CAE USE OF ENGLISH TEST

1. The Order
Parts 2, 3, and 4 all have fields where you must write one or more words. You should
do these first.
Start with part 4. Do it quickly. You either know the answer or you don't. Don't waste time
here.
Go to part 3. Spend a bit more time here. You can lose 'easy' points by being careless.
Part 2 has a lot of 'you know it or you don't' kind of questions, so do it quickly.
Next is part 1. It's also one with 'I know this' or 'I have no idea' type questions. Race
through this part.

2. Titles
Almost every part of the Reading and Use of English test has a title. There is a reason for
this - titles help you to quickly know what you are about to read. If you don't read the
title you are just making life hard for yourself!

PART 1

Nothing prepares you for the Reading test better than reading.

If you are 100% sure that two of the 4 choices are completely identical, then
neither can be the answer. There is always only one word that fits grammatically
and has the right meaning.

Double-check every sentence for prepositions that might link to the missing word.
For example: some verbs are always followed by 'for', others are never followed by
'for'. If the word 'for' is in the sentence, it's likely to be important.

A great book that helps with this part of the exam is CAE Testbuilder. It has 4
exams inside, but the best part is that it explains why the right answers are right,
and why the wrong answers are wrong. Very, very useful.
Example:

Here's how a good student (you) should do it:

a) Read the title. It's about black bears. Do you know anything about black bears?
(You probably know a lot about black beers, but that might not help here.) Maybe
you know that black bears are scary and can climb trees.
b) Quickly read the text. Reading the two paragraphs gives us an idea of the topic the biologist likes bears and doesn't think they are so scary.
c) Look at question 1. Which option collocates with 'trust'? Maybe you think catch
trust and win trust sound good, but you're not sure which one is right. Just
choose one and go to the next question. This is a part of the test where we don't
want to spend too much time.
d) For question 2 you've decided insight or vision both sound good. You aren't sure
which one... until you read the sentence again. It says 'into their behaviour'. Into!
That links with insight. 'Insight into their behaviour' - yes, it sounds good. Let's
choose that.
e) Question 3 - You have read a lot of texts in English and the only one of these words
you have ever seen at the start of a sentence is Contrary. You choose that. Lucky
you read all those BBC articles!

PART 2

consider contractions like 'won't' to be two words (will not), so that will never be
an answer in part 2.
Start by reading the title, then quickly read the whole text. This will help tell you if
words should be positive or negative.
I went through every 'open cloze' test in every Cambridge book I could find and
made an Excel spreadsheet of all the answers. The results were very interesting
and a little bit surprising.
The most common answers were (in order of frequency):
to - being - which - for - with - one - not as
Here is a graph showing all the data rather beautifully

Some advice on the data:

a) If the missing word is at the start of the sentence, ask yourself if a gerund fits. Many
answers were -ing forms - having and being were very frequent.
b) Of the relative pronouns, the most common by far was which. Study defining and
non-defining relative clauses!
c) 'With' came up frequently, but so did 'without'. That's why you should read the text
as a whole before you start thinking of the answers.
d) Similarly, 'if' was very common, but so was 'unless'. Unless means 'if not', so again,
reading the whole text to get the writer's opinion is vital!
e) While 'to be' was, naturally, the most common verb and has its own section, other
verbs were quite common. Mostly they are verbs which are useful in some advanced
grammatical structures. For example, 'have' (and has, had, etc) are useful for making
perfect tenses. Do is useful for emphatic language. Take is used in many phrasal verbs.
f) Linking phrases! You need to know these for the writing and speaking parts, but if you
have mastered the words whereas, although, however,despite, spite (in the
phrase in spite of), there are many easy points to collect in this part of the exam.
Also but, so, while, and such things.
g) Prepositions. Everyone's least favourite part of English. Except Cambridge. Cambridge
LOVES prepositions. Look for uses of in, of, by, out,before, after, and all the rest.
h) These words aren't the most frequent, but there will be 3 or 4 in your text
- no, there, once, even, such, since, it, myself (or themselves etc),what, either,
and these.
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i) The! I was amazed how many times 'the' was the answer. Poor little 'a' was much less
common.

