knowledge is power - Cambridge Certificate

You are interested in English and want to improve your language skills?
Then the Cambridge Exam preparation course is the perfect decision. It takes place every two weeks and lasts two hours in the afternoon. It doesn’t matter if you’re not sure about your English as long as you have fun and give your best. Our school offers three different grades of difficulty. You can choose between PET (Preliminary English Test), FCE (First Certificate in English) and CAE (Certificate in Advanced English). PET aims itself at 9th and 10th grade students, while FCE is better for E1 and E2 students. For English LK students who are really good at English, it is recommended to do CAE.

What are we doing during the Cambridge lessons?
Actually we practise for the following exams by doing exercises from a special workbook. We also practise listening and - very important – speaking. It is really important that you can talk to each other fluently about given topics, so you have to remember not only to talk about preferred topics but also about topics which are important to take the exams. What do you have to expect in your exams?
The exams are split in various parts: One part is reading. You will receive a text which could be for example an article or any other kind of text you can think of. What you have to do is read the text, of course, and then you have got to answer some questions.
Another part is writing where you have to write a text about one obligatory question and after that you have the choice between answering another five questions.
Use of English is also a part of the exam where you add texts by filling gaps. Furthermore you receive a sentence and you have to build a second sentence with the similar meaning of the first one.
Another very important exercise is listening. You will listen to various monologues and dialogues being followed by some questions.
We already talked about speaking, but here are some more things about it: First you have to talk to an examination supervisor who will ask you some questions about yourself and your life. As you are participating together with a partner you will have to talk to him or her about some pictures. They want you to discuss and come to a conclusion.

Do you need anything special to participate?
First of all, you need to be ambitious and you really have to be interested in improving your English skills. Furthermore, you have to buy a book which depends on the course you are taking. The book is very useful although you won’t have enough time to do everything at school, so it would be great if you did some exercises at home. Of course the exams cost you some money, as they are internationally accepted.

Why Cambridge?
Cambridge English Language Assessment is part of the University of Cambridge (UK) and has been offering English certificates for over 100 years. The first Cambridge English examination ever was launched in 1913. The 12-hour exam had just three candidates and all of them failed. One hundred years later, Cambridge English offers more than 20 exams for everyone, which are taken by over 4 million people each year in 130 countries all over the world.

Which advantages do you have when you participate?
One advantage lies in receiving an international accepted language certificate which will be very useful for the future; for example if you would like to apply for a job. But that’s not the only reason you should do the Cambridge Certificate. You will earn some experience with exams because the Cambridge Test is very different to the tests you do at school. Finally the biggest advantage is to improve your English by having a lot of fun and meeting new people.
As the English say:

Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.

Lara Zielonka and Nadja Martin 

Tags: