From FCE to CAE

The following is a presentation by the Eli Director of Studies Elspeth Pollock on the gap between FCE and CAE. It is not my own work I´m simply putting it up here for the students Jesus, Paula and Jose who missed a class the other week.

Notes for the exam.

They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes, drums… drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow lurks in the dark. We can not get out… they are coming

If you wanted to know a bit more about how the FCE exam works here are some notes that I've been given.

Below or all the notes in detail but here are some of the things that occurred to me. 

Basically you can't leave early! i.e. it's like this. The invigilators have sealed the bridge.  http://youtu.be/Spk7MpSpkJ0

Bring ID and leave it on your table.

Bring a pencil. Paula.

Pen for the writing exam only.

We have to check what you do in the toilet cubicle! Blimey.

Notes for Invigilators        Hotel  Silken Al- Andalus. FCE  SAT 9 JUNE 2012

09.00 – 10.00       Reading

10.15 – 11.35       Writing

11.50 – 12.35       Use of English

12.50 – 13.30       Listening

 

                            

General Information

• Invigilators will be assigned a group of about 25 candidates. As usual, you must patrol your own zone of the exam room throughout the exam. It is essential that you (a) familiarize yourself with these candidates, (b) give out and collect in in your own ‘zone’ – you are responsible for those particular candidates (and for ensuring that nothing ‘irregular’ happens in your zone).

• After the initial checking of Ids, candidates will leave their ID cards on their tables throughout the exam to enable us to check identification at any time during the 4 papers. It will be one of the duties of the invigilators at the beginning of each paper to (informally) check the IDs of the candidates in their zones.

Staff timetable and notes

Chairs checked and numbered

07.30          Supervisor(s) pencils/rubbers

08.00          Quick meeting - supervisor/invigilators

08.30          Admin staff begins to check candidate Ids. Antonio/ Pepe organises queues. Candidates enter exam room. Invigilators guide candidates to seats, and deal with problems with, bags etc. (nothing on the table, only pen/pencil, rubber and exam papers). Mobile phones must be switched off and left in closed bags or closed envelopes – candidates have all been requested not to bring mobile phones to the exam))

08.55          Once all candidates seated, Supervisor reads out instructions (general and reading exam) while invigilators give out reading question papers to their ‘zones’

08.55+       Supervisor will tell candidates to write name correctly if their name on the answer sheet is not correct.

                   

09.00          READING Exam starts (1 hour). Exam start and finish times written up. Invigilators circulate in their zones – mentally noting empty seats and becoming familiar with the faces of ‘their’ candidates. Candidates not allowed to leave the room within the first 40 minutes or the final 10 minutes.

                    Invigilators remind candidates about transferring answers within the time limit (Last 10 minutes). Please check that candidates have signed the answer sheet. ALL IN PENCIL. 

10.00          Invigilators collect first the answer sheets in numerical order from their zones (including absentees), and then the question paper. Candidates leave. Scripts to Supervisor.

10.15          WRITING EXAM (1h 20 min):

Candidates in. Invigilators give out pens. Invigilators give out writing question booklets to their zones. Supervisor reads out instructions. Pen, not pencil (spares available). Candidates must write name, Centre number (ES040) an individual candidate number on the question paper. Start and finish times on boards. Invigilators check for new absences or any other changes in their zones. Candidates not to leave before one hour or in last 10 mins. Please check that candidates have written the question they have chosen in part 2 in the box provided. Any rough work must be crossed out and collected.

11.35          Invigilators collect writing question booklets in numerical order from their zones .Candidates out. Scripts to Supervisor. Invigilators then give out Use of English answer sheets to their zones.

11.50 USE OF ENGLISH EXAM: (45 min)

Candidates in. Supervisor – instructions. Invigilators give out question papers to their zones. Start and finish times on boards. Candidates not to leave within the first 25 min or last 10 min. ALL IN PENCIL.

For questions 13-42 candidates must write the answers in capital letters.

For questions 13-34, candidates write ONE letter in each box.

