B2 First (FCE) – Use of English part 2 – Open cloze
Whether you are only starting to prepare for your B2 First exam or you are about to sit it, it is always a good idea to be familiar with the exam’s structure. There are 3 parts of Use of English – part 2, 3 and 4. Yeah, you read that right – part 1 counts as Reading. In this post we are going to focus on part 2.
What do I have to do?
In this part of the exam, you are given a text with 8 gaps and no options to choose from. You have to guess which word is missing based on your grammatical and lexical knowledge. Let’s see an example:
Example:
Paris, _______ is called the”City of Light”, is one of my favourite places to visit.
The correct answer here is the relative clause WHICH.
Paris, which is called the”City of Light”, is one of my favourite places to visit.
Easy, right? However, it is one of the parts that candidates find difficult. Why is that?
1. Lack of precision
You can communicate well and your Speaking and Listening skills are strong but you tend to overlook the details. In, on, at? Does it really matter? Who or which? What’s the big deal? Well, in exam conditions IT IS a big deal.
So you’d better start brushing up on your grammar as we speak! Let me mention a few areas that you need to have a good control of. Those include: modal verbs, linking words, relative clauses, prepositions and phrasal verbs, etc. It is a good idea to prioritize and start by studying the areas that you don’t know well.
2. Lack of strategy
Are you reading the whole sentence before you answer? If it is a linking word you might have to read the whole paragraph before being able to decide which is the correct word. Let’s face it, linking words are the trickiest to spot.
Example:
There are many benefits to living in a city. In _______, it can be quite an enjoyable experience.
In this case, you should start by brainstorming a few phrases that you know with the preposition IN.
In case, In addition, In contrast, In fact
And then, decide which fits best according to the function/meaning it brings to the sentence. Are we adding more information? Are we connecting two contrasting ideas? Are we clarifying by giving an example?
Well, I think it is the last one.
There are many benefits to living in a city. In fact, it can be quite an enjoyable experience.
BONUS TIP: Try to say the phrase in your head and decide which SOUNDS best.
3. Lack of awareness of common structures
A third reason might be that you haven’t trained your brain to look for the typical words that are tested yet. Learning a language is one thing but getting ready for an exam is somewhat different. You need to start paying attention to the common patterns and words that tend to appear over and over. The best would be to keep a journal and write down the examples that you see on your mock tests. So once you have done an exam, spend some time to analyse the assignments and soon you will start to discover those phrases.
If you need practice, here are some worksheets I have created on Use of English part 2 – Open cloze. Enjoy!
The booklet includes the following topics:
- modal verbs
- linking words
- phrasal verbs
- relative clauses
- prepositional phrases