How to Do Part 1 of FCE Reading and Use of English Test

1. Read the title and text QUICKLY. Ignore the gaps and options. Read fast to get the MAIN
IDEA of the text.

2. Look at question 1. Look carefully before and after the gap. Circle or highlight any
words that could be parts of phrasal verbs, collocations, idioms, etc.

3. Look at the options for question 1. If you don’t know the answer, cross out any answers
that you think are wrong. If you need to, take a guess.

4. Move on to question 2 and repeat the process.

Tips and Tricks for Reading and Use of English Part 1

Keep lists of phrasal verbs, collocations, and idioms in your notebook and add to them as you
learn new ones. Review these lists weekly!

Highlight or circle words before or after the gap like prepositions, verbs, and nouns. These will
help you identify phrasal verbs, collocations, and idioms.

Read in English! My students who love to read in English do well on this part of the exam. My
students who dislike reading think this part is really difficult. Read the news, blog posts, or
books just for fun for 10-15 minutes a day.

Don’t spend a lot of time on this part of the test. Take a guess and move on!

How to Do Part 2 of the B2 First Reading and Use of English Test

1. To start, read the text quickly to understand the main idea.

2. Next, look at the first gap. Carefully read the words before and after the gap. Highlight
or underline any “clues” like verbs, nouns, adjectives, parts of expressions, etc.. These
words will help you determine WHAT KIND of word is missing.

3. After that, write one word in the gap. Don’t use a contraction (won’t, can’t, he’s).

4. Then, repeat steps 2 and 3 with the next gap.

5. When you have finished, reread the whole text to see if it makes sense. Also, check
your spelling!

Tips and Tricks

Guess if you need to! – always write one word in each gap. You will not lose points for a wrong
answer, so take a guess and continue with the next question.

Learn what mistakes YOU make and practice them – everyone is different. Do you always make
mistakes on relative clauses? Do you need to learn more phrasal verbs? Try to do 5 practice
tests for this part and see if you are making the same mistakes. Once you know what kinds of
mistakes you make, take some extra time to learn these structures well.

Make a list in your notebook of new structures – organize new structures, phrasal verbs, and
expressions when you learn them. Then, review these structures a few times a week until you
understand them well.

Practice makes perfect – try to do as many practice tests as you can. Then, go back and learn
from your mistakes. Just like a sport or music, the more you practice, the easier the exam will
be.

FCE tips: use of English part 3: word formation

Tip 1
The students will be given one continuous text with questions similar to the one above plus one
example. They should change the word given in brackets at the end of the line, usually by
adding prefixes and suffixes, so that it fits into the text both by meaning and part of speech.
They will always need to make some changes, and often more than one -
e.g. harm to harmlessness. In other words, just inserting the word given will never get a point.

Tip 2
As always, the first thing they should do is read the whole text first.

Tip 3
The words are always next to the line with the relevant gap, so stop students who think they
have to try to find where each word should go.

Tip 4
After reading through the text they can start the task. They should first go with their instinct. If
a word pops into their head it is probably right, especially with the students who read a lot in
English (but see tips below).

Tip 5
If no ideas pop into their heads, or they wish to check their answers, they should think about
what kind of word goes into each gap. This can be done using clues such as word order. For
example, if there is an article preceding the gap, they will need to place a noun after it. If there
is already a noun after the gap, then they will need an adjective etc.

Tip 6
Having ascertained what kind of word should go in the gap, students then have to come up with
the actual word! If they are completely unfamiliar with it (which is not often the case) they can
guess it by adding various prefixes and suffixes until they get something that sounds right and
obeys the rules of word formation (see worksheet 2 for practise of this). Often, while they are
doing this, they will hit on the right answer and suddenly realize that they were familiar with it
after all, if only passively. This routine should also be used when you go through the answers.

Tip 7
Students won't lose points for wrong answers. But as they get no points if they make no
changes (see above), they must alter each word.

Tip 8
If they have time (they usually will), students should read through the whole text again with
their answers completed to make sure it makes sense and sounds correct. The type of mistake
they will often pick up at this point is not changing words to the negative to fit in with the
meaning of the text (for example, putting helpfulness in the example above - grammatically
correct but nonsensical in this context).

FCE tips: use of English part 4: key word transformations

Tip 1
Although this part is a test of vocabulary (e.g. phrasal verbs and parts of speech) as well as
grammar, classroom time on grammar is more likely to have an impact on students'
performance in the exam. Grammar students are likely to find in this part: unreal past
(conditionals and wishes), passives, reported speech, present perfect/ simple past, (past)
modals, (not) as…..as, and so/ such.

Tip 2
Remember: the gap should be filled with five words or fewer. Contractions count as two words,
not one.

Tip 3
Because of the scoring system, it's possible to get 50% in this section without getting any of the
questions 100% correct. So it's worth answering every question! Even incomplete answers can
get points.

Tip 4
Make absolutely sure that the two sentences mean the same thing. For example, if the
sentence to transform has names in it, the answer will have to have them too.

Tip 5
A nice warmer for this section is to have students brainstorm as many ways of saying one thing
as possible. Start off with something friendly like 'How are you?', and end up with an example
from an exam paper. Then give them the paper!

Tip 6
To help develop self-correction and add a little competition, make doing exam part 4 into a
race. Put students in pairs and let them pass their exam back and forth to you to be checked as
many times as they like. The teacher, however, only marks the questions with 0,1 or 2 points
according to the marking scheme. Students must work out their own mistakes, and the first
team to get 100% right wins.