          Remind candidates they must transfer their answers on to the separate answer sheet within the time limit (last 10 minutes)

12.35          END OF THE USE OF ENGLISH EXAM, Invigilators collect first the answer sheets in numerical order from their zones (including absentees), and then the question paper. Candidates leave the room. Invigilators then give out Listening and CIS answer sheets to their zones.

12.50           LISTENING + CIS (40 min + CiS)

Candidates in. Supervisor – instructions. Invigilators give out question papers to their zones. All instructions are given with the CD, so please try not to disturb candidates, again ALL in PENCIL. Please check that your candidates have marked the test version on the answer sheet. 

13.30. End of the listening test. Invigilators collect first the answer sheets in numerical order from their zones (including absentees), and then the question paper. Candidates answer to the questions on the CIS paper. Invigilators collect CIS. Scripts to Supervisor.

Supervisor must give time checks and reminders of instructions, mark and sign 

attendance registers for each paper, deal with absent candidates’ answer sheets

Notes:     

1.  Candidates leaving early (when allowed) must raise their hands to call an

     invigilator, who will check that they have fulfilled all the requirements for that paper

     and then remind the candidate of the starting time for the next paper. In

     Writing exam check any rough work is clearly crossed out– collect this if it is on

     separate paper. Make sure the candidate does not interfere with or disturb any other

     candidate while leaving the room. Candidates will only be readmitted for the next

     paper.

    

2.     Pens, pencils, tippex, etc.

Pens ONLY for the writing exam, pencils for ALL answer sheets.

     Tippex definitely not on answer sheets

UNAUTHORISED MATERIALS:

Dictionaries, spell-checkers, bags, food, phones..etc.

3.  Late arrival candidates – inform supervisor

4.  Candidates who need to go the toilets should be supervised (almost) all the time.

     This includes a ‘before and after’ check of cubicles. Inform supervisor first

5.  Candidates questions. If candidates ask questions about the exam you must only

     draw their attention to the relevant rubric. . Explain (nicely) that you are not permitted

     to say more. DO NOT TRANSLATE.

How to post in the blog

Ok Access guys, here's how posting works. Can you read below and post your video for tonight.

Hey bloggers! Here's a new entry of how blog stuff's done

Today’s contribution is about “how to post in the blog” I’m sure you all want to know it and post a lot of interesting things. Here I’ll give you an example of “how to post in the blog” with this same writing.

1^st STOP: The IDEA

Before doing anything THINK! This is the very first point on writing. Once you have your idea, it’s about time to keep on reading this post.

2^nd STOP: How can I write?

For doing so you must have a GMAIL account and also to be given the opportunity to contribute posting your ideas.

3^rd STOP: Getting access to the blog

As said many times, a picture is worth a thousand words here it is

Just kidding I’ll type the how to do it too... I have enough time :D

Once inside your Gmail account, look for the Blogger tag under MORE tab. If you found this tag, you should be able to see this page:

Look for the blog name and tap it, then you'll get access to the blog and the next STOP

4^th STOP: You are in! don’t forget what you were going to write!

All above done, you’ll gain access to this page where you see a summary and highlights of the blog, where you can edit existing posts, have a look to some statistics and so on... but we’re focusing on that tiny tag at the upper left of the screen, the one which says “new entry” (entrada nueva for Spanish bloggers)

5^th STOP: Start writing before your idea flies away!

When you tap the new entry bottom you will get to a page similar to Word, where you can write, edit and anything you need to write your idea, but watch out where are you writing on!

If you go to HTML tab, this is like writing on a typing machine, no sizes, no margin, anything, but on “Redactar” tab, this is where you really can do whatever you need just like word, font size, underlining letter, whatever. 

6^th STOP: Before publishing

At the top of the page you’ll see 3 useful tabs (close is not useful) Publish, Save, Preview.

And don’t forget to write a title for the post! No one will read anything without a title 

If your are writing something but you need to leave, no worries, just SAVE it and it will be kept in the main page but unpublished. You can come back whenever you want and keep on writing

If you want to look how it will be looking like tap on PREVIEW

When you're sure that's how you'd like the other to see it, tap PUBLISH and automatically it will be published on the blog... CONGRATULATIONS!

