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Cambridge english: b2 first (fce) writing.

Difficulty level : B2 /Upper Intermediate

What is the B2 First (FCE) Writing test like? The test has two sections and takes about 80 minutes:

  • Part 1 - write an essay based on prompts
  • Part 2 - write one from a choice of 3 questions: an article , an essay , a letter, a report , a review , a story

Scoring Each of the two writing parts are marked out of 20. There are five marks for each of the following: Content, Communicative Achievement, Organisation and Language. You must write 140-190 words for each part.

How to prepare for the B2 First (FCE) Writing test

  • Choose a question that you are interested in. You will write better if you know the subject.
  • Read the instructions carefully before you start. Make notes. You must include all the points from the instructions in your writing .
  • Make a plan before you start writing. Decide what information to put in each paragraph.
  • Think about who you are writing to and use an appropriate style of language.
  • Try to use a range of complex language.

Read this explanation of how to write an article for FCE Writing part 2.

First (FCE) Writing tests

  • Writing part 1 (essay)
  • Writing part 2 (review)
  • Writing part 2 (article)
  • Writing part 2 (email)
  • Writing part 2 (report)
  • How to write an article
  • Writing essay introductions
  • Brainstorming ideas for essays
  • Answer the question!

First (FCE) Sections

  • Cambridge First (FCE)

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B2 First - Writing Practice

First certificate in english (fce).

  • B2 First quick links:
  • Use Of English
  • Back to the B2 First main page

On this page, you will find example writing tests to help you prepare for the Writing part of the First Certificate exam.

The speaking section is divided into two parts and involves many types of writing: essay, email, review, report and article.

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test One Essay / Report / Review / Email Exercise Number: FCE115

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Two Essay / Email / Report / Article Exercise Number: FCE116

  • Try to choose questions that require you to write about something that is interesting to you.
  • Always write a brief plan before each of the compositions.
  • Think about the target reader and write in a suitable register and tone.

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Three Essay / Review / Article / Email Exercise Number: FCE117

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Four Essay / Review / Article / Report Exercise Number: FCE118

  • Ensure all your points and paragraphs link together well.
  • Avoid repeating phrases. Learn expressions that will help you write more naturally.
  • Leave enough time at the end to re-read each composition and check for errors.

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Five Essay / Report / Email / Article Exercise Number: FCE119

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Six Essay / Review / Article / Report Exercise Number: FCE120

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Seven Essay / Email / Article / Review Exercise Number: FCE121

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Eight Essay / Email / Report / Review Exercise Number: FCE122

Best B2 First Certificate Books For Students

Use of English: Ten practice tests for the Cambridge B2 First | See in UK

FCE Writing Masterclass (Writing B2: FCE Cambridge) | See in UK

Listening First: Ten practice tests for the Cambridge B2 First | See in UK

Cambridge English Qualifications: B2 First Volume 1 Practice Tests Plus with key | See in UK

Cambridge English First 1 for Revised Exam - Student's Book with Answers: Authentic Examination Papers | See in UK

Reading and Use of English for First (FCE) | See in UK

Common Mistakes at First Certificate and How to Avoid Them | See in UK

Gold Experience 2nd Edition Exam Practice: Cambridge English First for Schools (B2) | See in UK

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Tips for the FCE Writing Section (B2 English)

By Fabio 6 Comments

Tips for the FCE Writing Section (B2 English)

Hey friend, how is life? In this blog post I’m going to review some useful insights to ace the Writing part of the FCE exam , also known as Cambridge English: First but also as First Certificate in English.

So you know already one fundamental notion: Cambridge Assessment English exams have as many titles as Daenerys Targaryen . 😂

This post looks in more depth at the Writing part but if you feel like having a broader vision of the FCE exam, here you have it –>  First Certificate in English (FCE): How to Ace it

To pass the exam is no easy feat and the Writing is certainly one of the hardest. Language conventions, style, lexicon … 😔 In the Reading and Use of English at least you only have to fill empty spaces :-/ in here, you have to compose a text from scratch.

You are given a few guidelines and you’re left with a blank space to scrabble in. No wonder some of us find this part to be difficult .

Well, it does not have to be: with the right preparation and tools, you can pass the exam with flying colours, FCE Writing included.

⚠️ WARNING: THIS POST IS NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED ⚠️

👎 Downside: you’re reading a lengthy piece . I couldn’t make it exhaustive and short at the same time, sorry.

👍 Upside: you do not need to look any further on the Internet. This <brag alert> is the most comprehensive guide available concerning the FCE Writing </brag alert>.

I invite you to put it in your Favourites in order to come back, every now and again, to explore the different parts and suggestions, as you happen to need them. 🔖

And now, let’s dive into the matter.

Cambridge English: First – The Writing section

You’re given 80 minutes for two different tasks:

  • Essay (compulsory for everybody).
  • Review, report, letter, email or article (you have to pick one of those proposed).

