FCE (Cambridge First Certificate) Writing Tactics

Cambridge First Writing Part 2 exam tactics discussion questions and tips

• What should you first do when you turn to the Writing Part Two page?
• What should you do after that, and in what order?
• Which kind of task would you usually pick in Part Two? How would you decide which one to do?
• What things about each type of task makes them easier and more difficult to complete? Put your ideas into the table below.

Put these into the categories above. Most fit in more than one place, and some don’t fit anywhere because they aren’t true.

• A strange genre which isn’t common in real life
• Can change what you write to match the language that you know
• Can choose the level of formality (as long as you then stick to it)
• Can have quite a boring title
• Can include almost anything as long as it matches the task
• Can use lots of topic-specific language
• Can use the same phrases in almost every task
• Doesn’t matter how strange it is as long as it matches the task
• Need imagination
• Need lots of descriptive language such as adjectives
• Need to avoid idioms
• Needs a catchy title
• Needs a conclusion or a summary
• Needs a variety of tenses
• Needs section headings
• Needs to catch and keep people’s attention
• Organising into paragraphs is quite easy
• Paragraphing and formatting are very important
• Quite difficult to arrange into paragraphs
• Similar language to speech
• The facts must all be true
• There are common topics which you can prepare to write about
• There are common ways of organizing paragraphs which you can often use
• Very specific tasks that you have to match your writing very closely to

Which ones above do you think aren’t true?

How can you use the advantages and decrease the disadvantages of each of the text types above?

What can you do outside class to improve your writing skills for the B2 First exam?

Continue the discussion above, including these topics:

• Improving your editing skills
• Your weaknesses/ Your most common mistakes
• Reading
• Finding and learning typical phrases/ useful phrases
• Learning more advanced language
• Improving your ability to plan and organize
• Improving your ability to finish on time (e.g. stopping wasting time counting words and planning more quickly)

Choose a top five from this list:

• Do timed B2 First Writing tasks (even when you can’t have those answers marked)
• Give each other feedback on your writing
• Learn typical organisations (= paragraph plans) of formal letters etc
• Make a list of your previous or typical mistakes
• Read and analyse English-language reviews online
• Read and analyse Cambridge First Writing model answers
• Read Cambridge’s advice for students
• Read graded readers
• Use a self-study vocabulary book, e.g. a B2 First one
• Write English-language reviews online

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