 

7th STOP: Inserting an image/video in the post

First you have to look for this icons and once inside choose the option that fits you the best; tag one is for uploading pics from your pc and the other tags are for different internet pics

When you have chosen your images, you can edit them a little bit just clicking on them and this bar will show up. Different options, different uses.

And that's how you can share your knowledge to everyone who enters this blog. Simple, easy and worth doing, so... what are you waiting for?

Any questions, just ask them, I'll help on whatever I can

Paul L. Dennis

Tips for FCE - Preparations

1st Certificate exam preparations

Hey everybody! This is Paul writing about something David told me. He asked if I could tell you a bit of my experience and some advices while taking this world-opening exam. Thinking a little bit on David’s idea when he wrote telling me about giving an experience review I started thinking on a huge amount of things to say, all it intrinsic, how to dismantle all the work to take this exam I came up that the best way was like Jack the Ripper said “let’s go by parts”

Step 1: Preparation for exam
This is one of the most important parts for taking FCE since this is the time while you are getting ready to take it. There’s no secret recipe for best studying the FCE, everyone is a single person and each person is a world. YOU are the only one who knows what kind of study routine fits you the best to yourself, and yes, it’s a routine to study what will lead you to pass some parts of the exam, it really works this way. Every day you should study a couple of pages, review something you missed the last time, have a look to vocabulary by making vocab lists and read, read and read a little bit more. English doesn’t come alone, to improve vocabulary read everything you can in English, switch some usual things in your daily routine to English such as cell phones, computer, watching TV, even thinking in English and many other things. You’ll see this way sometimes you don’t notice you’re learning English but someday it will show up that something you read or listened you’ll know what does that mean or the use of it. Those in an academy, your teacher is the knowledge source, so ask, write to him, ask about where to go to practice English; There are some kind of English-Spanish meetings where you can practice the speaking and listening to different kind of accents and making your ear to a different language, because in the exam, there’s no time to say “I’m not ready for this kind of accent” or “I can’t understand because of his speed” the tape keeps going on and getting frustrated goes nowhere.

So now, coming to the end of Step 1, I must highlight a few ideas:
• Read as much as possible, books, magazines, food ingredients, everything that comes to your hands (in English of course)
• Listen to English speaking people, via watching series or TV films; I’d say more British English than American, because in the end, FCE is a British English exam, but American English could help you to get used to other accents
• Write: use as much vocabulary as you can, doesn’t matter if you fail here, then you’ll know how to use it when the real time comes. END of Step 1 – you now have a 15 min break, please leave the room

Step 2: Day before taking the exam
This day is a crucial day, today will set your body to D-Day, the day you’ll face most probably your largest time-consuming exam. You’ve been getting ready for the exam for a really long time and today, the day before the exam, you should be ready enough to take it. Today you mustn’t study anything because is most likely to be worthless. Today what you should do is to have a relax day, not getting anxious for what comes next day, there are still many hours left. What I’d do? Sleep enough to be ready, review a couple of things if you need it, maybe taking a good English book to read and that’s all. Of course you shouldn’t get as relaxed as going partying... that’s not what I meant. Think on what you should take to the exam, maybe some fruit, juices/water or cereal bars, you’ll be getting a great deal of mental effort and you have to fuel your brain, just like if you were running a marathon, your body will need this supplies, and please, today diet doesn’t exist. You’ll need some sugar in your body just to make your brain work at 100% Also, before going to sleep, chose what you’re going to wear next day, and one more time, loose and comfortable clothing, cotton is the best material, it is fresh, light and it stretches when needed, because while taking the exam, you’ll sweat, move, and many other things that could irritate you, so let the clothing not be one of them.