So, it makes forty minutes for each text. In reality, you can spend seventy minutes on one and ten on the other : it’s absolutely fine. In this time, you have to do it all:

  • Jot down ideas ,
  • brainstorm vocabulary you’d like to use,
  • blueprint the text, 🗺️
  • pass it on a fair copy,
  • checking GSP (Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation), 🔬 and
  • deliver it to the examiner.

Both texts have to be between 140 and 190 words long each.

Cambridge English: First: On paper or computer?

You can either go for the paper-based exam or for the computer-based exam : one of the two major differences between them lies indeed in the FCE Writing section.

In the paper-based exam, you write on, surprise surprise , paper . 📝 That means you have to do it the good old way: basically, draft first then neat copy. Thus, you have to factor in the time to do this all and make a final check round before to deliver it.

In the computer-based exam, you write on… (drum roll) … a digital screen . 💻 That means you don’t have to worry about initial draft and final draft : there won’t be crossing-outs, ink stains, bad handwriting. However, you still have white paper, pens and pencils in case you want to scribble some notes aside.

Also, if you go for the computer-based exam, you have some extra perks:

#1 You have a stopwatch right before your eyes, on top of the screen, flashing red when the time is about to end; ⏱️

#2 You also have a word counter , below the screen, so that you can keep your text length under control the whole time.

Are in essence the paper-based and the computer-based versions of the Writing the same? Absolutely the same . It’s just a different medium. If you feel like scrabbling ideas on paper , you can still do it: you are provided with blank paper and pens and pencils, whereas necessary, before the beginning of the exam.

So, should you go for the paper-based exam or the computer-based one? Whatever floats your boat. ⛵ Surprisingly, many candidates prefer the paper-based one.

Want to know more about the two formats? Read: Paper or Computer: Choose your Cambridge English Exam Format .

Cambridge English: First – Writing: Traps you should be aware of

Along these years in the field, I’ve seen many students underestimating this task. Why? Because they think they’re already able to write . Among the remarks I heard the most:

  • I’ve been sending emails in English in my job for years now, what need do I have to prepare?
  • I’m quite used keeping in touch with my Erasmus friends by sending emails and texting them 📱 , no need for further studies.
  • I read a lot in English: British newspapers, sport magazines, travel newsletters… it shouldn’t be hard to craft a few words-text.

There are sooooo many misconceptions here. 🤔

#1 Email is just one of the six options you may have in the FCE Writing section. Besides, you may be writing for a thousand years but doing it wrong.

#2 Texting and emailing informally a friend is NOT the same as to write an email with the required language and conventions to someone who’s not a friend. And again: email is just one of five options in the FCE writing; WhatsApp messages are not yet considered as a type of text from the Cambridge folks deserving to be introduced in any exam.

#3 Reading is the compulsory starting point if you want to write 📚, but then, there’s more work to do.

The truth of the matter is the following, beautifully articulated by Benjamin Franklin:

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

For the great majority of us, real life just does not provide the type of preparation you need to pass the exam . Who do you send an essay to? What do you write a report for? OK, I think I made myself clear on this point. Now, an interesting question.

Any textbook to prepare myself for the FCE Writing task?

Is there any book you’d recommend to improve specifically the Writing section of the FCE exam? Yes, there is this one:

Be VERY mindful of an irrefutable fact: if you know how to write, speaking will follow .

This is an all too often overlooked concept: a horde of learners presume talking well in a given language is all about pronouncing right and training amply the talking itself. Wrong!

First, you need to get your linguistic act together: having something to say, being able to tell it in an articulated matter ; pronunciation, prosody, rhetoric come later. Writing is to speaking as walking is to running.

Want to know more about the Speaking part? Read: FCE Certificate: A Recipe for Success in FCE Speaking .

Now, let’s dig into the kinds of Writing you will encounter in the B2 First exam, one by one.

FCE Writing: Essay

The Essay is the only component of Part 1 of the Writing. It’s compulsory . In it, you have to talk about a topic, mentioning two points you’re provided plus a point of your own. 🖊️ In other words, in an essay you give info, you explain your viewpoint, you compare and contrast.

The consumption of dietary supplements has been growing exponentially and various voices call for a more stringent regulation about them. What do you think?

Write about:

  • The online sales of such supplements;
  • health hazards associated with their consumption;
  • … … … … (your own idea).

So, in less than 200 words you have to talk about the two points offered plus a point of your making.

What are some basic principles you should follow?

  • You have to show a B2 lexicon : tablets, superfoods, nutraceutical, etc;
  • the composition must be structured in paragraphs , linked one another with proper connectors ;
  • you have to tap into a language portfolio to express comparisons, explanations, agreements and disagreements, personal views.

What do I mean in point 3 ? Making use of:

  • Although, despite, even if;
  • firstly, to begin with, first of all;
  • on the one hand, on the other hand; f
  • or example, for instance;
  • additionally, on top of that; to summarise, in conclusion…

You got me.

