FCE Exam Tips

Part 1
1. Circle the prepositions right after the blanks. (_____ for)
2. Circle the adjectives before/after the blank.
3. Read the title to understand the overall topic.
4. Read the paragraph and understand the general idea, what is it trying to say?
5. Is the blank showing a contradiction, giving a reason, or giving more detail?

Part 2
1. Read the text quickly without worrying about the answers so you can understand the meaning.
2. You only need one word, “don’t” (do not) and “he’ll” (he will) count as two words, but “can’t”
(cannot) is only one word.
3. The words are going to be related to grammar:
a. Articles (A/An/The)
b. Auxiliary Verbs (has, will, is, are, were, be)
c. Linking Words (and, but, however, although)
d. Relative Pronoun (Who, Which)
e. Reflexive Pronouns (Myself, Yourself)
f. Possessive Pronouns (My, Their, His)
g. Pronouns (Me, I, You, Him, Them)
h. Comparisons (As, Than, More)
i. Prepositions (of, from)

Part 3
1. As always read the text quickly first
2. You don’t need to match the words, it’s already in order
3. Don’t forget the negative form of a word!
4. Also, don’t forget you can make it into a person (research – researcher)
5. Should the word be plural or singular?
NOUNS: Words connected to 'the, my/your/their (etc), whose, another, other, a/an' are
probably nouns
ADJECTIVES: adjectives often come after the verb 'to be', after words like ‘very,
extremely’ and other adverbs, before a noun.
ADVERBS: they come before verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
VERBS: Can! Will! Should! Must! These are all followed by a base verb.

Part 4
1. You MUST use the keyword, and you can't CHANGE the keyword. If the keyword is 'follow' you
cannot write 'follows' or 'following'.
2. You must use between 2 and 5 words. It might be possible to create a grammatically correct
sentence by writing 13 words, but you will get no points for that.
3. Contractions count as two words.
 FCE Exam Tips

4. Cross the words you don’t need.

5. Don’t forget prepositions and subject verb agreement.
6. Don’t waste too much time here. You either know or not the answer.

Part 5
1.
Read the title, what is it going to be about? *
2.
Read the questions and underline keywords in each option
3.
Think of synonyms for the keywords *
4.
When you’re reading the text, remember that the answers are in order!
5.
Ignore words you don’t know, there’s nothing you can do about them. Try to understand the
general idea, not every detail.
6. Eliminate the options that are not mentioned in the text or that the opposite is mentioned,
usually 2 options are easy to eliminate
7. When you think you found the answer, underline it. It’ll make it easier to find the other options
since they’re in order!
* You can read the text before looking at the questions or after looking at the questions. Choose
which one you think is best for you!

Part 6
1. Read the title so you can understand the topic of the text.
2. Read the text with the gaps first, it’s very important to understand the text.
3. While you’re reading, write the topic of each paragraph next to it using a few words.
4. After, close to the gaps in the text and in the questions, circle anything related to:
- People (he, she, they, the scientists, the people, etc)
- Contrast words (but, however, although)
- Cause and effect (because, therefore, as a result)
- Time (then, after, finally)
5. Once you’ve finished these steps, you can start matching the questions by using the topic of the
paragraphs and the words you circle to help you.
6. Finally, read through the text again quickly to see if it makes sense.

Part 7
1. Read the explanation of the text so you have an idea what the text will be about.
2. Read the questions first before reading the text.
3. In the questions, circle key words and think of synonyms for those words. You won’t find the
exact same sentence on the text.
4. Once you start reading the text, underline or circle the part you think is the answer.
5. After you finish reading all the questions, you can go through everything again and check if it still
makes sense.