WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO IN THE EXAM?

There are 4 questions in the writing part of the exam:

The 1st task is obligatory. You must do question 1 and it is always an essay. The topics are varied, but they are usually social issues such as the environment or the advantages/ disadvantages of something.

The 2^nd task is a choice; you can answer one question of 2, 3, 4. DO NOT ANSWER ALL OF THE QUESTIONS. The choices include: a letter (formal or informal), an email, a review, an article or a report. My suggestion is to focus on writing a formal or informal letter, a review and an article. The letter and the email are almost identical, so you cover both of them. The report is a little difficult because of the organisation and format.

5 Simple Ways to Improve your Written English

 

COMMON QUESTIONS:

1. Should you do a plan? Yes! You must make a plan to organize your writing. On the day of the exam, you will be stressed and feel pressure. A plan is your way of organizing you text and your thoughts.
2. What happens if I write more than 190 words? Nothing… Well, almost nothing. In the past for every 5 words extra, they took away a point, however, now they do not. It is not good to go over 190 words because of time, but you can. I wouldn’t write more than 200 words because they will probably lower the mark they give you for content. They will determine some of it to be unnecessary.
3. What counts as complex language in the exam? You MUST use complex language at B2 level. You must use attention grabbing vocabulary and a variety of grammar structures. The passive voice, relative clauses, modal verbs, conditionals, reported speech and inversions all count as COMPLEX grammar forms and you must use them.

SEE OUR WRITING GUIDE HERE

Example review question:

You have seen this announcement on an English-language website:

Reviews wanted

What’s the most useful language-learning website available? Write a review of the best language learning website or App that you have used. Explain what made it so useful and why it stood out from the rest of the market. Would you recommend it or not? The best reviews will be published on the site.

Write your review.

 

DOWNLOAD 5 MORE REVIEW QUESTIONS IN PDF HERE

 

STRUCTURE OF A REVIEW:

 

Beginning:

Start by stating which film you will review and why; it is a good idea to include a question

Middle:

Describe the film in brief, the plot and the characters, using interesting vocabulary

Ending:

To conclude, say who you would recommend the film to and why

 

EXAMPLE ANSWER:

 

Magic Lingua

This modern innovative App is quite good fairly useful as you can learn some various languages in little a short time. It can be used on a smart phone, tablet or computer. It is unique as it tries seeks to help you to speak get you speaking from day one and learn through speaking conversation.

The App has been developed by a few technology experts in Munich and allows you to learn a language develop your language skills in a flexible and easy intuitive way. The only con drawback I can think of is its limited range of vocabulary and the fact that it can be expensive costly to have one-to-one classes tutorials. It is true to its word that you begin learning from the first day and the lessons are short and sweet, easing the way you learn learning process.

I’d undoubtedly recommend this App to language learners, especially for beginners who want to learn bit by bit in bite-size chunks.

 

EVALUATION SCALE:

For the content part, Cambridge states “All content is relevant to the task. Target reader is fully informed”. This means, to get full marks for content the candidate must answer the question fully and not include irrelevant information.

For the communicative achievement part, Cambridge states “The candidate uses the conventions of the communicative task effectively to hold the target reader’s attention and communicate straightforward and complex ideas, as appropriate”. This means that the text is interesting enough to keep the reader’s attention and that the reader is informed of the ideas in the text with ease.

For organisation, Cambridge states “Text is well organised and coherent, using a variety of cohesive devices and organisational patterns to generally good effect”. To complete with this requirement the candidate needs to organised the text in the correct format (letter, essay, email, review or article etc.) The candidate also needs to use a variety of connectives (5-8 approximately). It is important to write the text in a logical way, it needs to be easy to read and understand.

For language refers to grammar and vocabulary usage, Cambridge states “Uses a range of vocabulary, including less common lexis, appropriately. Uses a range of simple and complex grammatical forms with control and flexibility. Occasional errors may be present but do not impede communication”. To pass this part of the assessment the candidate needs to use a range of vocabulary (they are not looking for strange and rarely used words, they want the correct word for the context), the grammar use needs to include both simple and complex (modals, conditionals, passive and relative clauses) forms with few errors.