117702_PET_Exam_report_2011

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CambridgeEnglish:PreliminaryPreliminary English Test (PET)

Examination Report

2011

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Cambridge English: Preliminary

Examination Report

2011

CONTENTS

Page

Introduction 1Paper 1 − Reading and Writing 3

Paper 2 − Listening 16

Paper 3 − Speaking 21

Feedback Form 26

WEBSITE REFERENCE

This report can be downloaded from the Cambridge ESOL website at:www.teachers.CambridgeESOL.org/pet

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INTRODUCTION

This report is intended to accompany the 2011 Cambridge English: Preliminary PastPaper Pack. It provides a general view of how candidates performed on tasks in eachof the papers included in the pack, as well as offering guidance on the preparation ofcandidates for the exam.

• Grading

The final mark a candidate receives in Cambridge English: Preliminary , also known asPreliminary English Test (PET) is an aggregate of the marks obtained in each of thethree papers (Reading & Writing, Listening and Speaking). Reading & Writing carries50% of the total marks and Listening and Speaking each carry 25% of the marks.There is no minimum pass mark for individual components in order to receive anoverall pass.

The overall grades are set according to the following information:• Statistics on individual questions, for those parts of the examination where this is

appropriate (Reading and Listening)• Statistics on the candidature• Statistics on the overall candidate performance• Advice, based on the performance of candidates and recommendations of

examiners, where this is relevant (Writing and Speaking)• Comparison with statistics from previous years’ examination performance and

candidature.

Cambridge English: Preliminary has three passing grades: Pass with Distinction ,Pass with Merit and Pass . Candidates who have not achieved a Cambridge English:Preliminary passing grade (Council of Europe Level B1), but have demonstrated abilityat the Council of Europe level below this are awarded Level A2 . Candidates belowLevel A2 receive a Fail grade. Every candidate is provided with a Statement of Results,which includes a graphical display of the candidate’s performance in each skill, shownagainst the scale Exceptional – Good – Borderline – Weak.

In addition, the Statement of Results includes a standardised score out of 100. Thisscore allows candidates to see exactly how they performed. It has set values for eachgrade, allowing comparison across sessions of the examination:

Pass with Distinction 90–100 marksPass with Merit 85–89 marksPass 70–84 marksCouncil of Europe Level A2 45–69 marksFail 0–44 marks

• Special Consideration

Special Consideration can be given to candidates affected by adverse circumstancesimmediately before or during an examination. Examples of acceptable reasons forgiving Special Consideration include illness and bereavement. All applications forSpecial Consideration must be made through the local Centre as soon as possible afterthe examination affected.

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• Irregular Conduct

Cases of candidates who are suspected of copying, collusion or breaking theexamination regulations in some other way will be considered by the Cambridge ESOLMalpractice Committee. Results may be withheld because further investigation isneeded or because of infringement of the regulations.

• Notification of Results

Candidates’ Statements of Results are issued through their local Centre and areavailable online approximately five weeks after the examination has been taken.Certificates are issued about four weeks after the issue of Statements of Results.Requests for a check on results may be made through the local Centre, within onemonth of the issue of Statements of Results.

• Support for Teachers

Cambridge ESOL produces the following documents which may be of use to teachers

or institutions preparing candidates for Cambridge English: Preliminary . These can bedownloaded from www.CambridgeESOL.org or www.teachers.CambridgeESOL.org

• Regulations (produced annually)

• Cambridge English: Preliminary Handbook (for detailed information on theexamination and sample materials)

• Examination Report (produced in conjunction with the release of certain pastpapers)

Details of all the official preparation materials for Cambridge English: Preliminary,including course books, practice tests and supplementary materials, can be found be inthe ELT section of the Cambridge University Press website atwww.cambridge.org/ELT/exams

Users of this Examination Report may find it useful to refer simultaneously to thePast Paper Pack for Cambridge English: Preliminary 2011. This can be purchasedfrom the Cambridge University Press website at www.cambridge.org/ELT/exams

• Your feedback is welcome

Feedback on this report is very welcome and should be sent to Cambridge ESOL using

the feedback form at the end of this report.

http://www.cambridgeesol.org/

http://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/

http://www.cambridge.org/ELT/exams









http://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/

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PAPER 1 – READING and WRITING

READING

PART TASK TYPES AND FORMAT TASK FOCUS NUMBER OFQUESTIONS

1Three-option multiple choice.

Five very short discrete texts: signs andmessages, postcards, notes, emails,labels, etc., plus one example.

Reading real-world noticesand other short texts for themain message.

5

2 Matching.

Five questions in the form of descriptionsof people to match to eight shortadapted-authentic texts.

Reading multiple texts forspecific information anddetailed comprehension.

5

3 True/False.

Ten questions with an adapted-authenticlong text.

Processing a factual text.

Scanning for specificinformation whiledisregarding redundantmaterial.

10

4 Four-option multiple choice.

Five questions with an adapted-authenticlong text.

Reading for detailedcomprehension;understanding attitude,opinion and writer purpose.

Reading for gist, inferenceand global meaning.

5

5 Four-option multiple-choice cloze.

Ten questions, plus an integratedexample, with an adapted-authentic textdrawn from a variety of sources. The textis of a factual or narrative nature.

Understanding ofvocabulary and grammar ina short text, andunderstanding the lexico-structural patterns in thetext.

10

• Marking

Candidates record their answers on a separate answer sheet. The answers for Parts1–5 are scanned by computer. Each of the 35 questions carries one mark. This isweighted so that the Reading component represents 25% of the total marks for thewhole examination.

• Candidate Performance

Part 1, Questions 1–5: Multiple choice

The five multiple-choice questions in this task test understanding of short texts. Therange of texts covers ‘public’ notices, signs and labels, together with ‘personal’messages such as text messages, emails, postcards and post-it notes. Both types of

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text occur in a range of settings and reflect core Preliminary topics. For a full list ofthese topics, see the Cambridge English: Preliminary Handbook .

The texts in this test were an email to a friend about missing them at a party, a publicnotice in a swimming pool, an internal school notice to students about a trip to see ashow, a public notice about use of lifts and a holiday postcard. Candidates generallyperformed well on this part, though Questions 3 and 4 were challenging. Question 2was the least challenging of the five, with most candidates able to choose the correctanswer.

For Question 3, many weaker candidates decided on option B rather than the correctanswer, C. Selecting the correct answer in Part 1 demands a close reading of both textand options, a recognition of paraphrase, and occasionally some inference. Here, anunderstanding of the verb ‘ tick ’ would have aided candidates to rule out B, but they alsoneeded to match the meaning of ‘ if you don’t require transport ’ in the text with thewording of C – ‘ if you are going to travel to the musical independently ’.