PART 3

This is a Word Formation task

You need to read the whole text to get the writer's opinion on the topic. That's
because you'll have to change some of the words into negative forms, and you
can't do that if you only read the sentences containing the missing words.
To do it well you need to understand how sentences are built in English - that
means understanding the function of verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. That
sounds hard, but it's really not so bad when you get the hang of it.
- Sometimes you can't spot a noun based on its ending, but sometimes you can.
Look out for: -eer; -tion; -ment, -age, -al, ance, -hood, -iety, -ness, and so on.
- If you have a word which can be made plural or into a possessive form, it's a
noun. (Two solutions/ the solution's result = solution is a noun.) Read the part 3
text carefully to check if you need to make your noun plural!
- If you have a determiner in a sentence, look for a noun. If you can't find one
that goes with the determiner, the missing word is a noun. Determiners
include the, my/your/their (etc), whose, another, other, a/an.
Their ___________ was very clever. SOLVE
The ____________ was more dangerous than they had expected. PURSUE
An incredible number of ___________ failed to understand the significance of the
study. SCIENCE
(Answers: solution/pursuit/scientists.)

Adjectives are the most common answers in part 3, slightly ahead of nouns.

common endings for adjectives:

-able; -ible; -al (careful! this works with nouns too); -ial; -ant; -ate; -ative; -ive; -ing; -ed;
-ous; -ly (not always an adverb!); -y; -ful; -ness; -ic; -ary; -ory.

How to use an adverb

Adverbs describe verbs, other adverbs and adjectives. Adverbs used frequently by
Cambridge are increasingly, progressively, dramatically and others which
describe the rate of change. Also, they're fond of adverbs that start sentences,
such as alternatively, surprisingly, etc.

Essential verbs

Do you know how to change words into

verbs using 'en', 'under', and 'out'?

Positive or negative
When you've decided if you need a
verb/adjective/etc in a space, and you've
got an answer, always read the paragraph
again to make sure the meaning is
correct. A few words on every test will be
negative.

Here's an example from a Cambridge text about climbing Mount Everest:

"During the month of May, ............................. weather presents a number of safe
opportunities to make the climb." FAVOUR
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Because the text was about Everest, students will quickly fill in 'UNFAVOURABLE'. On
careful reading of the sentence, better students realise the word 'safe' is key. The answer
therefore should be FAVOURABLE.
The next sentence is:
"As a result, the sheer number of climbers has brought an ............................. problem overcrowded conditions." EXPECT
An EXPECTED problem? But the last bit of the sentence - overcrowded conditions - is the
last thing you'd expect on Mount Everest. So here we need the negative form,
UNEXPECTED.
common negative prefi xes:
dis-; in-; im-; il-; un-; il-; de-; mis-

PART 4

It tests a wide range of grammar, vocabulary, and you need to be able to change
informal language into formal, active into passive, and more!

You might not know the whole answer but sometimes one correct word will give
you a point.

Check your tenses - if the first sentence is in the past tense, the second should be,
too!

If you've studied the word 'spite' before you probably know it comes in the phrase 'in
spite of'. So the temptation with this answer is to put 'in spite' before 'of experience'.
Something like:
Anna got the job in spite of experience in public relations.
No! That doesn't make any sense. If she had experience in public relations we wouldn't
need to use the phrase 'in spite of'. So 'in spite of' has to go at the start. Yes, we have
'of' twice, and it looks weird, but it's the only way.
Anna got the job in spite of .......................... of experience in public relations.
We've used 3 words and can use a maximum of 3 more. But the good news is that we've
already got 1 of the 2 points available.
The next part of our answer has to mean 'she didn't have much experience'. How about:
Anna got the job in spite of not having a lot of experience in public relations.
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Sounds good! But it's 7 words. Too many! So we try again. By now I'm anxious to move
on to the next question so I'll just think for 15 seconds or so. Fortunately the answer
pops into my head right away because I studied really hard:
Anna got the job in spite of her lack of experience in public relations.
As you can see, there's a lot involved in this part of the exam. You'll need to study all
kinds of grammar, phrasal verbs, set phrases

CAE READING
PART 5

Part 5 is a long text with six comprehension questions. Each correct answer is
worth 2 points.
The surest way to improve on this part of the exam is to read a lot in English. My
students who read 'for fun' do this part much more quickly, much more accurately,
than the students who hate reading. So... read!
Everything here is a trap. (Well, 75%.) Why do all the answers seem plausible?
Because if you just read the text quickly every answer seems possible. But before
you write your answer, remember what Admiral Ackbar says in Star Wars.

