS does).

1) Bad copying on to the answer sheet. One poor girl had the correct answers, just one exam question late. She got a couple of marks simply because there we a couple of times when there were two in a row with the same answer. Fail.

2) No name on the paper. I mean, really! Fail.

3) Simple spelling errors. Marks thrown away.

4) Poor hand-writing. Marks abandoned to the abyss.

5) A poor understanding of the question. Fail (well, banded 2.2 in the writing section) because he didn't read it properly.

Also, to those students who didn't bring pens or pencils... c'mon! You know better!
Still, that's why we do mocks.

Assuming Nothing

Teaching my FCE class this evening I was shocked to learn how little my students knew of the exam format. They are a good class, and all just passed a class test I set, which was effectively an FCE Use of English Paper. Fine you may say. But I then went on to talk about the mock exam they are due to take in preparation of the June exam. And the students responded with questions, the answers to which I had assumed they already knew. I was shocked. I had been through the exam before, talked about the individual papers, talked about the best technique for this and that part. All well and good. Yet it had still not gone in somehow. The fault is mine, and will, in part be rectified by the mock, a clone of the exam and excellent prep for them. But it goes to underline the old maxim, never assume (you make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'). And because the level of technique in these exams reflects very strongly in their final grade, it is very worth familiarising students with each foible and idiosyncrasy of the exam.