Most of the stronger candidates answered Question 4 correctly, but it challengedweaker candidates, many of whom chose option C. This distractor contained several

words identical to or similar to words in the text – ‘operating ’, ‘available ’, ‘railway staff ’ –but there is no suggestion of ‘ instructions ’ in the text so it cannot be the right answer.Option A, the correct answer, requires candidates to understand the phrase ‘ bythemselves ’ and to realise that ‘ can only be operated by railway staff’ in the textequates with ‘ cannot use the lifts by themselves ’.

In Question 5, the focus question says ‘ What has Tash enjoyed most? ’ Here,candidates had to decide which of the three things the writer thought was the best, andthe correct answer, B, is confirmed in the text by the phrase ‘ the best thing so far ’, inrelation to visiting a 17th century palace. This is an example of ‘ going sightseeing ’.Some weaker candidates chose C – ‘ eating different food ’ – matching this with‘amazing local dishes ’. However, although the writer was positive about the food, it is

not what she ‘ enjoyed most ’.

See recommendations for candidate preparation on page 7.

Part 2, Questions 6–10: Matching

The topic for this session was restaurants, which on the whole appeared to be anaccessible one. The task was handled reasonably well, but Questions 7 and 9 provedmore challenging for weaker candidates. Question 9 was the most challenging of thefive and Question 10 the least challenging.

For Question 7, the correct answer is F but several weaker candidates chose A or Hinstead. H is in the city and serves pizza, so is not suitable. A partly matches thecouple’s requirements, in that it offers ‘ countryside views’ and ‘ an outside dining area ’.However, the type of food is not right for them as the chef ‘ mixes ingredients frommany countries to create his own recipes ’, whereas they want ‘ traditional food ’. This isto be found in F, which has ‘ good old-fashioned dishes that have been popular forgenerations ’. This highlights the importance of recognising paraphrase and examplesof the people’s requirements in the texts.

The requirements described in Question 9 include ‘ trying new and unusual dishes ’ in a‘lively, international atmosphere ’. The correct answer, A, offers this and is outside thecity – the people want to ‘ get away from the city ’. Here, it is possible that weakercandidates did not know the phrasal verb ‘ get away ’. They may also have already usedoption A as their answer for Question 7. Many weaker candidates chose option D here,which partly matches the requirements in that the chef ‘ uses unusual ingredients fromaround the world ’. However, D is in the city centre so cannot be the correct answer.

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For Reading Part 2, candidates need to employ skimming and scanning skills to locatethe precise information stated in each question, and every requirement that is mentionedthere needs to be found in a text for it to be suitable. Candidates should beware of‘wordspotting’ – choosing an answer on the basis of identical words and phrases inquestion and text.

See recommendations for candidate preparation on pages 7 and 8.

Part 3, Questions 11–20: True/False

The text for this task is the longest in the Reading component but will always containsome redundant information. Common sources for this text are magazine or websitearticles, which are usually factual in content. Candidates have to decide whether tensentences about the text are correct or incorrect. These sentences follow the order ofinformation in the text. As in Part 2, in order to select the right answers, candidates willhave to demonstrate a good understanding of paraphrase.

This session’s text was an article about a woman’s horse-riding holiday in Spain, takenfrom a magazine. The task was done reasonably well by the majority of candidates, butsome of the questions were more challenging, in particular Questions 17, 19 and 20.The least challenging questions were 12 and 15, which possibly provided moreaccessible matches across the question wording and text: for 12, ‘ went on a ridingcourse ’ with ‘took a short series of lessons at a riding school’ confirms it as an ‘A’ answer(correct), and for 15, ‘ carried their luggage ’ with ‘send our bags ahead ’ makes it a ‘B’answer (incorrect).

Question 17, the most challenging of the set of ten, required candidates to equate ‘ someexperience ’ in the question with ‘ riders must be a good intermediate standard ’ in the text. It was also important for them to understand the exact focus of the question (Hermione’s

riding group) as otherwise, candidates could have been distracted by what the text saidabout non-riding partners – ‘ someone who has never ridden a horse ’.

Question 19 was answered incorrectly by many of the weaker candidates, who chose Ainstead of B, thinking that this was the first time that Jennifer had been on a ridingholiday. However, the text says ‘ I’d never had a riding holiday quite like this before ’ andlater, ‘ As a teenager I’d been on week-long trips ’, making this a B answer. It is essentialthat candidates read on in the text rather than choosing their answer prematurely – thewords highlighted in bold above are the first indication that the answer is B, which is thenconfirmed by the later reference to ‘ week-long trips ’.

Question 20 was probably challenging because of the use of ‘ few ’ in the question.Candidates sometimes get confused between ‘ few ’ and ‘ a few ’ (meaning ‘ some ’) andhere, they needed to understand that the meaning of ‘ few ’ was ‘ not many ’ ─ ‘Few peopleused the tracks ’ is confirmed in the penultimate sentence of the text, by ‘ apart from theoccasional farmer, you could ride all day without seeing another person ’.

See further recommendations for candidate preparation on page 8.


Part 4 tests attitude and opinion, which is generally less straightforward to process andunderstand than factual information. The Part 4 text for this session was about aschool in South Africa, where students learn their subjects outside, through referenceto nature and the environment, where possible. The task was handled well by mostcandidates and the topic seemed accessible, judging by the fact that the least

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challenging question was Question 22 – ‘The most unusual thing about White StarSchool is (option C) the teaching method .’

Question 21 always tests writer purpose and the wording of the four options reflectsthis, with different functions commonly highlighted. For example in this session, theoptions were ‘ suggest ’, ‘give information about ’, ‘advise ’ and ‘ describe ’. The correctanswer was B, but many students chose other incorrect options A and C. A says

‘suggest ways that children can help the environment ’, but this is not what the textfocuses on. Option C is plausible in that people reading the article might think that theWhite Star School could be ‘ the best way to educate a child ’ but the writer is not‘advising people ’. This shows how important it is for candidates to understand themeaning of different function verbs.

Several of the weaker candidates chose option D for Question 23, whereas the correctanswer was A. This question focuses on why Jane Bartlett started the school andoption A confirms her reason, namely that ‘ she wanted to stay in the area ’. Option D isruled out because her children had only just ‘ reached school age’ when she opened theschool, so they couldn’t have ‘ disliked their school ’.

Question 25 is always global in nature so, as in Question 21, candidates need toconsider the text as a whole. They must also read all four options carefully. Nearly 90%of the stronger candidates chose option C, the correct answer, but many weakercandidates chose option D instead. While the text in D contains a lot of ‘true’information, points that a White Star School teacher would plausibly state – ‘ regularlytake children out into the countryside and show them our country’s wonderful wildlife’ –this option is ruled out by its initial statement ‘ the only school in the city to regularlytake children out… ’ The school is not in the city and therefore D is wrong.

