Good afternoon! It's a magical thing that our last session together falls on a palindrome date (you can read the date forward and backwards and it's the same). A sign from the universe that you'll do great in the exam? Perhaps!
It has been short and intense, but I hope also useful, and mildly entertaining.
Today we agreed to review the format of an essay and an article. THE ESSAY There are three things you need to remember when writing an essay: 1. Read the instructions carefully. 2. Your opinions have to be based on facts (unlike politicians). 3. In the conclusion, you have to write clearly what your opinion is. If we get more specific, as always I recommend my friend Teacher Phill for an in-depth explanation. If you don't want to click and read, let me sum it up for you: An essay always includes a statement and a question. For example: "Some people say fashion is bad. Do you agree?" Your mission is to answer the question, and give reasons for why that is your answer. You should have 5 separate paragraphs. - PARAGRAPH 1 (Intro): In this part you explain what the essay is about. - PARAGRAPH 2 (Idea 1): In this part you discuss how idea 1 is connected to the topic. - PARAGRAPH 3 (Idea 2): In this part you discuss how idea 2 is connected to the topic. - PARAGRAPH 4 (Your own idea): In this paragraph, you talk about an aspect of the topic that you have to come up with yourself. It can be anything! In this paragraph, you have to make extra effort that you idea is conveyed clearly. - PARAGRAPH 5 (Conclusion): Give a straightforward answer to the question in the instructions. For example, "It is for all the aforementioned reasons that I think fashion is bad, and there is a lot of room for improvement in the fashion industry." Of course, throughout your essay, you should use all the language you've learned in these two years: connectors, linkers, third conditionals, passive sentences, advanced vocabulary, no direct translations from your thoughts in Spanish, and perfect spelling. THE ARTICLE I could try, but I wouldn't explain it clearer than... guess who? Teacher Phill! So let's read it together. And that's it! My advice for the exam is to sleep well, take a bottle of water with you, a chocolate bar (your brain runs on sugar) and trust that you've done everything at least once in class, so you can do it again. Good luck, my darlings.
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Hello from the depths of hell, where apparently it's normal to exist and do things at 40ºC! Today in online class we review each part of the Listening paper. It basically breaks down into this: Part 1 - 8 extracts. 1 question about each, multiple choice. They probably mention things from all options but only one is the right answers. Tip: wait until the end of the extract to decide your answer. The format of the answer is usually "At first I thought this, but then I realised that this other thing was more important". Part 2 - 1 long interview. 1 text with gaps to fill. The answers are usually one or two words. Tip: Identify what type of word you need in the gap: a name? a number? a place? and also look at the word before and after the gap. Part 3 - 5 different speakers. 7 sentences. 2 distractors. They all talk about the same topic, but each talks about a different aspect of it. You have to identify what each speaker is talking about. Tip: As you listen, be mentally prepared to look for synonyms and different ways of saying the same thing. The answer is never said with the same words. If you hear the same word that's in the sentence, it's a trap. Part 4 - 1 long interview. 7 questions with multiple choice. Tip: underline what is relevant so that you can anticipate the answers. Don't just choose a correct answer, try to reason why the others are incorrect. If you need/want more information, you can read more in-depths explanations at the links below: We had also planned to take a look at the review format for the writing. Let's take a look at an example. Can you identify what the instructions probably were? For the detailed guide to how to write a good review, as usual, I defer to Teacher Phill:
Hi! Hope you had a nice weekend. According to our plan, today we practice Speaking Part 4, which is the long opinion turn that comes after the mind-map, and the questions will be directly linked to whatever topic you get. There's no strategy to this, you just have to try really hard to express your opinion with reasons and examples, and speak for about a minute. A minute feels very short and very long, all at once. There are a few recommendations I can make. 1. Listen carefully, and make sure you answer the question (not just blab for a minute about whatever). If you don't understand the question, ask the examiner to repeat. If you didn't understand what the question meant, try asking the examiner a yes/no question. "Did you mean what city I'm from?". Be natural. 2. Reason your answer. I think this because this reason and that other reason, plus here's an example. 3. Speak from experience. It's always easier to argue for something you have a personal connection to. If not you, maybe you can relate the question to a friend, a family member... whatever you gotta do to keep talking. 4. Use connectors and relevant vocabulary. You have a minute to show the examiner how eloquent you are. Use every weapon in you arsenal: fancy vocabulary you know, structures that you know will impress them, connectors they're expecting you to use, etc. Do you best. Here is a file with possible Part 4 questions I've taken from textbooks.