Read everything: It's not enough to read the text carefully. You have to read
the questions and answers carefully too!

The answers are sequential. The answer to question 5 comes after the answer to
question 4 in the text.

The only exception might be the 6th question - sometimes it asks you a question
about the whole text. Another reason to read the questions carefully!

Leave your own ideas and biases at the door. You might be an expert in the topic if anything, this is a disadvantage! You have to read the text for what the writer
says, not what you assume he says.

Always question your answers - overconfidence is especially dangerous in this part

of the exam.

common traps 1 - who?

common traps 2 - the most.

Questions like this are common: What was his main field of interest? / What was
his most valuable painting? / Which subject did he specialise in?
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common traps 3 - suspiciously obvious connections

The text says 'The writer canceled his projected holiday.' One of the questions asks,
'What was the writer's attitude to the holiday?' And option A is 'He had foreseen the
need to take out travel insurance.' It's a trap! A good student understands that
'projected' and 'foreseen' are similar sorts of word, but this part of the test is about
understanding the text, not just individual words
PART 6

In part 6 you read 4 short texts from different writers. You have to answer 4 questions,
each worth 2 points. You have to understand each writer's opinion on various topics and
compare them with the opinions of the others. You might have to read each text several
times, so it could use up a lot of your precious exam minutes.
It's easy to get things wrong if you go too quickly and don't double-check your answers.
First, we need to work out everyone's opinions on pizza. Read through the texts carefully
and you'll see that A would rather go to hell than eat it, B says it is heavenly, and C says
it's overrated. Which one is different? That's the answer.
For question 2 we have to re-read B and get his opinion about the origins of pizza. What
does he say about it? He says Italian purists are the descendants of its inventors. Text A
doesn't say anything about where pizza comes from. Text C says it has roots in Southern
Italy. B and C say the same thing, which means C is the answer.
And what about the cost? A says pizza is good value for money. B doesn't say anything
about the cost of pizza. C says pizzas are overpriced. C is the opposite of A, so there's
the answer.

PART 7

Cambridge calls part 7 a 'gapped text' activity. You get a long text with six paragraphs
removed (leaving 6 gaps, hence the name of the task).

How to start

Read the whole text. Read all the paragraphs.

Then pay special attention to the sentences before and after the gap - a lot of the
most important information will be there. You don't have to start with the first gap
- always start with the one you think is going to be easiest and leave the hardest
ones till later. The first answer you choose will be a 1 in 7 chance, but the last one
is 1 in 2.

But be careful! Sometimes there won't be a clue in the sentence immediately

before or after the gap. You really do need to read the whole text to get its
meaning - sometimes the 'clue' is the entire paragraph.

What sort of clues are in a text?

Names and pronouns (Jack... he... this...)
Chronology (Then... Finally...)
Quotation marks ("I couldn't believe it.")
Contrast words (However, but)
Verb tenses (had gone... will have finished)
Cause and effect (Therefore... as a result...)
Repetition (in other words...)

PART 8

Part 8 gives you 4-6 short texts and 10 questions. It's called 'Multiple Matching' because
you have to match the ten questions with the short texts. Most students find it easier
than the other parts of the reading test and can do it quicker.

Start by reading the introduction to the task and the title of the texts

Next, scan the first text - not too quickly or you'll just have to read it again. Then
read question 1 and underline the keywords. Were those keywords (or their
synonyms) mentioned in the text? If not, go to question 2. If yes, find the place in
the text where it was mentioned and read it more carefully. If it's a match, write A
in the first box.

Once you've been through the ten questions, you should have between 2 and 4
questions with an A next to them.