Candidates must allow enough time for this part of the paper. Even though there areonly five questions, each one needs to be thought about carefully and all four optionschecked against the text.


Part 5, Questions 26–35: Multiple-choice cloze

This multiple-choice cloze task tests mainly vocabulary but some questions focus ongrammatical areas of language. The text for this session was about the Brazilian singerBebel Gilberto and was supported by a photograph of her. The task proved accessibleand many of the stronger candidates answered most questions correctly, but weakercandidates found Questions 28, 29, 30 and 31 more challenging. Questions 27 and 35were the least challenging.

Question 28 tested the differences in meaning of the verbs ‘ consider ’, ‘recognise ’,‘believe ’ and ‘remember ’, used here in the present tense. The correct answer is D,‘remembers ’ and to confirm this as the correct answer, candidates needed to eliminatethe other three options as being unsuitable in the context of the whole sentence, whichfocuses on Bebel’s childhood in a musical family.

Question 29 required candidates to understand which preposition follows the adjective‘grateful ’ – the correct answer being ‘ to’, option B. Here, candidates needed to focus onthe word before the gap, and check each preposition against it. The majority of theweaker candidates chose option C, ‘ with’, which may illustrate that the meaning of the

adjective was unknown to them.

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Question 30 focused on another set of verbs – ‘ reached ’, ‘connected ’, ‘ joined ’ and‘arrived ’ – and the correct answer was C, ‘ joined ’. Over 80% of the stronger candidateschose this option, whereas many weaker candidates were attracted to A, ‘ reached ’.

Question 31 had a grammatical focus, testing four conjunctions. The correct answerwas D, ‘ whether ’. Some candidates entering Cambridge English: Preliminary may notbe familiar with this B1 level conjunction, judging by the fact that the majority of theweaker candidates went for the three distractor options A, B or C, rather than thecorrect answer.


• RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CANDIDATE PREPARATION

Part 1

Many of the public notices used in this part are found only in English-speakingcountries, so teachers may wish to familiarise their students with examples drawn from

past papers, published practice tests or Cambridge ESOL’s own online practicematerial. Texts of this type often use modal verbs and conditional clauses, socandidates need to be confident in their understanding of these structures.

As for the personal messages, teachers could ask their students to produce similarshort texts including text messages, emails, post-it notes and postcards. Many studentswould undoubtedly be amenable to using their mobile phones to send text messages totheir friends in English, and could perhaps be persuaded to switch to English as thedefault language for a period. In this way, they might learn from or be helped by thepredictive text facility on their phones.

It would be worth spending some time in class looking at the contrasting language used

in public notices and personal messages. As initial training for this task, students couldbe given just the short texts and asked to explain their meaning, either orally or inwriting. They could then suggest different ways of expressing the meaning, so thatstudents become familiar with the use of paraphrase in this part as well as insubsequent parts of the Reading component.

To make students more aware of the scope of personal messages, set them regularshort writing tasks for homework or in class that mirror the length and complexity of thePart 1 messages. Students at this level should be confident in producing short texts ofthanks, apology, suggestion, etc. and an awareness of purpose and function is goodpreparation for Writing Part 2.

Students need to be made aware of the dangers of ‘word spotting’ across text andoptions and this could be made clear through reference to a past paper. Students couldbe asked to highlight identical words in text and options and then to discuss theseexamples in pairs, explaining why options are correct or incorrect according to themeaning of the text.

Part 2

Students should be trained in skimming and scanning, so that they can process theeight texts efficiently. As a training activity, it can be helpful to focus in detail on thepeople’s descriptions, asking students to underline key words and phrases and then tothink further about these, perhaps discussing them in pairs and suggesting possibleparaphrases.

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Students at B1 level need to expand their vocabulary and one way of doing this that willalso provide useful preparation for the exam is to take the topic areas listed in theCambridge English: Preliminary Handbook and encourage students to build up lists ofvocabulary for each of them, as well as useful phrases and collocations. Teachers canalso refer to the English Vocabulary Profile, an online resource showing which wordsand phrases students commonly know at each level of the Common EuropeanFramework of Reference (CEFR) .

For a simple introduction to this part, students could be given two texts to choosebetween for each person’s requirements. The ‘wrong’ text should contain somedistraction – so for example texts A and E from this version could be given to studentsfor Question 6 and students asked to underline the parts of each text that match arequirement in the description. In this way, students can focus more closely onmeaning, and appreciate the relevance of exemplification and paraphrase.

As mentioned in Part 1 above, students need to be shown that ‘word spotting’ will rarelylead them to the right answer. To reinforce this, students could underline identicalwords in texts and questions and explain why the text is not the correct match.

Part 3

Exposure in class to a range of factual texts of medium length is important for this part.The internet provides a readily available source of appropriate texts, and authenticbrochures and leaflets can also work well as practice material. Since the essence ofthis task is paraphrase recognition, it would be helpful for students to be given a factualtext and asked to try to express elements of its content in other ways. This type ofpractice activity could also be done with a task from a past paper or online practicematerial, where only the text is handed out to students, with the key parts underlined orhighlighted.

Confident students might also be asked to draft their own correct and incorrectsentences about a text they have chosen and to then exchange their task with anotherstudent. This practice activity not only improves reading comprehension andparaphrase, but also creates a realistic context for writing at sentence level.

For weaker students, it is useful to indicate approximately where each answer comes ina text, so that they initially have some guidance and support. They can then work outany paraphrased language for themselves, and better understand what the taskrequires them to do.

It may be instructive to concentrate on the wording of the ten sentences that form thequestions for this part. Key language areas such as comparison and conditionalstructures are quite likely to appear and, as this session demonstrated, the words ‘ few ’ and ‘a few ’ may also cause problems for students.

Students should be confident in their ability to reject incorrect statements about a text. As a training activity, students could be given just the sentences with B answers and beasked to explain why these statements are incorrect, working closely with the text andunderlining the relevant parts. This could be done as a pairwork activity or forhomework with any Part 3 task from a past paper or practice test.

It may be useful to discuss with students how much time they think should be spent onPart 3. It contains the longest text and has ten questions, so represents a substantialpart of the whole Reading component, yet the task is designed so that not every word ofthe text needs to be read closely. Developing confident scanning skills at this level willenable students to read more efficiently in this part.

