Concord Communications

IELTS   (International English Language Testing System) is designed to measure your ability to use  English in an academic environment.  It tests all four skills and is most commonly used for college, school or university applications. Candidates get a score between 1 (non-user) and 9 (expert user) for each section. Universities often demand an IELTS score of 6 or 7. They may also demand a minimum score in each of the 4 sections. Certificates have a recommended validity of two years. Reading ü   Read graded readers every chance you get in order to build up your reading speed and pick up lots of passive vocabulary (no dictionary). ü   Know the format! Don’t underestimate the difficulty of this section simply because you’re an avid reader and you feel like the Reading section is the last thing you need to spend time preparing for. ü   Be aware that all the information you need to answer the questions is included in the text – y...

Understanding the exam itself and knowing how to tackle each of the papers is crucial for success. Below are our  top tips for passing the FCE . 1.        Familiarise yourself with the structure and timing of the exam 2.       Understand exactly what is being tested in each part of the exam . 3.        Never leave an answer blank 4.        The FCE tests your language skills as well as your language level 5.        Don’t panic if there’s a text about an unfamiliar topic Use of English Multiple choice cloze ü   Read the text first, ignoring the gaps, in order to have a general understanding of it ü   Pay close attention to the words before and after the gaps. ü   When you’ve finished, read through the text with your answers to check that it makes good sense. Open cloze ü   this part ...

READING ü   One of the most important things to bear in mind when tackling any of the tasks in the reading paper (as well as the listening paper) is that the texts will contain  distractors . These are words or phrases that are  similar to or even synonymous with  words or phrases in the question (or in the wrong answers) which might lead you to choose the wrong answer. They are there to ensure you are paying attention to the whole text and not just looking for words that match between the questions and the text. ü   Before answering the questions,  skim-read   the text  to get a general understanding of its content. ü   Make sure you  read both the questions and the options  and  underline key words and phrases . ü   Where possible, try to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context, but  don’t waste time . You should only spend  about 12 minutes ...