Ending this Step 2, another summary of key ideas
• Don’t study anything, what you know, you know it from the preparation months, whatever you “study” today for sure you have studied it before but your nerves has blocked your mind.
• You’ve done mock exams, you know how it works, and you know you’re up to it. You have to believe in yourself and if you have studied hard enough and you’re mentally prepared, it will come easy
• Take something to drink or eat in break time, and go to the WC even if you don’t need to go... better trying it than having a hurry in the middle of any part.
• You look perfect, nobody is looking at you shirt wrinkle.
• DON’T FORGET TO SET 2 OR 3 ALARMS!! Your cell phone, your stopwatch, your mother, whatever you have close to wake you up

Step 3 – D-DAY!
If you’ve followed the previous reading you should have woke up at the first alarm, but in a rested mood, happy and relaxed. Now another alarm will ring, just set it off. Have a light breakfast and take your bag with the eating and drinking stuff, even a pen and a pencil could be useful. Likewise, don’t forget your ID card, don’t leave anything to the last moment, you should have left everything ready the previous night. Now get to the examination point, arrive soon just in case you find traffic jams, all traffic light in red and so on... don’t leave anything to luck.

Now comes what you are ready for: THE EXAM a part where I would tell you what I went through. These are based on true events
08:30 – Entered the building and headed to the desk with my surname. This is a checkpoint where you show your ID and they’ll tell you where you will be taking the exam. Remember the number they say and head to the room (go to the WC if needed)
09:00 – Reading: Sitting in my place, watching people running to their seats, sweating and nervous, what happens coming late! Just relax, breathe and keep your mind in blank. Start reading and write as many notes as you wish, don’t be hurry, just keep the pace you’ve been practicing while in Step 1, there’s time enough to read everything and fill in the answer sheet
10:00 – Break until 10:15. You have to leave the room; the invigilators will prepare the place for the next part. Once out, have something to drink, go to the WC and most important DO NOT TALK ABOUT THIS PART! You know how it went, you don’t need someone else saying “oh, that was terrible, this is my worst day, blablablah” or just “hey, I did it great! I’m going to pass it for sure, I’m the king of the exam, blablablah” This isn’t helping you, there’s no need to know it, what is written, written stays, you can’t change it and it’s time to focus to next part
10:15 – Writing: You’re called to come in again and take the same place as previous. You now have a pen on your desk to write your letter and whatever is in part 2. Think you have spare sheets to write some notes and getting sure you don’t get under the minimum or over the maximum length on each part of the writing. You can have a try with pencil but remember the final writing must be written by pen. Sometimes you don’t need to do this practice, you’ve done enough writings that your brain just search in your mental library, copy text and paste it on the paper, and sooner you expect, you will have finished this part and leaving the room eating something.
11:50 – Use of English: This part is the quickest one, 45 min where you’ll be finished in 30 or less and reviewing it one and another time, ensuring you have chosen what you think are the best answers.
12:50 – Listening: Probably the toughest part, why? You can’t go on your own pace, here you’ll need to have your tricks for the exam... maybe trying to fill in all the gaps at the first try and then trying to correct everything; listening once and in the second try filling the gaps; mixing both styles. Each part of the listening needs a different skill, but in the end, you have your style and that’s what is important. Don’t get anxious if you missed something, there’s a second chance to hear it and if you don’t get it, it doesn’t matter, one or two misses won’t make you fail an entire part (but be sure there are only one or two...) at the end of the listening test, you will have 5 min to type all the answers to the answer sheet.

DING DING DING DING! You know what??? THIS IS THE END OF THE LISTENING TEST, you now can leave the room and say “Yeah, a great Saturday morning to get FCE” You can now go home and tell everyone you did it great in the exam, update your Tuenti/Facebook status and whatever you want, only if you aren’t as lucky as I was to have Speaking the same day 3 hours later.

What did I do? I had my lunch in the bag and I had to go to British Institute (BI) to get the speaking part and what can you do before entering this part? What I did was looking for a relaxing spot (this time was Murillo Gardens close to the BI) watching tourist coming and going, eating my sandwich and getting a bit sunbathed. Remember, not to get too asleep or completely sleep. Just to be ready for speaking part
16:34 – Speaking: When I got to the door of the BI I saw a lot of people, some of whom I talked during the breaks of FCE (not about the exam, of course).
Once there, you wait until you’re called and you are given a sticker with your name and an evaluation sheet, be sure your names and numbers match. You are lead to an interior courtyard where you meet who’s going to be your speaking partner. There’s something funny here, at the beginning of this part you don’t know him, you talk to him/her a little bit just to get known, talking a bit of how the morning exam went and set your exam tactic.
When you are in the room, you’ll find two invigilators: one will be the asking one and the other one will be taking notes of both of you. This part goes smooth, just be kind, smile and DO NOT answer too short “– Where are you from? – I’m from Seville” If you say this, there would be an uncomfortable silence where you think “Oh damn it, I should have said more” and the invigilator saying “oh yeah, here comes a 0 as big as the door” but don’t be greedy and try to take all the time for you.
Answer correctly, fully, relaxed (yeah, I’m sort of a tiring one with being relaxed but this is the key for doing exams) be collaborative in part 3 and don’t you worry about the timing, it’s better to be stopped in parts 1 and 2 but don’t be selfish in part 3. Collaborative task, where the main point is being collaborative, ask a couple of questions and “pray” to find a competent partner. This way you’ll have an easy going test.