Now repeat the process with text B. It will be a little quicker this time because
instead of going through 10 questions you're only going through 6-8. Repeat with
C and D (and E, F, if there are more than 4 texts).

CAE Listening
The listening test has 4 parts and takes about 40 minutes. You normally have to do it
after the Reading and Writing test, so you'll be quite tired.

Get used to predicting answers before you listen. Read the question, underline the
key words, and then think what is the most likely answer. It doesn't matter if
you're right or not - just predicting the answer helps you 'tune in' to the recording.

As soon as you are allowed to open the test paper, turn to section 1 and start
underlining key words in the questions. Meanwhile, the other students will be
listening to this:

Cambridge uses distractors to lead weaker students in the wrong direction. If you
underline a key word in the answer and you hear that exact word in the
recording, it's probably not the answer! Watch out for answers like 'The man lives
in China' when the speaker says 'I used to live in China' or 'I always wanted to live
in China'.

One of the best ways to improve (and to learn about distractors) is to read the
transcript of the recording after you've done the exercise. In my experience,
students never do this, and it's a real shame.

PART 1

Part 1 is a multiple choice section. You hear people talking to each other and you have
two questions about what you hear. There are three short recordings, which means a
total of 6 questions to answer.

First we have to underline keywords and predict what the answer might be.

I would be surprised if the answer was C, because who cares if the brochures look
nice or not? A is more likely than C but I'm going to guess B. The point of the
college brochure is to describe the courses, so that's probably what's most
important to these friends.
PART 2

Part 2 is called 'sentence completion'. Someone talks on a topic for about 3 minutes. You
have to show you understand what he says by filling in the gaps in 8 sentences.
Was it useful to predict the answer at the beginning? After all, we didn't think of diary,
blog, or report in the prediction stage. The answer is yes -listening for a specific piece of
information is much easier than listening to the whole recording. Try it a few times and
I'm sure you'll agree with me.
PART 3

Part 3 is another multiple choice activity (like part 1), but this time there's only one
recording and it's quite long - up to 4 minutes. The format is often an interview. There
are 6 questions. (In the exam the question numbers are 15-20.)

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You hear the answers in the order of the questions. In other words, the first answer
comes at the start of the recording and the last answer is at the end.

As soon as part 2 is over, turn to part 3 and start reading the questions. This is the
section with the most text so the more time you can spend reading, the better.
Start by reading the question stems and if you have time, go back and start
reading the choices. Underline key words.

As always, Cambridge use distractors in this section. Be very suspicious of 'exact

match' phrases. If option C uses the word 'abundant' and one of the speakers uses
the word 'abundant', it's probably not the answer.

Eliminate answers that are clearly wrong. Often it's possible to eliminate 3 of the 4
choices, so you can get the answer even if you don't know the meaning of a
certain word.

There will be words you don't know. You have to develop the skill of guessing what
words mean based on context.

A lot of this section is about understanding how people feel about certain topics. What
are their attitudes and opinions? Get out your grammar/vocabulary books and study the
following things:
A. reporting verbs
"Jack regretted eating his girlfriend's chocolate."
"Thierry admitted he had cheated to win."
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"Sally resents being made to learn the piano."

Here are all the reporting verbs from just one practice exam: emphasise, agree, support,
compare, suggest, criticise. Could it be worth an hour of extra revision on that topic?
B. adjectives and adverbs that describe feelings and attitudes
"I'm frustrated by the poor battery life of my phone. All phones are like this nowadays, so
I guess it isn't unexpected. But I hoped it would be better and now I'm a bit
disappointed."
C. degrees of certainty
"I'm completely convinced that everyone will have a robot in the future."
"I find that doubtful. It's more likely that only rich people will have the money and the
space in their homes."

PART 4

Strategies
Some students do Task One when listening the first time and Task Two when the
recording is replayed. That works for some people but I don't recommend it. It's not the
optimal method - What if someone sneezes or coughs during the replay and you miss a
key word or phrase?
For most students, I'd advise doing both tasks simultaneously.
Note - Cambridge have done research that shows both methods work equally well! You
should try both to see which is better for you.

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