Tip 7
This part of the Use of English paper is worth 16 points, against between 10 and 12 points for
the others. It is therefore worth spending a little more time on both in class and in the exam. It
also teaches more useful language than, for example, part 2 (open cloze).

Tip 8
Remember that the word given (e.g. short in the example) must be included in the answer, and
cannot be altered in any way (i.e. can not be changed to 'shorter' or 'shortness').

FCE Reading Part 5 Technique

1. Skim the passage quickly to understand the overall topic. This will help you answer any
general questions about the text.

2. Read the questions and underline the most important words. DON’T LOOK AT THE A-D
OPTIONS.

3. Try to find the answer in the text.

4. Quickly write down what you think the answer is.

5. Look at the a-d options and see if one answer is similar to what you wrote.

6. If 2 answers seem possible, check to make sure the overall meaning is correct and that you
can find every detail of the option in the passage. Sometimes there will be a little bit extra
information which is not in the passage, or a little bit less information than in the passage.

B2 First Part 6 Reading & Use of English

1. Skim read the entire text

Before looking at the gaps or sentences, make sure you skim read the whole passage for
general comprehension. Just reading it once will help you to get a better feeling for what will be
needed in the gaps.
2. Analyse the seven sentences
Now you know what the text is about, turn your attention to the seven sentences. Remember
that for this task you are being tested on your ability to make connections between the text and
sentences.
Therefore, keep an eye out for connecting words and ideas. This could be time periods,
contrasting ideas, repetition, verb tenses, pronouns and determiners among other things.

Cambridge B2 First past paper (zip)

Here in F we see the word ‘this’, but what does it refer to? We know we have to look for
something in the text which both expert and new dancers do.
3. Look for the key words in the text
Now go back to the main text and look for the key words and phrases surrounding the gaps. See
which ideas relate to ones mentioned in the sentences. When you feel like you’ve got a match,
write in your answer.

Cambridge B2 First past paper (zip)

In this example, the correct answer is F. The word ‘this’ is talking about the routine that is
common to ballet classes all over the world, and no matter what level you are, you participate
in it. Here we can see ‘leading dancers’ is similar to ‘well established members’ of sentence F so
we know we have successfully joined two pieces of the puzzle!
4. Repeat for the other gaps
Now that you’ve got the hang of it, repeat the same process for the other gaps. Remember,
that as there are seven sentences, one of them won’t fit into any of the spaces.
5. Reread the whole text
Last but not least, read over the whole text again to double check that it makes sense and
flows. Allow yourself 1–2 minutes to do this before moving on to the next part of the exam.

Cambridge English tips and study resources

Time yourself: You only have 1 hour 30 minutes to complete the Reading and Use of English
paper. We usually recommend that you spend 30 minutes on Use of English and 1 hour on
Reading, so you have roughly 15 minutes for each reading. Try to time yourself when preparing
for this part.
Familiarise yourself with linking words: When reading texts, pay attention to linking words and
how ideas connect together, as this is a skill you’ll need to match the sentences with the gaps
successfully.
Read as much as possible: It will really help improve your reading skills if you read more in
English. This could be magazine or news articles, as well as short stories or blog posts.
Don’t leave any gaps: Even if you’re not sure which sentence goes in a gap, guess! It’s better to
try and answer than leave it empty. You never know, you could be lucky.

B2 First Part 7 Reading and Use of English

How do I answer the questions?

Not sure how to tackle this part of the exam? Follow these 5 simple steps.
1. Read the questions and underline
Firstly, read over the ten questions and underline the key words in the questions. There should
be around two or three important words in each question. By underlining them, you’ll be
focusing on the information that you need to search for in the main text.
2. Skim read the passages
Next, quickly skim read the passages to get a general idea of what each one is about.
Spend roughly 20 seconds to read each one at this point.
3. Read section A in more detail
Now you’ve got the gist of the passages, go back to text A and read it more carefully. While
doing this, look back at the key words you underlined in the questions to see if any of them
connect to what is discussed in this text. Keep an eye out for synonyms or similar expressions.
Here in passage A, ‘disbelief’ is the reaction you have when you can’t believe some information
is true. Duncan describes problems at the beginning of his football career, even before he
became professional.
4. Write ‘A’ next to relevant questions
When you think you know which questions relate to passage A, write ‘A’ in the answer box
corresponding to the question. It’s a good idea to underline the part of the text that you think
relates to the specific question you’re connecting it to. This way, you can read over it at the end
to check if it makes sense.
Looking at the parts underlined in step 3, we see a match for the first question. The information
about problems early in Duncan’s career surprised the writer, who couldn’t believe what they
heard was true.

Check the other questions to see if they mention information from text A, and underline similar
words and phrases.
5. Repeat for each passage
Finally, repeat these steps for the other passages and make sure you have only one letter
written for each question.
Don’t forget to spend a couple of minutes at the end reading through and checking. Here it will
be easier and faster if you have previously underlined key information in both the questions
and the passages.

Cambridge English tips

Study synonyms: As this part of the exam tests your ability to understand different vocabulary,
it’s a great idea to make a note of synonyms for words that you come across. This way, you’ll
spot them quicker in the main text.
Read as much as possible: One of the most beneficial activities that you can do to prepare for
Part 7 is reading as many texts as you can. Whether it’s books, newspaper articles or blog posts,
it’ll help improve your general English reading skills.
Try paraphrasing: Pick out some sentences from an article and write them down. Then, try
rewording them so that they have the same meaning as the original sentence. This will help
you catch sight of synonyms and paraphrased sentences in the exam text.
Don’t leave any questions unanswered: Make sure you put an answer down for every question
– you never know, you might just get the answer right!