How to prepare for the Cambridge English exams - WHERE TO START || FCE tips | CAE tips | CPE tips.

hello everyone thank you for joining me again and welcome to any new viewers my name's ben this is to the point english where i give tips and advice on how to pass the cambridge english exams and today i'm going to be answering a question that i've been getting a lot recently both from my students and from members of my telegram group if you're interested in joining that group then hit the link in the description send me a message and i'll add you to the appropriate group that question is related to preparation and it's simply where to start and it's a good question and i'm going to answer it right now okay let's do this [Music] now deciding to prepare for and take an english exam is quite similar to other decisions you take in your life for example if you decide you want to get fit and healthy there are many things you need to think about for example what exercises you need to do whether you should join a gym if you should get a personal trainer or if you can do it on your own at home following youtube videos then you need to think about the equipment you need if you need weights or exercise bands or if you prefer nike shoes or adidas shoes which ones look better so important decisions like that and then you have to think about nutrition and your diet so many things to think about and with english exams is quite similar you may think well should i join an academy should i get a private teacher can i study by myself using youtube videos but which channels should i follow which website should i look at what books should i buy what podcasts should i listen to so there are so many things to think about that sometimes you're in danger of suffering from analysis paralysis analysis paralysis is basically what happens if you spend too much time and energy thinking about doing something analyzing all the details about what you need to prepare before you start that in the end you don't start you're delaying the actual beginning the activity itself so my first piece of advice today is just do it now i might get in trouble for using that i think that's copyrighted that that slogan but yeah just just start stop analyzing and just start but you've clicked on this video because you probably want a more specific answer to the question where do i start so what i would really recommend the first thing you should do is spend the first couple of weeks really getting to know the exam as well as possible as i've said before get to know the exam like the back of your hand that's the most important thing so the first two or three weeks of your preparation you should find some example papers an example exam you can find these on on the official cambridge exam website i'll link to a handbook it's a teacher's handbook it's for teachers but it's very useful for students it's completely free it's from the official cambridge english exams website and you have all the details you need to know about the exams go through that handbook and look at each individual part of the exam spend some time going through each part don't worry about the timing this is just an introduction and don't worry if you get questions wrong you will get questions wrong don't get disheartened or discouraged this is not a test this is just an introduction to the exam so you will get a lot of questions wrong you will realize that these exams are very difficult but it's just the first introduction so you know what you need to to prepare for you know what you're doing you you can start thinking about your weaknesses you need to identify your weaknesses and your strengths so you can start focusing on your weaknesses but without forgetting your strengths but at the same time in those first weeks you should start building a habit of watching everything in english listening to everything in english so all the films series youtube videos listen to all podcasts and radio in english and start keeping a vocabulary notebook your own personal dictionary so you can do this simultaneously you don't need to do one thing and then the next thing consecutively you can do them in parallel um so this should just be part of your life now watching everything and listening to everything in english and being proactive paying attention to what you're listening to and of course reading in english this is so important again actively reading it's possible to read a book and enjoy it without necessarily understanding every word but as you're preparing for an exam you need to pay attention to the vocabulary and the grammar so everything in english at the same time as getting to know the exam then after those first few weeks i'd recommend that you start dedicating one day of the week for each area each skill so maybe for example monday or the use of english so it's really grammar and vocabulary maybe tuesday for the reading maybe wednesday for practice one at least one writing task thursday could be listening friday speaking and at the weekends just whatever you feel you need to focus on more and again as i've said before it's okay to take a break at the weekends take sunday off if you like it you don't want to burn out and overload yourself with english so try to organize your time so that you have some kind of system some kind of routine and it just becomes part of your life but then i recommend as you get closer to the exam to start going back and doing as many practice tests as possible find old sample papers to do as many as possible and start developing a strategy for each part of the exam so thinking about the timing that your approach to each part and really get it down to specifics not just general idea what you think you will do make sure there are no surprises in the exam that when you turn over the page you know exactly how you're going to approach each part and of course go back and look at all my old videos i have lots of tips in those videos to help you with each part of the exam and don't forget to subscribe because i'm going to be making a lot more videos because there are still a lot to look at in these exams let me know in the comments if you have any other recommendations maybe you have a different perspective i always like to get the students point of view so share your ideas in the comments to help other students so thanks for joining me again and i'll see you very soon for another video take care bye you

Channel: To The Point English with Ben.

Views: 3,210

Keywords: Cambridge English exams tips, Cambridge English exams, cae exam tips, cae tips, c1 advanced Cambridge, c1 advanced Cambridge exam tips, cpe exam tips, cpe tips, c2 proficiency Cambridge exam tips, c2 proficiency exam tips, fce exam tips, fce tips, b2 first Cambridge exam tips, b2 first Cambridge, b2 first exam tips, how to pass the cae, how to pass the fce, how to pass the cpe, how to prepare for the Cambridge English exams

Id: H6GWmlt5n_w

Length: 7min 19sec (439 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 23 2021