Teaching Tips
by Fiona Joseph

It’s not long before your students sit their English exams and if you have to plough through another practice paper you’ll scream! The following tips are presented as ideas for what to do with exam classes in the last few weeks of an exam course when nerves are frayed and motivation may be dipping. The focus is on the Cambridge First Certificate in English and the Certificate in Advanced English but the ideas are equally applicable to high level exams which test reading and writing skills.

Tips for the Writing Paper

1. Simple brainstorming
Give the students an exam-style writing task from your coursebook or a question from a past Writing paper. For example:
Write a composition beginning or ending with the words: 'It was a day I’ll never forget'.
Tell the students they have three minutes to jot down five points related to the question you have given them. When their time is up they should compare their notes with their classroom colleagues and write down any other ideas. (If time permits they can work together to start organising these points into different paragraphs.) The purpose is NOT to write the whole essay but to practise this brainstorming procedure until it becomes second nature for your students.
Variation: Use the same procedure with ‘Writing a good introduction’ as the main focus. Again, give the students a typical exam task (e.g. a report or article) but allow up to 10 minutes to write an introduction that will get the examiner’s attention.

2. Corrected essays
Photocopy a selection of the essays that you have corrected for your students during their exam course. Arrange your class into groups of 3 or 4 and distribute the essays to each group. Give the leader of each group an A4 sheet with the following headings, which are similar to the marking criteria for FCE and CAE:
Content (Does it answer the question?)
Range (Is there a good range of grammatical structures and vocabulary?)
Organisation and layout
Register Target reader (Would it have a good effect on the reader?)
Language accuracy
The students should read each essay and ask them to discuss the merits of the essay using the criteria given. Studying essays that have already been corrected is more illuminating for students.
Alternative: If your students have internet access they can browse through corrected exam-style essays online on Flo-Joe's Writing 'Makeover'.

3. Spot the error
On a sheet of A4 compile a list of 10-15 sentences selected from your students’ work, each containing a common error or two. For example:
1. When I will leave university I plan to carry out researches into the environment.
Do not highlight the error(s) and keep the sentences anonymous. At various points in your list add some ‘good’ sentences - these will function as the distractors - to make around 20 sentences in all. Give out a copy of the sheet to each student. Ask the students to find the ‘bad’ sentences and explain what the error is. This can be done as a whole class activity or in teams to add a competitive element.
Variation: Follow the above procedure but this time make the focus on finding the ‘good’ (i.e. well-crafted) sentences that examiners are impressed by. Select around 15 sentences that show the appropriate use of more complex grammatical structures, such as:
"No matter what ..."
"If I hadn’t ..., I would never have ..."
Or appropriate use of vocabulary, such as strong collocations like:
"Chances of finding a cure for cancer are slim". (slim chance)

4. Last-minute checklists
Make copies of the following sheet or write the questions on a transparency:
Do I know:
what stationery I need to bring to the exam?
how to fill in the answer sheet?
how to pick the writing tasks I am best at?
how to manage my time effectively?
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Ask each student to answer the questions and to add any of their own concerns. This sheet can be used as the basis of a final ‘surgery’ session or tutorial to address any last minute panics.
Variation: Produce a similar set of questions for other the exam papers, such as reading and listening. Follow-up: If you’re going to be seeing your students after their exam ask them to write some tips for future exam candidates.

About the Author
Fiona Joseph is an author of Cambridge exam materials, including the 'Candidate' series, and the co-founder of Flo-Joe. She can be contacted by email at: fiona@flo-joe.co.uk

N.B. An edited version of this article first appeared in the EL Gazette in March 2001.

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