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Students could also work with factual texts that include a narrative thread. Suitableexamples of texts would be someone’s experiences on a course or holiday, as was thecase for this session, or a historical piece of some kind. This could be developed into agroup reading activity, with students being given paragraphs from one of several textsand having to formulate sentences that capture the main points of their paragraphs, inorder to decide which text their paragraphs fit into and where in each narrative theycome.

Part 4

It is clear that students need to have an understanding of different function verbs, suchas ‘ advise ’, ‘compare ’, ‘describe ’, ‘suggest ’, ‘warn ’, etc., which are particularly relevantto Question 21, the writer purpose question. Candidates should be familiar with manyof these verbs, which are key to other parts of the Cambridge English: Preliminary examination as well (Writing Part 2, Listening Part 4).

Students also need to recognise the language of opinion. To activate some relevantvocabulary for this part, students’ opinions on a given topic could be elicited and written

on the board, for other members of the class to then suggest paraphrases for them. Forexample, one student might say ‘ I don’t really enjoy cooking for myself ’, which could beparaphrased as: ‘ Luis isn’t very keen on preparing his own meals .’ Always encouragestudents to reformulate ideas in this way, as it will develop their productive vocabulary.

When training students in how to approach the Reading Part 4 task in the exam itself,discuss with students whether it might be better to answer the questions out of theorder given: as Questions 21 and 25 test overall understanding of the text, studentsmight find it easier to answer these last, after they have considered the text in depth.

To practise answering multiple-choice questions that focus on detailed meaning, givestudents the correct answer to a question and ask them to quote the parts of the text

that confirm this answer. Students could also explain why the distractor options arewrong, by close reference to the text. This will illustrate to them how much text istypically involved for each question. Remember to tell students that Questions 22, 23and 24 always match the order of information in the text, often testing distinctparagraphs.

In order to sensitise students to the wording of Part 4 questions, choose a past papertask and give them the text and five questions without any ABCD options, asking themto answer the questions with reference to the text. Draw students’ attention to wordssuch as ‘ believe ’, ‘think ’ and ‘ say ’, as these will dictate what their answer should bebased on – someone’s own words shown in quotes, for example.

Students should be given adequate practice in answering Question 25, and encouragedto read text and options carefully but within a time limit. As this session showed,distractor options often contain some correct information, so students need to readeach one carefully and check it against the content of the whole text.

Part 5

To perform well in this part, students need to have a solid grasp of B1 level structures(see the Cambridge English: Preliminary Handbook for a list of grammatical areastested) and a fairly broad knowledge of vocabulary (teachers can refer to the EnglishVocabulary Profile , as already mentioned, for a detailed description of B1 levelvocabulary. Work on part of speech awareness and specific practice of structures suchas modals, quantifiers, conjunctions and the passive are particularly relevant here.

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Regular vocabulary activities in class that revise and extend students’ knowledge andoffer initial preparation for the exam include ‘odd one out’ exercises, where studentshave to explain which word in a set of four or five is different and why; and word squaresearches, containing fifteen words belonging to the same topic. Exercises thatencourage students to group words by part of speech are also useful.

It may be better to introduce the actual exam task by giving students a choice of onlytwo or three options at first, rather than four. This provides an easier version of the taskand also focuses students on the spaces in the text rather than the options. This isessential, for they need to see the context and grammatical clues surrounding eachspace. Even when working with past papers, suggest that students try to fit all fouroptions in the space, checking the words either side of the space before deciding ontheir answers. Practice of dependent prepositions and phrasal verb particles is alsorelevant here.

Students may also be interested in creating their own multiple-choice short texts, whichthey can exchange among their peers. The internet will provide an accessible sourcefor texts on topics that particularly interest them.

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WRITING


1 Sentence transformations.

Five questions, plus an integratedexample, that are theme-related.Candidates are given sentences andthen asked to complete similar sentenceswith no more than three words, using adifferent structural pattern, so that thesentence still has the same meaning.

Control and understandingof B1/Preliminarygrammatical structures.Rephrasing andreformulating information.

5

2 Short communicative message.

Candidates are prompted to write a shortmessage in the form of a postcard, note,email etc. The prompt takes the form of arubric or short input text to respond to.

A short piece of writing(35–45 words) focusing oncommunication of specificmessages.

1

3 A longer piece of continuous writing.

Candidates are presented with a choiceof two questions, an informal letter or astory.

Candidates are primarily assessed ontheir ability to use and control a range ofB1/Threshold-level language. Coherent

organisation, spelling and punctuationare also assessed.

Writing about 100 wordsfocusing on control andrange of language.

1

• Marking

Questions 1–5 carry one mark each. Question 6 is worth a maximum of 5 marks andQuestion 7/8 is worth a maximum of 15 marks. This gives a total of 25, whichrepresents 25% of the total marks for the whole examination. This session used ananalytical mark scheme for Writing Part 3, with four separate assessment criteria forcontent, communicative achievement, organisation and language. See the newCambridge English: Preliminary Handbook for further details.


Part 1, Questions 1–5: Sentence transformations

This sentence-transformation task requires a short answer of at most three words, butmore typically of one or two words only. Candidates have to fill in the missing part of thesecond sentence so that it means the same as the first sentence. In this part of theWriting component, everything must be correctly spelled. American English isacceptable, if used consistently.

For this session, the sentences were about learning to windsurf. Different structuresand transformations were tested: tenses, ‘too/enough’ , comparatives, quantifiers and

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their lexical equivalents, and the conjunction ‘ even though ’. Questions 2 and 5 were themost challenging for candidates.

In Question 2, some candidates produced the correct verb form ‘ have ’ but omitted theword ‘ enough/any ’ and so lost the mark for an incomplete answer, that didn’t match themeaning of the first sentence. There were also several mis-spellings of ‘ enough ’ –including ‘ enought ’ with a ‘ t ’ at the end.

In Question 5, the correct answer was ‘ though/if ’ and strong candidates were able toanswer correctly. However, several candidates produced other conjunctions that do notcombine with ‘ even ’, including ‘ although ’ and ‘when ’. As in Question 2, there were alsomis-spellings of ‘ though ’, with a ‘ t ’ added.


Part 2, Question 6: Short communicative message

The testing focus of the Writing Part 2 task is on task achievement. It is essential forcandidates to read the whole question carefully to ensure that they cover all three

bulleted content points, and produce a communicative message that is in line with thetask rubric. Sometimes, apparently strong candidates fail to deal with one of the threepoints and so do not score more than three marks out of five for Part 2.

Candidates are required to write between 35 and 45 words and are penalised if theywrite much below this. If they write a lot more than 45 words, their answer is likely tolack clarity and will be penalised accordingly. However, there is no automatic penalty foranswers longer than 45 words so candidates shouldn’t spend unnecessary time cuttingtheir piece of writing to an exact length.