Apart from speaking practice, we'll do a couple of exercises from the book, like the Vocabulary Section from Unit 13 (space/place/room/area/location/square). Here are the answers to Vocabulary and Grammar review unit 11 + 12: Here is a little bit more practice for Reading and The Use Part 3: Today's main focus is how to approach Reading and The Use Part 1. This part tests you on: - similar vocabulary words (see/look/watch/stare, avoid/prevent/protect, check/control/keep an eye on/supervise) you should be familiar with, because they appeared throughout your book in the vocabulary sections of each unit. - Phrasal verbs - Idioms: you know, those sentences like "keep your fingers crossed" or "have a change of heart". - Collocations: words that just.... they just go together. Like "do the housework" or "make a noise" or "give a compliment" All this stuff sounds like a lot, but you've seen it little by little over two years and it's in your book. Here a more in-depth explanation about it: And here is where you can get more practice for these things. Just click on the link and scroll down to the right category: On the writing front, today we review how to write a story. Let Teacher Phill explain the most important aspects of story writing. He explains things very well, very clearly, and better than me. So if hearing me in class is not enough, always go and check his explanation. This is the prompt for a story you must write for NEXT WEEK: Thank you for reading! See you next Monday.
As per our calendar, on Monday we focused on finetuning Speaking Part 3. You can ask your classmates for the checklist of things you should try to do during this part, and you can download the materials that we used for the lesson:
We also did a quick review of 20 phrasal verbs you must know before you go to the exam. Here they are:
I also assigned as homework for Wednesday the 8th the Vocabulary and Grammar Review Unit 11 + 12 (or as much of it as you could get done).
According to our calendar, today we work on Reading and the Use of English Part 4, and the format of a letter, for Writing Part 2. Clicking on the button below will take you the patterns that usually show up in Part 4. We did the first four exercises, and we will try to do the rest today. Also, here are the answers to the Reading Part 7 exercise you did at the end of Monday's class, about surviving an animal attack. And an important warning: We'll also work on the format of a letter/email. It's the next part of unit 12 (for me it's page 137). You have a reference guide with more details at the end of your book (for me it's page 189), and it's also very easy to google "first for schools how to write an email" and get excellent explanations like this one: And as you can imagine, your homework will be to write a letter: use the prompt on page 137, ex. 1. (respond to Les' email) Have a nice weekend!
Reading and the Use Part 4 is objectively the most difficult part of the exam, because it combines everything you've learned over two years: grammar, vocabulary, phrasal verbs, the passive voice, infinitives and gerunds, reported speech, etc...
And there's no way to predict what you will get! But after looking at a million examples (approx.), smart people like me have learned to predict the *kind of things* that are most likely to show up in the exam. So here they are, with exercises to practice. Animal Farm is a classic book by George Orwell that if you haven't read yet, I highly recommend. You can even read it in English if you're feeling brave. But that's not the point of this post. You asked about animal sounds, and animal sounds I shall deliver.
This is absolutely optional, but for some of you, absolutely necessary.
I am linking a page with mechanical practice for all tenses in English, from the present simple to the past perfect continuous. If you know you struggle with certain structures, you can click on the verb tense, read an explanation and practice building sentences. It's not exactly FUN work, but you and I know that sometimes, it's necessary. Here are the answers to the rest of the Third Conditional sentences you had to complete for today. And here is the next episode of the "Word Transformation" series: And here are more questions in the third conditional to practice speaking.
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