English on my list

The basics Your B2 First exam starts with this paper. There are 7 parts – parts 1, 5, 6 and 7 count as Reading and parts 2, 3, 4 are Use of English. If you need help calculating your score, check out my B2 First score calculator. You get 1 hour and 15 minutes for this paper. If you do the exam on paper, allow some time to pass your answers onto the separate answer sheet as you DO NOT HAVE extra time to do it. While on Digital exams, your score is recorded automatically. Part 1 – Multiple-choice cloze You have a short text with 8 gaps and 4…

Do your articles sound like essays? Do you avoid reports? This is because you haven’t understood what each format means. Who are you writing to ? Why are you writing each piece? Let’s start from the beginning. B2 First Writing paper – part 1 – Essay Who is going to read your essay? Typically a teacher. That’s why it needs to be formal or neutral, objective and argumentative. You are asked to give your opinion on a topic as well as to provide arguments and reasons that support your point of view. You write it from a third person perspective and use phrases such as Many people… It is thought……

Do you still think that in this part you have to describe the pictures? Well, don’t! The instructions say clearly compare or contrast the two pictures. How do I compare? The easiest way is to use the comparative. Place A is bigger/calmer/more difficult than place B. People in A prefer quieter spaces than people in B. Let’s not forget as… as… The person in A isn’t as busy/stressed/excited as the person in B. The place in B isn’t as green as the place in A. When the places or the situations look quite similar, use both, the same as or as… as… in positive. Both places look interesting. Both people…

What is expected of you? You are given two pictures and you have to compare or contrast them and answer a question for about a minute. Sounds easy, right? However, some students find it challenging not to go over or under the time limit. So with a little organisational strategy we can solve this. How do I organise my answer and manage my time? DON’Ts 30 seconds each picture and I am done! WRONG!!! If only it were so easy. The problem with this strategy is often you might not stop on time and overextend talking about the first picture and don’t leave enough time for the second. Even worse,…

A lot of you fear this B2 First task because of the time limit. Some people think it’s too short, for others it seems like an eternity. With the right strategy, it might become your favourite part of the Speaking paper. A NO-NO DON’T DESCRIBE THE PICTURES! Let me tell you something that can change entirely your concept of this part. The pictures aren’t actually pictures. They are VISUAL PROMPTS that represent TOPICS. Understanding this will hopefully stop you from describing them. A MUST-DO Comparing and contrasting is what you are supposed to do and answer the question given. Let’s analyse the task. So as soon as you see the…

You have mastered the B2 First essay in Writing part 1, now it is time to turn your attention to part 2. Well, you have a lot of options – an email, an article, a review and a report. Let’s start with reviews. I find them quite entertaining to write. So, here is my take on them. First things first. What is a review? It is a semi-formal piece of writing where you describe a book, film, experience, product or place. Express your opinion about it and then recommend it or not to your readers. The style needs to be engaging so make sure you come up with a good…

So, you would like to start preparing for the B2 First on your own but don’t know where to start? Which book to buy? I got you covered. Here are just some of the books that I use when working with my students that are also appropriate for self-study. First of all, what I always like to recommend is to practise with original materials by Cambridge English as they will give you a feel for the real level. Not too easy, not too hard. First Trainer Let’s start with First Trainer. It includes six practice tests. The first two tests are expanded and include useful exercises to help you practise…

and how to avoid them so that you don’t lose points. Don’t let silly mistakes take away your hard-earned points. There are only 28 points on Use of English so they are very valuable. You forget to write a name Just finished a class with a student. We were calculating her score when she admitted to making this mistake.  I would have had 2 points but I had written HER instead of KATE.  So in Use of English part 4, the key word transformations, sometimes there is a name in the original sentence. Make sure the name is present in your transformed sentence, too. Here is the example: ‘Would you like…

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…

B2 First (FCE) Writing Part 1: Essay (140-190 words, 40 min approx.) TASK: In your English class you have been talking about different people’s lives. Now, your English teacher has asked you to write an essay. Write your essay using all the notes and giving reasons for your point of view. Is it important for people to have excitement and adventure in their lives? Notes Write about: 1. work2. sport3. …………………… (your own idea) Task taken from Cambridge Write and Improve website. Link below.  https://writeandimprove.com/workbooks#/tz-workbooks/5a27bc1b-fb12-40e1-b4f9-de813a7756bc/tasks/5ea6ad8c-bc1c-4631-92b5-57ad7bd1dba4 Let’s analyse the task The first thing when reading the B2 First (FCE) Writing task is to choose if we agree or disagree with the statement and…