I have attended studies for preparation to the FCE (1st english certificate) recently.
We use first sertificate Gold by Richard Acklam, new edition.
What can you say about this book, its good points and bad points?
What about others book for preparation for succesful result?
PS What value does it [FEC] have in Europe?
I’m preparing for CAE and use Masterclass as course book (I attend a prep course as well), so I can’t tell you anything about how good your coursebook is (and, of course, opinions are always subjective) - but though I can give you some advice which books might be good and useful for you.
Common Mistakes at FCE - great series and very useful!!! I bought all three - FCE/CAE/CPE - have a look at them and if you think they could help you buy the FCE one. They are small books and not too expensive, here each costs about 8 EUR.
Exam maximiser - it’s a combination of workbook and exam handbook - it’s from the Gold-series as your coursebook. I bought the advanced version and the CD (meanwhile there is an edition with a CD included) and in my opinion the exercises are quite helpful and very much orientated at the type of exercises in the actual exam.
Grammar in Use/vocabulary in use - I have “advanced grammar in use” and “vocabulary in use upper-intermediate/advanced” - quite good books for grammar revision and as a reference or, referring to “voc in use”, to widen your vocabulary. I think “grammar in use” is better than “advanced grammar in use” for FCE preperation purposes. “Phrasal verbs in use” could be helpful as well. The books provide exercises as well as clear explanations - look out that you buy the “with answers”-edition. The latest version is available with a CD-ROM, it is only about 2 or 3 EUR more than the without-CD-ROM-version so I’d recommend to buy the more expensive one and therefore have a nice CD-ROM as well.
“Focus On, First Certificate : Grammar Practice” - actually there’s a course book as well but I consider the practice book being more helpful. (I have the advanced one again).
And last but not least - the recent papers published by Cambridge - very useful to find out how good your knowledge really is and whether you are well-prepared for the exam.
There are probably several other books for the FCE - and among them surely several good books - but those above are my favourite ones. Which doesn’t mean that they are helpful for you too - I’d strongly recommend to visit a library or a bookshop and have a look in as many books/workbooks/references as possible to find out what you like.
And a few general tips - read as much as you can, books, articles on the internet… the same with writing, listening and speaking of course (the internet provides great possibilites, look for some friends you can talk to via Skype for example). Read various articles and don’t specify on “one” kind of texts. Find out a good way to record new vocabulary. And have a regular look (daily) at flo-joe.co.uk - especially at the wordbench.
Moreover have a look at the Cambridge exam website, they provide sample papers (if I remember right there’s a search box on the right, just put in “sample” and you should find them).
About the importance of having that certificate - I think the value differs in all European countries.
I hope this is helpful for you,
good look for your exam and have fun preparing for it!
Oh, and by the way - it’s “FCE” and not “FEC”!
As my last post is so long I’ll make a new one instead of editing the last one…
Here are some links I found and which might be helpful for you!
readyforfc.com/PDFs/Mailing/ … pack-B.PDF
readyforfc.com/PDFs/Mailing/ … 20pdfs.PDF
Both taken from readyforfc.com/index.htm
Stefanie respect to you for your help. It’s the best I have got.
It’s very significant information. I’ll take it into account.
I’m really willing to speak on English and try to do much for it.
By the way, Have you already had a FCE?
No, I’ve never taken the FCE - I got the idea of enrolling for a Cambridge exam about three or four months ago and considered sitting the FCE.
But then I tried two recent tests and got about 90% in each without any preparation, so I decided to prepare for the CAE directly, though I was quite unsure about it at first as I only had about six years (actually only five because one year our teacher was ill and English hardly ever was taught) English at school and you’re said to have reached “only” level B1/lower B2 by then.
But anyway, I’m glad that things work out so well for me at the moment.
How long will your prep course take? And is it an evening class? If so, how many students do you have there? I only ask because I was very surprised that in my course only are about 12 students IF all of them come, usually we are not more than 6, it’s really convenient.
It’s an adult education centre, they belong to the cities here and courses are quite cheap, I only pay about 102 EUR for 14 evenings, each lesson is about 2hrs and 15mins.
And when do you want to sit the exam? Any plans or just “wait and see”? And for what purposes do you want to use it? Argh, me being curious :oops:
Anyway, if I find further useful links for you I’ll post them here!
Preceding post was mine;) it’s a shame, I had forgotten to log in:)
Of course I don’t mind - so here are the answers ;o)
The course is diveded into two parts - the first started in the middle of September and lasts until the end of January, the second part starts in the middle of Feb and the last lesson is one day before the CAE takes place in June.
I hope I can take part in both parts but I have to wait and see whether my timetable allows it (I study about 70km away from where I live and it takes between two and three hours (usually 2 1/2) to go there - the education centre is nearly in the middle of both cities, takes about 1h 30mins to reach it by train and on foot). Both parts consist of 16 evenings.
We have a native speaker as teacher as well, he comes from the south of England, is about 50 yrs old and a nice guy with a good sense of humour.
It’s also an evening course.
I’m quite sure that I’ll take it in next June, I thought about taking it even earlier but as I don’t have to hurry I’ll take my time.
I consider attending a prep course for CPE subsequently and it will only start next summer anyway. (If it comes off - it’s not sure yet, depends on how many students are interested in it).
My only real goal is that I want to hold the CAE and be on my way to CPE when I’ve finished my studies - and as there are at least 5 semesters to go I have much time left 
I hope to be able to go abroad after my graduation - my wish always has been to live in Britain - and for this purpose I think it’s quite helpful to have a proof of my level of English to have better chances to get invited for a job interview. Plus English always has been a (school)subject I enjoyed as well as English is a language I really like (don’t ask me why I study computer science/computer engineering now…) - and the course is a welcome change to all that technical stuff.
What I mean by this is that only working with computers and technical stuff becomes boring after a certain time (well, at least for me) and I need a change - smoothing another part of my brain instead of only having to think logically and mathematically. Just dealing with a completely different field.
And so this course is a “welcome change” for me.
Hope this helps you!