Nonetheless, this is the real end of the FCE exam, now you’re free to do whatever you didn’t while studying this exam, now you’ve done your best, there’s nothing you can change. Just have to wait till the day the marks are released, nothing more to do, nothing less to say. All your efforts, time, ups and downs, everything ends with this moment when you step outside with this partner you came in not knowing him but coming out as really good old friends even telling some jokes and laughing!

Some tips I’d like to add to finish are these ones:
• You know you can get it
• Give the max on each part, don’t leave anything behind saying “I’ll pass with the other parts”
• Cheating is useless, there are more cons than pros in this exam
• Leave your worries out of the exam, just one morning focused on FCE

This is how my exam went and that’s what I wanted to tell you after thinking on David’s idea, I know it is lengthy, but hey, take it as a reading practice! I hope this is helpful to whoever reads this and know that whatever you need I’ll be pleased to help... if I can of course.
Best wishes and may the force be with you all. Good luck my friends

Paul L. Dennis (proud FCE owner :D)

Antonio Essay and new marking scheme

Check out this essay by Antonio regarding diets for children. Look at the errors and refer to the marking guide (on the main toolbar of the blog, just next to 'How to use this blog'). Here it is below.

Parents should let their children eat what they want.

If you start a discussion with that statement surely you would get two clearly defines parts, children part who said yes and parent part who said no. But who is rigth and who is not? The importance of a well-balanced diet has been remarked by a lot of experts  who said that it is the key for a good health.

The reason of why parents choose what children have to eat is simple, because what do you prefer a recent  home made baked cookie or a cookie made by industrial way? I think is an easy choice, and I hope everybody have chosen the first option so the same happen with  any kind of food, parent  prefer children eat the home made food before the fast food because they know how it was made.

Other reason for not let children choose the food is the fact they would not eat home made food because of they are not able to cook it and in addition children are lazy, most of them, and personally I do not trust they would cook any food as soon as they came back after a school day, furthermore some children will be eating avery moment at the day and others won’t do it.

If at the end this essay works for something I think is for getting a conclusion of it, and my own conclusion is that children do not know the responsabilities of taking care of themselves for that fact parent have to choice children foo however they have not to forget some days it is good to have a  breath and eat some unhealthy but tasteful fast food.

Antonio Machado

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Advice for students taking the FCE exam by Angel

Below is a composition by one of my students Angel. He is not quite as frightened as Jose because he comes to more classes. I have highlighted the especially good pieces of advice in GREEN AND BOLD so read those.

There are some mistakes in the document. Can you read it, look at the comments on the word document and leave the corrections or any questions below in the comments section.

Thanks


https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1kRjVXMj3PWUTjrhRHCLuy0xHlxnGlzVTXAxh8RCMPd0
 

Welcome to Jose is frightened

Dear students (past and present).

This is a call to help. In class last night Jose admitted that he is frightened! (and I think Jesus, Antonio, Marina, Laura, Angel, Paula and Ana are too).

Jorge and Paul congratualtions you have passed the exam! With good marks I might add. Therefore if you could offer any advice to the current students via this blog I´m sure they would appreciate it. Also everyone would like to know how you are and how you are doing.



Current students! I will be posting extra information on the blog to help you pass. We really, really want you to pass. So far I have a 100% record as a teacher of students passing the FCE exam.

Let´s make sure this continues come June and you can post your excellent results on this very blog!

See you soon.

David