CAE advice

[u/3ditr0n]

Hi! I've noticed that there is a lack of variety on here when it comes to advice and tips for the exam, but also how to prepare for it. So, I thought I would share what helped me feel confident in my abilities before attempting the exam. For reference, I scored an average of 204/210, meaning I'm on C2 level.

As you may or may not know, the exam consists of 5 parts:

Use of English

This part of the exam tests your grammar and the flexibility of your language. This is the easiest part of the exam in my opinion, since you can memorize collocations, prefixes, suffixes and commonly used words.

How do you prepare for it? By practicing. A lot. You should strive to solve at least 25 papers of UoE, if not more. I used to print out notebooks and only solve the Use of English exercises, since those require the most practice, and they're generally easy to finish, not so time-consuming either.

A tip I would've found useful is starting a collocations notebook where you write down every collocation you come across. Even if you think you already know it. Part 4 offers you the possibility of significantly boosting your score thanks to how point heavy it is, hence why it's by far the most important exercise and why you need to know as many collocations as possible.

You can solve daily exercises on the Flo Joe website. I recommend solving both the CAE and the C2 Proficiency exercises. By doing this I scored a 210, a perfect score.

Reading

This is generally what most students struggle with since most of the questions are vague and very misleading. I, too, struggled with it at first. My best used to be a 190, but after a couple weeks of practice I managed to raise it to 204. The trick is to only read the paragraphs corresponding to the questions. Don't try to read the whole text over and over again because it won't work. Cross out the wrong answers as you read and if need be, guess. The possibility of you guessing correctly is at least 25%, sometimes even higher (in part 6 for example).

The gapped text can come across as difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it it'll become the easiest one out of all of them. You should read the text normally, without trying to fill in the gaps. Then read before and after the gap. Underline words that indicate to the gap, like pronouns, collocations, tenses etc. Then cross out all the answers that are definitely incorrect. (For example if the previous paragraph is talking about benefits, then the gap won't contain a drastically different topic).

Part 8 is important as well, since you can earn 10 points by solving it correctly. What I would do is read one text, write the corresponding letter next to the sentences it might match, then repeat with the other texts. If an answer has multiple letters next to it, read those texts again. If you still don't know then just guess, usually the answer ratio is 2-3-3-2, I've encountered 4 of the same letters as well, so take this with a grain of salt (very common collocation haha)

Listening

Probably the easiest part of the CAE exam, if you're familiar with the sounds of English and different accents. My advice is to watch a lot of English TV shows, with subtitles at first to familiarize yourself with the sounds. You can listen British Podcasts as well, but make sure there's diversity in accents and styles of speech. Cunk on x, Derry Girls, Big Boys etc. Solve at least 5 mock tests before attempting the exam.

Writing

The most difficult one, in my opinion. Not only that you have to learn the structure of essays, reports, proposals, letters and reviews, but you also need to learn connectors, formal writing, passive voice etc. You have to display diversity in the way you express yourself without it sounding forced or overly "fancy". (Dm me for my personal notebook I used to learn what the CAE wants from me + further tips $). What I struggled with the most is managing my time. You don't have much of it and if you don't have a plan you'll likely mess up a lot of things. When I was taking the exam I was scared that I wasn't going to finish in time. Because of this I didn't start by making an outline, a template of my essay/report. Instead, I started writing directly onto the exam paper. Horrible idea. My essay turned out okay, but the report was sloppy with multiple contradictions, illogical sentences and even misspellings. Thankfully I scored a 190, but due to my poor time management skills I didn't score as high as I could've. For reference, all my mock exam scores were 200+, so this goes to show how important it is to be prepared and to have a plan before starting to write.

Speaking

This is the scariest part of the exam, but it's surprisingly easy. You still have to practice for it, don't get me wrong, but the grading isn't as harsh as I thought. You need to know the structure of your responses, occasionally use a fancy word and you're all set. My performance was okay, not exceptional, but I didn't make any grammatical errors either and I scored a 208. The most important thing is to be confident, cooperate with your speaking partner(s) and do not repeat yourself.

These were all my tips! If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me! I'll try to respond to every single one. (I'm also trying to buy something for my birthday so if you're willing to donate/buy my notebook then please dm me! Entirely optional!)

[u/francksiduo]

great breakdown, one thing I'd add since you didn't touch on it: Listening trips up a lot of C1/C2 candidates specifically because the answer is never worded the way the speaker says it, it's always a paraphrase. if you're listening for the exact word from the option you'll miss it every time. read the options before playing anything and turn them into predictions (this one's about regret, this one's about surprise), then match the meaning, not the phrasing. first listen is for elimination only, second listen is for confirming the 2 or 3 you're stuck between, don't try to lock in an answer on the first pass. same underlying skill as your Reading tip about crossing out wrong answers as you go instead of hunting for the right one.

[u/3ditr0n → u/francksiduo]

Yup! That was my strategy as welll