For this session, candidates had to write an email to a friend about a new shop, whichseemed a very accessible task for them. Most candidates performed the task

satisfactorily and used relevant vocabulary.

For the first point, a few candidates named the shop but did not say where it was, solost marks. The second point was generally handled well, with candidates giving arange of examples of what was sold in the shop.

For the third point, candidates had to ask the friend to go to the shop. Occasionally,candidates did not explicitly ask but expressed a wish to go there with the friend. Thiswas treated as point attempted rather than point clearly communicated.


Part 3, Question 7 or 8: Continuous writing

The assessment of Writing Part 3 represents 60% of the total marks available on theWriting component.

Question 7, the letter, was an accessible topic and seemed to work well. In this task,candidates had to reply to a friend, giving advice about the friend’s dilemma – whetherto accept an aunt’s offer of a trip to the theatre to see a boring play or to riskdisappointing her by declining the offer. There were very few misinterpretations of thetask, although some candidates ‘inverted’ it and asked for advice rather than giving it.These answers received a mark of 1 on the Content scale of the new mark scheme.

Some candidates failed to pick up on the element of ‘ disappoint ’ but were still able towrite a reasonable answer. Weaker candidates re-used a lot of the language from thetask rubrics and extract from the friend’s letter, whereas stronger candidates displayed

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a good range of language, and were able to use more complex structures such asaccurate use of conditionals.

Question 8, the story, had the title: ‘ The house with the yellow door’ and was a popularchoice. Stronger candidates produced imaginative answers and were able to use arange of structures, including accurate tenses, and suitable vocabulary. Some of thestories did not refer to the ‘yellow door’ but if they were about a house, this was taken tobe relevant. However, sometimes it was felt that the target reader was not ‘fullyinformed’ and in these cases, fewer marks were awarded on the Content scale.



Part 1

As this part largely tests structural knowledge, students need to have a good grasp ofB1 level structures and be able to apply these accurately. The Cambridge English:

Preliminary Handbook contains a list of the grammatical areas covered in CambridgeEnglish: Preliminary on pages 7–8. Correct spelling is also essential, so time should bespent in class practising spelling, focusing on key problem areas such as pluralisation,comparative forms, irregular past tenses and gerund forms. It is also useful for studentsto revise the different forms of irregular verbs.

As an introduction to Writing Part 1, teachers could use past papers to produce adaptedsets of sentences, where the answer is given along with one or two incorrect answers.In this way, students would understand what is involved in the task without having tocome up with the answers for themselves. Students could also work through pastpapers in pairs, discussing what is required in each space and checking each other’sanswers.

It is worth explaining to students that, since the main emphasis in Part 1 is on structuraltransformations, they rarely have to bring new vocabulary into the second sentence inorder to answer the question successfully. So if for example a verb is given in thepassive, all that is required is the active form of the same verb.

Part 2

Regular practice in writing short communicative messages will benefit not only this partbut also Reading Part 1. Students could be encouraged to email each other in Englishor to write notes to each other.

Students should be taught useful expressions and other language appropriate tocommon functional areas, such as apologising, asking, explaining, inviting, suggestingand thanking. They should be discouraged from using any phrases that appear on thequestion paper, since this may not be the most natural way of communicating a givenfunction in informal language and will not show their true language ability.

Given the problem of inadvisable editing that sometimes arises in respect of the wordlimits, students should be given plenty of opportunities for writing sample Part 2messages of an appropriate length, in order to give them a better feel for what ananswer of approximately 35–45 words looks like in their own handwriting. They shouldalso be encouraged not to spend too long on this short task, in order to give themselvesmore time to perform well on Writing Part 3.

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Part 3

Students should be given regular opportunities to write extended answers of around100 words. It is often useful to ask students to write a first and second draft, wherecomments on accuracy on the first draft are supplemented by suggestions for improvingthe language range used. Students should regularly be encouraged to be moreambitious, for example, using a variety of adjectives instead of ‘playing safe’ with one ortwo, and varying how they start their sentences. Work on linking devices would also bebeneficial.

For the letter, students will need to be confident in their use of informal opening andclosing formulae and be able to draw on a range of informal expressions. Some classwork on phrasal verbs may also be advantageous. They should be encouraged toexperiment with ways of including a good range of structures and vocabulary in theletters they write for homework.

While it is generally clear that a good variety of topic vocabulary can be used in theletter task, the inclusion of a variety of structures is perhaps less obvious. Looking at aselection of letter tasks from past papers in class may be beneficial, to brainstorm all

the possible structures that could be used.For the story, students should revise narrative tenses and consult irregular verb tablesin order to improve their accuracy of past tense forms. They should be encouraged touse adverbs to raise the level of language in their stories: words such as ‘ immediately ’, ‘suddenly ’ and ‘(un)fortunately ’ can also act as useful sequence and discourse markers.

It is important for a story to have a beginning, a middle and an end, and for this reason,students should look critically at their own work and attempt to improve the organisationand development of their practice stories if necessary.

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• DOs and DON’Ts for PAPER 1 READING and WRITING

DO make sure you are familiar with the various test formats in Paper 1 throughpractice tests and past papers.

DO check with your teacher that you have covered the core Preliminary topics in

class.DO make sure that you read as widely as possible in English so that you get

regular exposure to authentic reading texts of different types (factual,narrative and opinion-based).

DO develop a range of reading skills, including skimming and scanning.

DO keep a vocabulary notebook organised by topic.

DO read the instructions for each part carefully.

DO study any examples given (Reading Part 1 and Part 5; Writing Part 1).

DO read each text carefully before attempting the questions, especially forReading Part 4.

DO consider all multiple-choice options before choosing your answer.

DO check your answers and transfer them accurately to the answer sheet.

DO be ambitious and use a range of language in Writing Part 3.

DO make sure that you mark the correct box for your choice of question in WritingPart 3.

DO use the time well, leaving yourself enough time for Writing Part 3, whichcarries 15 marks.

DO approach the test calmly and confidently.

DON’T leave any answers blank, even if you are unsure of the answer.

DON’T use a pen on the answer sheet. You should use a pencil.

DON’T panic if there is a word in a text that you don’t understand. It is usuallypossible to guess the meaning from the context.

DON’T write more than three words to fill a space in Writing Part 1.

DON’T write much more than 45 words in Writing Part 2, as this may affect the clarityof your answer.

DON’T answer both questions in Writing Part 3. You must choose between the letterand the story.

DON’T spend time making a full rough copy for Writing Part 3. There isn’t enoughtime to do this and it isn’t necessary.

DON’T worry too much about minor errors in Writing Part 3, as ambitious language isrewarded.

