HOW TO PASS THE CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH EXAMS - SUCCESSFUL STUDENTS DO THIS! FCE TIPS, CAE TIPS, CPE TIPS

what do successful cambridge english exam students have in common what is it that they do that unsuccessful students don't do well i've been helping people prepare for the cambridge english exams for about 15 years now and over that time i have observed what common characteristics the successful students have that the unsuccessful students don't have what do they do differently and today i'm going to share what i've learned with you okay let's do this [Music] now the first point i would like to make today is probably the most important and it's probably not what you're expecting it's not exactly what successful students do or don't do it's what they are or what they are not and successful cambridge english exam students are not cocky now when i say cocky i mean overly confident and i'm speaking specifically about their level of english not in general yeah successful cambridge english exam students are not overconfident and cocky they understand that they need to work hard to pass the exam i've noticed that some students think well i've been studying english for all my life i have a good level or maybe i speak to english people in english all the time i don't have big problems maybe even i've lived in an english-speaking country for for some time so you know i have a good level and imagine if they're preparing for the advanced you know i have a strong advanced level i don't really need to prepare too much i i'm i can just go straight in and pass and that's the biggest mistake you can make because passing a cambridge english exam is not just about having the level it's about being prepared and knowing the exam very well so if you're cocky if you're overly confident you're not going to take it seriously enough to pass and i've seen that so many times that students with with a good level a good strong advanced or even proficiency level fail the exams just because they don't prepare enough and they're too confident they think their level is enough it's not enough you need to prepare so that's the first and probably the most important point i want to make today the second point is that successful cambridge english exam students are organized now when you decide that you want to get the certificate you want to take a cambridge english exam you may sit down and look at what you have to do you look at the format of the exam and you'll see you have reading and use of english which is seven or eight parts you have the writing which is two parts you have the listening which is four parts the speaking's four parts and all the grammar you have to learn all the vocabulary you need to learn or to to revise at least and you think where where do i start what do i do where do where do i approach this from and that's why you need to be organized you need to have a plan you need to think about how you're going to approach your studies your preparation because you may find if you're not organized that a week before the exam you realized i haven't practiced an article in the writing or i haven't really done part four of the use of english or well i kind of know part three of the speaking but not very well because maybe you missed it out in your preparation because you weren't organized and this leads me on to the next point is that a successful cambridge english exam student keeps a vocabulary book their own personal dictionary so to speak because you need to expand your vocabulary it's so important of phrasal verbs collocations linking words common expressions so any new word any new expression you learn you have to add to your dictionary it's very important partly to learn new words but also to move passive vocabulary into your active vocabulary because you know a lot of words you've probably been studying english for a long time but you're going to need to use them now not just know them not just have them in the back of your mind you're going to need to use them and also related to organization is starting your preparation early it's a big mistake to think you can prepare for the cambridge english exams in a couple of weeks or a month or even two months you need you know you need to give yourself about six months or a year to prepare i mean if you have recently taken another cambridge english visa maybe you're studying for the cambridge advanced and you took the first certificate the b2 first six months ago or a few months ago and within the last year then then you have an advantage because you know the structure and the format of the exam they're very similar exams um so maybe you'll need less time depending on the real level you have but generally you need a lot of time to prepare for these exams so successful cambridge english exam student starts preparing early and they also study the exam it's not that they study for the exam that they study the exam as i said you need to know the format very well you need to get to know this exam like the back of your hand as i've said in a previous video that's extremely important again a cocky student will not really take it seriously enough to to get to know every detail every part of the exam what is expected of you and how to answer each question how to approach each part of the exam so that's very important and a successful student will focus on their weaknesses without ignoring their strengths okay maybe that's quite obvious you need to focus on your weaknesses because you need to get all your skills up to a good level so if your listening is your weakness then you know practice listening do the practice tests watch films in english listen to podcasts in english etc that's quite obvious i guess focus on your weaknesses but without ignoring your strengths now to pass a cambridge english exam you need to get over a certain threshold a certain points threshold and if you have a disaster a really bad score in for example the the speaking your speaking is your weaknesses it's just that you have a really bad day you can compensate by getting a really good score in the writing so you don't necessarily have to do well in all the skills of course it's much better if you do well in all the skills that's the objective that's the that's what you need to try to achieve but that's why it's important to not to ignore your strengths you may think you know i don't need to improve my writing i'm very that's my strong area that's my forte but you do you need to get that as high as possible because that could be the difference between a past and a fail to compensate for your weakest area so yeah focus on your weaknesses of course but don't ignore your strengths you need to work on all your skills and successful cambridge english exam students are also consistent with their studies i've said in other videos that consistency is more important than intensity that's true in learning english in general but also when you're studying for an exam many students make the mistake of obsessing with the exam with their studies with their revision and every day studying intensively and in the end they burn out because they can't maintain that level for enough time to to get to the exam often you have other things in your life you have school university your work your family it's very difficult to to maintain that high level of intensity consistently over the the months that you are preparing for the exam so it's better just to do something every day something little every day maybe just study one part of the exam or read one article in english but consistently more or less every day i'm not saying literally every day but something regularly so consistency is more important than intensity and that leads me on to the last point a successful student knows when to take a break again i spoke about this in a very recent video about generally studying english again with the the cambridge english exams it's important to take a break sometimes that's not contradicting my last point consistency is important so to study regularly but to take a break occasionally take a day off a weekend off that's okay um you don't want to burn out you don't want to create a bad relationship with the exams you want to enjoy your studies if possible so you know if you feel it's getting a bit too much stop take a break and then go back when you feel more energized and more motivated to continue okay let me know if you have any other tips that you can share with us maybe you've taken a cambridge exam in the past and now you're studying for the next level um you can all help each other in the comments don't forget to join my telegram group lots of enthusiastic and motivated students there helping each other hit the subscribe button because i'm going to be making more and more of these videos to help you with the cambridge english exams okay thank you for joining me and i'll see you again very soon for another video bye

Channel: To The Point English with Ben.

Views: 3,406

Keywords: how to pass the cae exam, cae tips, how to pass c1 advanced, how to pass cae cambridge exam, how to pass c1 advanced cambridge, how to pass fce, how to pass cambridge english exam, how to pass cambridge exams, how to pass cpe exam, how to pass cpe cambridge, how to pass cambridge advanced, how to pass c2, how to pass c2 english, how to pass c2 cambridge exam, cae exam tips, fce exam tips, cpe exam tips, cambridge engish exam tips, c1 advanced tips, ben gill, fce tips

Id: DV56QYZiWWI

Length: 9min 43sec (583 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021