Summer might be the season for taking time off work, but for many English language students it’s also the time of year to sign up for an exam and work towards passing it. Whichever exam you’ll be taking, be it PTE, FCE, CAE, CPE or IELTS or another, we are here with some advice that will help you prepare. Here, then, are our 10 best practices for tackling English language exams.
1. Avoid learning language in isolation
If grammar is the skeleton of the language, then vocabulary is the meat (and we might say idiomatic language the blood). Of course, you can’t have one without the other. When learning new words, make sure you learn the grammatical constructions that go with them (e.g., dependent prepositions, whether verbs are followed by a gerund or the infinitive, and so on). When learning grammar, make sure you personalise and contextualise it with lots of examples. Familiarise yourself with collocations and learn language in chunks. Continue reading
In today’s globalised world, it is increasingly important not only to be proficient in English but also to be able to prove your level of proficiency. Companies with international business often require job applicants to present a certificate that shows how fluent they are in English, while for non-natives applying to universities in English-speaking countries, demonstrating you have a high enough level of the language to study your chosen subject is a basic entry requirement. With so many options available, the first question has to be, ‘Which English exams should I choose?’ Here we look at what’s on offer. For some top tips on how to prepare, 