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PAPER 2 – LISTENING


1 Multiple choice (discrete).

Short neutral or informal monologues ordialogues.

Seven discrete three-option multiple-choice questions with visuals, plus oneexample.

Listening to identify keyinformation from shortexchanges.

7

2 Multiple-choice

Longer monologue or interview (with onemain speaker).

Six three-option multiple-choicequestions.

Listening to identify specificinformation and detailedmeaning.

6

3 Gap-fill.

Longer monologue.

Six gaps to fill in. Candidates need towrite one or more words in each space.

Listening to identify,understand and interpretinformation.

6

4 True/False.

Longer informal dialogue.

Candidates need to decide whether sixstatements are correct or incorrect.

Listening for detailedmeaning, and to identify theattitudes and opinions of thespeakers.

6

• Marking

Candidates record their answers on a separate answer sheet. A computer scans theanswers for Parts 1, 2 and 4. The answers for Part 3 are marked by teams of trainedmarkers. Each question carries one mark, so the Listening component has a total of 25marks, representing 25% of the total marks for the whole examination.



This part of the test contains seven short listening texts, each accompanied by a questionand three visual images. Candidates are asked a question and must choose the correctvisual image from a choice of three in order to answer the question in the context of whatthey hear on the recording. This set of questions was well answered by the majority ofcandidates. The early questions were quite high scoring, especially Questions 1 and 2,whilst Questions 6 and 7 proved to be the most challenging. Taken as a whole, the set of

questions was of average difficulty and discriminated well, with stronger candidateschoosing the correct option and weaker candidates selecting the other options.


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This is a three-option multiple-choice task which tests understanding of the detailedmeaning of a longer text. The questions were generally well within the candidates'competence with a high proportion getting the right answer to Questions 8, 9 and 13, forexample. Question 11 proved to be more challenging and discriminated well betweenweaker and stronger candidates. Weaker candidates tended to choose option B inQuestion 10, perhaps hearing the words ‘ teacher ’ and ‘ argument ’ but failing to pick upthat this was not actually what happened.


Part 3, Questions 14–19: Gap-fill

This task tests the candidates’ ability to listen out for and write down specific informationfrom the listening text. Candidates generally find this the most challenging part of thetest, although most managed to write acceptable answers for Questions 14 and 16.Question 17, which tested the word ‘ birds’ , proved more challenging. Some weaker

candidates located the correct part of the text, but were unsure of this word. A range ofunambiguous mis-spellings was accepted, but where this affected meaning, for examplewhere candidates wrote ‘ buds ’, the mark could not be given. In other questions, weakercandidates failed to retrieve the correct information from the text, for example putting theanswer ‘ School’ for Question 14 or ‘ Africa ’ for Question 19. These questions did,however, discriminate well between weak and strong candidates. Candidates should bereminded that the information they are listening for is not already on the task page, forexample those who wrote ‘ at the sportscentre’ for Question 14 were given the mark, butwasted time and effort in writing down information that was already given.


Part 4, Questions 20–25: True/False

This true-false task focuses on candidates’ ability to understand opinion and attitude aswell as factual information. Candidates coped very well with this task. Questions 20, 23,and 24 proved to be the most accessible to candidates whilst Question 25 was morechallenging, as it involved processing the phrases: ‘ only trouble is …… applications areoften refused. We’ll see. ’ to get the answer B. Again, there was good discriminationbetween weak and strong candidates on this task.



Part 1

Unlike other parts of the Listening test, Part 1 asks candidates to listen to a series ofseparate recordings, including both monologues and dialogues, each with its owncontext, speaker(s) and focus question. The question is written above the three pictureoptions and is also read out on the recording. Candidates should read and listen to thewording of this focus question very carefully so that they are sure what information theyare listening for. In Question 2, for example, the three sports are all mentioned, but onlyone of them is proposed for ‘ next week ’.

Candidates should try to tick the correct box the first time they hear each text, and thencheck their answers the second time. They should be ready to find the key information at

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any point in the recording, not necessarily at the beginning or end. For example, inQuestion 4 the announcer mentions all three jobs, but the first one we hear about is notthe one that he did on the programme. Some questions focus on information or opinionscoming from one of the speakers, for example in Question 5, and this is indicated in thefocus question. In other questions, for example Question 7, the key information maycome from either speaker.

Part 2

In the Part 2 rubric, which is both printed on the page and read out on the recording,there is information about the listening text. For example, candidates are told about thetopic (e.g. learning to fly), and the speaker (e.g. a woman called Jane Brown). This isuseful information for candidates as it will give them a context for what they hear and forthe questions on the page.

The listening text for Part 2 has a clear structure with a discrete piece of text relating toeach question. Each question is cued by words in the text that correspond closely to thewording of the question. For example, Question 10 asks about Jane’s test flight, whilst

the corresponding piece of text is cued by the interviewer saying: ‘Did you take a test ’. An important strategy for candidates to develop is listening for such cues, and using thewording of the questions to guide them through the text and prevent them from losingtheir place as they listen.

This task involves listening for detail in order to pick out the correct option and disregardthe incorrect ones. Once the initial cue is established, however, the questions areunlikely to repeat the exact wording of the text in the multiple-choice options. Therefore,candidates need to listen for the meaning of what they hear and match this to the closestidea amongst the options. For example, in Question 13 we are asked why Jane doesn’tfly now, and the answer is option C ‘she has little spare time .’ What Jane says is: ‘…ittakes a lot of time, which is difficult now I’m working.’ The other options are wrong

because although they relate to what Jane says, they don’t tell us her reason for notflying.

Part 3

In Part 3, the information on the page represents an indication, in note or sentence form,of what the candidates are going to hear. This is useful information for candidates as itwill give them a context for what they hear and so helps them to listen out for the type ofinformation which is missing. The spoken and written rubrics also supply furtherinformation about both the topic (e.g. events in the city of Marchford) and the type of text(e.g. a radio announcement).

The questions are well spaced so that there is plenty of time for candidates to write theiranswers as they listen. Most of the gaps require a single word, a number or a short nounphrase as an answer and candidates should be discouraged from attempting totranscribe longer pieces of text. For example, the answer to Question 14 is‘Sportscentre’ . If candidates write ‘sportscentre and are for children 8 to 12 years old’ this is also correct and would get the mark, but they will have wasted time writinginformation which is not part of the key and risk missing the answer to the next questionwhilst doing so. The words or numbers that candidates need to write will all be heard onthe recording, in the form in which they need to be written. As in Part 2, the wording ofthe prompts on the page echoes, to a certain extent, the wording of the listening text, butthis is not a dictation, so candidates need to listen for the meaning of the listening text inorder to locate the correct information. For example, in Question 15 the speaker tells usthat the classes ‘are for young people aged 13 and above ’, whilst the question promptasks us about ‘people who are at least …… years old’ .

