Everyone knows that preparing for the FCE is hard work! With four different papers to revise for, it can be easy to feel a little overwhelmed by all of the information you have to remember. That’s why Brighter English have come up with some great handy hints and tips to help you feel more organised, relaxed and ready to pass your FCE!
What can students do?
1. First of all, it’s a good idea to start by kitting yourself out with a large hard-backed folder, plastic wallets and file separators so you can organise your study notes and handouts into sections for each part of the exam. This will enable you to find everything you need quickly and easily, which will really help you when you’re ready to start revising. It’s useful to highlight important points in your notes so they really stand out from the page and you don’t have to search through the text for the information you need.
2. For those of you who enjoy learning and revising online, there are websites such as Quizlet where you can make and store your own flashcards, or access those that other people have made. Revising little and often with plenty of repetition will help you to absorb your learning and keep you feeling prepared! Here's one of our favourite sets - it helps you learn and practise some common FCE phrasal verbs: bit.ly/FCEphrasalverbs Can you guess which phrasal verb this is?
3. Looking for more free resources? Look no further than Flo Joe which describes itself as ‘THE place on the web for Cambridge exam preparation’. Here you can find everything you need to know about the exam itself, practice tests and an FCE writing class. They also have social media pages on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter where you can discover more information and communicate with other people like you, who are studying for the exam.
4. Your highlighters are your best friends during the exam – particularly for your Reading and Use of English paper. You can use them to highlight key words and phrases in the questions and also where you found your answers in the text.
Managing your time well is important during the exam, so finding your answers speedily means you can use any valuable extra minutes to easily check your work.
If you have a variety of different colours you can assign each of them a different function; green for an answer you’re really sure of or pink for an answer you think might need checking again.
5. When you’re completing a practice paper, try to approach it as if you’re taking the real exam by timing yourself and always leaving additional time for checking. The more timed practice papers you complete, the more confidence you will have when you walk into the real exam.
6. Here at Brighter English we feel that nothing really beats face to face tuition with a real, live teacher! We have some fantastic online FCE courses for you to sign up to, with dedicated and experienced tutors, to provide top-notch FCE lessons, give detailed feedback and answer any questions you may have about your upcoming exam. Find out more here or contact us for more details.
Good luck!