Class 1 – Tuesday, November 30th
Hello! We are doing mock exams this week.
Today we are going to do listening part of the CAE exam.
The test has four sections and takes about 40 minutes:
- Part 1 – three short extracts from conversations with multiple-choice questions
- Part 2 – Sentence completion
- Part 3 – conversation with multiple-choice questions
- Part 4 – Multiple matching
There are 30 questions in The C1 Advanced Listening Test. It makes up 20% of the entire exam
Some things you should keep in mind before you start:
- You will hear the audio twice
- Read the instructions carefully before you start
- You have time to read the questions before you hear the audio
- Think about the topic, the speaker(s) and the context as you read the questions.
If we finish earlier, we will discuss and explain any questions and doubts about the exam or exam tasks, give useful tips and focus on distraction tehniques in listening tasks.
Homework: Practice writing and do the 1st part of CAE writing exam. We’ve already talked about transport, we even know some idioms and phrasal expressions which could prove useful, now all that’s left is to put it all together and give it a structure:
Class 2 – Thursday, December 2nd
Today we are going to do another part of CAE exam – speaking.
The time allowed for this part is 15 minutes.
The test has four sections and takes 15 minutes:
You will do the speaking test with another candidate. The two of you will meet two examiners. One of the examiners will talk to you, the other does not participate in the conversations.
- Speaking part 1: short questions and answers between you and the examiner
- Speaking part 2: ‘Long turn’ .The examiner gives you three pictures and asks you to talk about them. You have to speak for 1 minute without interruption and the interlocutor then asks the other candidate to comment on what you have said for about 30 seconds. The other candidate receives a different set of photographs and you have to listen and comment when they have finished speaking.
- Speaking part 3: Collaborative task. Conversation with the other candidate. The examiner gives you some pictures and a task to do. You have to talk with the other candidate and make a decision.
- Speaking part 4: Discussion. Further discussion with the other candidate based on the topics or issues raised in the task in Part 3
The Speaking section is worth 25% of the total score for the exam..
Some things you should keep in mind before you start:
Your speaking is assessed using five criteria:
- Grammar – have you used a range of grammar structures?
- Lexical resource – have you used a range of vocabulary?
- Discourse management – have you participated effectively in the conversations and discussions?
- Proununciation
- Interactive Communication – have you completed the tasks effectively?
To see the complete CAE speaking exam, you can take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nGESyDgmdw
Homework: Practice writing and do the 2nd part of CAE writing exam. Choose one of four questions. You have to read some input material and write one of the following: a letter/an email, a proposal, a report or a review.
You can use this sheet to get the idea of the structure, focus and a tone for your writing task:
https://freeenglishlessonplans.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/advanced-writing-part-2-task-types-explained.docx