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Candidates should check their final answers to make sure they are clearly written andunambiguous, but should not become over-concerned about spelling, as a range of mis-spellings is accepted as long as the answer is clear. For example, in Question 17 morethan one spelling of ‘birds’ was accepted as correct. However, high frequency words,such as ‘Saturday ’ in Question 16, should be correctly spelt.

In this task, candidates are listening for specific information and there will be someinformation in the recording which is not relevant to the questions. The skill of selectingand recording relevant information is a useful one for candidates to practise in theclassroom and during their preparation for the Cambridge English: Preliminary examination.

Part 4

In the Part 4 rubric, which is both printed on the page and read out on the recording,there is information about the listening text. For example, candidates are told about thetopic (e.g. making films about wild animals) and the name of the speakers (e.g. a mancalled Tom and a woman called Caroline). This is useful information for candidates as it

will give them a context for what they hear and for the questions on the page.Candidates should read the questions carefully, and think about the exact meaning ofeach of the statements. As in Parts 2 and 3, they are unlikely to hear the exact wordsrepeated on the recording and so should be listening out for synonyms and parallelexpressions. Candidates should listen for the gist of what speakers are saying, payingspecial attention to whether positive or negative views are being expressed. Forexample, in the text relating to Question 23, Caroline says: ‘ I knew I wasn’t cleverenough ’ which gives us the answer B, but the rest of what she says is phrasedpositively, e.g. ‘ My dad was a vet and our house was full of animals. ’

Several of the questions test attitude and opinion and candidates should be familiar with

adjectives which express feelings such as ‘ keen ’, ‘boring ’, ‘disappointed ’ etc. and simplereporting verbs, e.g. ‘ hopes ’, ‘thinks ’, ‘(dis)agree ’, etc., as these may be tested.Candidates also need to make sure they are listening for the opinion of the correctspeaker, e.g. in this task, three questions clearly focus on Tom’s views, and three onCaroline’s, but it is always necessary to listen to both speakers, e.g. Question 20, whereit is Caroline who mentions California, but Tom’s response which gives us the answer: ‘ Itwas the most satisfying thing I’ve done... so far ’. To understand what he is referring to,we need to have listened to what Caroline has said previously.

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DOs and DON’Ts for PAPER 2 LISTENING

DO read the instructions carefully for each part so you have an idea of the topic.

DO look at the question paper material (text and pictures) for each part before thelistening text for that part begins, and think about what kind of information you

have to listen for.DO mark/write your answers on the question paper as you listen.

DO answer as much as you can when you hear the recording for the first time.

DO check your answers and listen for any missing answers when you hear therecording for the second time.

DO answer all the questions even if you are not sure of the answer. You haveprobably understood more than you think you have.

DO check that the options you choose in Part 2 really do answer the question orfinish the sentence.

DO write only one or two words or a number in Part 3.

DO think about what kind of words to listen for in Part 3.

DO remember that you are told which speaker is which in Part 4.

DO transfer your answers to the answer sheet only when you are told to do so atthe end of the test.

DON’T worry too much if you don’t hear the answer to a question the first time. Youwill hear everything twice.

DON’T panic if you don’t understand everything while listening, as some parts of thelistening may not be tested.

DON’T change your answers when you are transferring them to the answer sheet,because what you thought was right while you were listening was probablyright!

DON’T use a pen on the answer sheet. You should use a pencil.

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PAPER 3 – SPEAKING

PART TASK TYPES AND FORMAT TASK FOCUS TIMING

1 Each candidate interacts with theinterlocutor.

The interlocutor asks the candidatesquestions in turn, using standardisedquestions.

Giving information of afactual, personal kind. Thecandidates respond toquestions about presentcircumstances, pastexperiences and futureplans.

2–3 minutes

2 Simulated situation. Candidates interactwith each other.

Visual stimulus is given to the candidatesto aid the discussion task. Theinterlocutor sets up the activity using astandardised rubric.

Using functional languageto make and respond tosuggestions, discussalternatives, makerecommendations andnegotiate agreement.

2–3 minutes

3 Extended turn.

A colour photograph is given to eachcandidate in turn and they are asked totalk about it for up to a minute. Bothphotographs relate to the same topic.

Describing photographs andmanaging discourse, usingappropriate vocabulary, in alonger turn.

3 minutes

4 General conversation. Candidatesinteract with each other.

The topic of the conversation develops

the theme established in Part 3.

The interlocutor sets up the activity usinga standardised rubric.

The candidates talktogether about theiropinions, likes/dislikes,preferences, experiences,

habits etc.

3 minutes

• Marking

Candidates are awarded marks by both examiners. One of the examiners acts as aninterlocutor and the other as an assessor. The interlocutor directs the Speaking Test,while the assessor takes no part in the interaction. The test takes ten to twelve minutesand consists of four parts.

The assessor awards marks to each candidate for performance throughout the testaccording to the four Analytical Criteria (Grammar and Vocabulary, DiscourseManagement, Pronunciation, and Interactive Communication). The interlocutor awardsmarks according to the Global Achievement Scale, which assesses the candidates’overall effectiveness in tackling the tasks. The Speaking Test represents 25% of thetotal marks for the whole examination.

Grammar and Vocabulary

This refers to the accurate and appropriate use of grammatical structures and

vocabulary in order to meet the task requirements at B1 level. Candidates who do nothave immediate access to the vocabulary they need should be able to convey theirintended meaning by using alternative words or phrases without extensive repetition.

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Discourse Management

At B1 level, candidates are expected to produce responses which are extended beyondshort phrases, despite hesitation, and use basic cohesive devices. Candidates’responses are also expected to be mostly relevant.

Pronunciation

In general, this refers to the ability to produce comprehensible utterances to fulfil thetask requirements. At B1 level, it is recognised that even in the top assessment band,candidates’ pronunciation will be influenced by features of their first language.

Interactive Communication

This refers to the ability to take part in the interaction and fulfil the task requirements byinitiating and responding appropriately. It includes the ability to use strategies tomaintain or repair communication.

Global Achievement

This refers to the candidates’ overall ability to deal with the tasks and to conveymeaning appropriately.


Candidate performance in this administration was consistent with that of previous years.Feedback indicates that the candidates were generally well prepared and that thematerials were well received.

Part 1

Candidates tended to perform well in this part. The questions are usually predictableones about daily routines, studies or work, free-time activities, etc. Stronger candidatesextended their responses to the more open-ended questions with details that backed uptheir answers. Weaker candidates tended to give one-word or two-word answers to allquestions and failed to develop their answers, or required additional prompts from theinterlocutor. Some weaker candidates had problems spelling their name in English.


Part 2

Candidates who performed well in this part listened carefully to the interlocutor’sinstructions, thought about the task and its context, and interacted meaningfully withtheir partner to reach a conclusion or decision. For example, in ‘ New Theatre’ (see Part2 in the 2011 Past Paper Pack ), well-prepared candidates talked about each of thesuggestions given by the visual prompts and gave reasons for their opinions. Thesecandidates involved their partner by asking for an opinion and following up on the pointsmade. In this way, they kept the discussion going for the allotted 2 − 3 minutes. Wheretime allowed, they summarised the reasons for their final choice to signal that they hadcompleted the task.


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Part 3

In this part of the test, candidates have the chance to demonstrate their range ofvocabulary and their ability to organise language in describing a photograph. Thesample materials show people spending time alone (see 2011 Past Paper Pack ).Strong candidates spoke for the full time allotted and talked about the people andactivities in the foreground (their clothes, what they are doing, the objects in view, etc.),as well as commenting on the overall context (the location, etc.). Strong candidateswere able to deal with unknown items of vocabulary by using paraphrase strategies,such as providing a fuller description of objects and activities when they were unsure ofthe specific word to use. Some candidates spent time unsuccessfully trying to producesophisticated positional language (e.g. ‘ in the top right-hand corner ’) which is notexpected at this level, and so wasted opportunities to demonstrate their range of B1level vocabulary and expressions.


Part 4

Candidates who performed well in this part of the test listened carefully to theinstructions and understood that they should talk together with their partner. Strongcandidates not only gave their own views, but also elicited those of their partner andresponded to what their partner said. They also covered both elements of the task,talking about both when they preferred to be alone (1) and what they liked doing whenthey were alone (2). Weaker candidates sometimes addressed their comments to theinterlocutor rather than the partner, or produced a lengthy monologue, failing to bringtheir partner into the discussion. Where candidates were unable to fill the allotted time,additional prompts were provided by the interlocutor.



Candidates at this level are not expected to speak perfectly, nor understand everythingthat is said to them. Credit will be given, however, to those candidates able to userepair strategies to prevent communication breaking down. For example, they shouldlearn to make use of simple phrases for asking the interlocutor or their partner to repeator rephrase something they have not understood. They should also learn to useparaphrase strategies when they cannot call to mind a particular word or phraseneeded for a task.

Part 1

Candidates should be given practice in the everyday language of talking aboutthemselves. For example, they should be able to give information about their work orstudies, free-time activities, family, home, home town, etc. They should also practisespelling their names using English letters.

Part 2

Candidates should be given practice in talking together about an imaginary situation.They need to understand that they are talking about the specific situation described inthe instructions, as illustrated by the visual prompts, and not just generally about thetopic. In class, they should practice using picture prompts as the basis for discussion.

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Candidates also need to practice asking for their partner’s opinions and suggestions aswell as supplying reasons for their own opinions. They should be familiar with thelanguage of agreement and disagreement and be able to explain why they thinksomething is, or is not, a good idea.

Part 3

For this task, candidates need to be given practice in talking about photographs. At thislevel, however, they are only expected to comment on the actual content of the imagesthey are shown, and not issues raised by the broader context. They should beencouraged to give a detailed description, however, mentioning even those details(clothes, colours, weather, etc.) which might seem obvious. In this way, they willdemonstrate their range of vocabulary. They should also be able to link their ideastogether in a simple way, using prepositions and other simple expressions to locateaspects of the picture (e.g. ‘ behind ’, ‘in front of ’, ‘next to ’, etc.) and back up what theysay with examples, e.g . ‘You can see it is summer because the sun is shining and theyare wearing summer clothes. ’

Part 4

As this part of the test is a conversation between the candidates, they should beencouraged to look at each other and show interest in what their partner is saying.Candidates should not attempt to ‘hold the floor’ with long individual turns in this part,but should learn how to pick up and develop the points made by their partner and howto invite their partners to comment. For example, a candidate might tell his/her partnerinteresting things about themselves, and then ask for the partner’s views about arelated issue. Candidates should, therefore, not only be given practice in talking abouttheir opinions and personal experiences, but also in how to elicit these ideas from theirpartner.

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• DOs and DON’Ts for PAPER 3 SPEAKING

DO practise your spoken English as much as possible before the test, both in andout of class.

DO listen carefully to the examiner’s questions.

DO ask the examiner for clarification if necessary.

DO speak clearly so that both examiners can hear you.

DO remember that the examiners are sympathetic listeners and want you to giveyour best possible performance.

DO answer the examiner’s questions clearly and try to give extended answers toopen-ended questions in Part 1.

DO talk to your partner and not the examiner in Parts 2 and 4.

DO show interest in what your partner is saying and ask your partner questions inParts 2 and 4.

DO listen to and look at your partner and give your partner a chance to speak inParts 2 and 4.

DO concentrate on the actual content of the photo and describe the photothoroughly in Part 3.

DO make sure you have some phrases to get around the problem of words youdon’t know in Part 3.

DO try to relax and enjoy the test.

DON’T worry too much about making grammatical mistakes.

DON’T worry if you think your partner in the test is not as good as you, or much betterat speaking English than you. The examiners look at each candidate’sperformance individually.

DON’T let exam nerves prevent you from speaking. Examiners can’t give marks tosilent candidates.

DON’T worry too much if you don’t know a word.

DON’T speak for too long without involving your partner in Parts 2 and 4.

DON’T talk to the examiner rather than your partner in Parts 2 and 4.

DON’T try to talk about things/ideas outside the photo in Part 3.

DON’T stop talking if you come to a word you do not know in Part 3.

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FEEDBACK FORM

Cambridge English: Preliminary Examination Report – 2011

We are interested in hearing your views on how useful this report has been.

We would be most grateful if you could briefly answer the following questions and returna photocopy of this page to the following address:

Cambridge ESOL Information1 Hills RoadCambridgeCB1 2EUUnited Kingdom

Fax: +44 1223 460278Email: [email protected]

1. Please describe your situation (e.g. EFL/ESOL teacher, Director of Studies,

Examinations Officer, Centre Exams Manager).

2. Have you prepared candidates for Cambridge English: Preliminary ?

YES/NO

3. Do you plan to prepare candidates for Cambridge English: Preliminary in thefuture?

YES/NO

4. How have you used this report (e.g. to provide feedback to other teachers, forexamination practice, etc.)?

5. Which parts of this report did you find most useful?

6. Which parts were not so useful?

7. What extra information would you like to see included in this report?

8. (Optional) Your name ............................. ..................……

Centre/School .............................……………

Thank you.

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