How would I organize my time ? Ideally, I would:

  • Budget some three-four minutes to take note of all the useful words and sentences I may use to show how good is my English,
  • then another couple of minutes to draft a roadmap of my text,
  • do the actual writing, the bulk of it,
  • then I’ll eventually sum it all up and conclude,
  • to eventually make a last check round to seek and destroy any mistakes.

A word of advise (or two) (maybe three):

#1 Keep your words under control.

The maximum limit of words is quite tight: if you don’t pay attention, you’ll end up writing twice as much in order to cover all the points.

#2 Keep your brainstorming skills sharp.

Far from the exam, is a good thing to do the following exercise. Open up a newspaper, pick an article: what topic is it? Nuclear wastes? Climate change? Online banking security breaches? 🔓

Perfect! Pick them, write them on paper then brainstorm for a few minutes what words and structures to use in the essay .

#3 Save some time for the end.

It is useful to allow, at the very end of your 80 minutes, some spare 3-4 minutes to come back to the essay , to read it again in search for mistakes again and incongruences. Why?

Because after forty minutes of being on top of the essay, you may not be able any more to spot such undesired intruders. The distance given by half an hour and attention on something else, gives a useful semi-fresh perspective on it .

What is that I shouldn’t say but it is better for me to say?

#1 Keep it simple : don’t play Alain de Botton if your name is Pedro Antuñéz or Giovanni Rossi. Better something less sophisticated but correct than something amazingly conceived but poorly rendered on paper.

#2 Care your GSP (Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation) : there is no point in being Malcolm Gladwell 🦱 if you have a first grader’s GSP.

#3 Never forget that you’re not being evaluated on the originality of your ideas.

If the essay is about recycling, you don’t have to quote a pioneering study from the University of Petropavlovsk concerning the reuse of coffee pods in subarctic oceanic aquaculture.

What you have to do, in your FCE Writing, is to show that you have a B2 English , not a PhD in the subject of the essay.

And now, it’s time for you to get stained with some ink. Read the assignment below –> do it yourself –> check how I would have done it. ✒️

A real-life example of an Essay

Consider the following assignment.

More needs to be done to encourage children to spend time healthily outdoors. Do you agree? (140-190 words)

Write about: 1# Benefits and disadvantages of children’s outdoor activities 2# Recommendations for parents and teachers 3# Your own ideas

💬 Done? Very well. So, there are MANY ways to write this essay, but a decent one is the following:

Children spending time healthily outdoor

First of all, I wholeheartedly agree with the statement, but I will try to describe all the pros and cons related to the matter, before coming to conclusions.

To begin with, it’s easy to come up with several reasons why our kids ought to spend some daily hours in places such as parks, gardens or in the countryside. Physical activity is paramount to a person’s wellness, even more at a young age; besides, it would prevent obesity and subtle manipulation from TV and the internet.

That doesn’t mean there are no downsides. It’s difficult to be outdoorsy if you dwell in a 50 sqm-flat downtown or if you reside in a bad dodgy neighbourhood. In that case, we may want these children to stay indoors, watching the TV and being looked after.

However, the most crucial element in this regard is, in my opinion, parenting style. We’ve been breeding a generation of “helicopter parents”, hovering constantly over their offspring in search for hidden threats. Media play a big role in this, as they blow everything out of proportion: there’s rather plenty of evidence that such fears are irrational.

To sum up, I do admit there are pros and cons in letting the kids stay less indoor, but I firmly believe there’s a lot more to gain than to lose.

💬 And here it is. Too hard? Too long? If you prepare well, you’re going to nail it.

Any textbook to improve my Essay writing skills?

Actually, you know what? Most prep books for the FCE exam focus enough on the Essay. Why? Because it’s the only Writing exercise you’re obliged to do, hence their emphasis.

Any of the books suggested in the main post about FCE are as good as a lemon sorbet in a summer heat wave. 🍦 You may find them here:

First Certificate in English (FCE): How to Ace it

You shall find plenty of instructions and examples there. Nevertheless, whatever your strategy, it is neeeeeeeeever a bad idea to review and strengthen your grammar . This can be an excellent ally of yours:

English Grammar in Use with Answers : I have a hard time taking grammar books in my hands, but this is well done.

FCE Writing: Article

The Article is one of the options you’re given in the Part 2 of the FCE Writing: whether to go for this one or not, is your choice.

In the Article, you have to write an engaging text for a website, a magazine, a newsletter. ✏️ I n other words, in an article you describe, provide examples and articulate your opinion , in a way that you readers feel compelled to read it all.

In your opinion, what would be the upsides and downsides of learning programming languages? Is it something you would invite all young people to do?

The best article will be published next month.

  • Tap into your source of B2 vocabulary ;
  • write a sentence for each paragraph you’d like to include, then expand from such sentence outwards;
  • always keep in mind who’s your reader persona : age, social and educational background, etc.

General suggestions:

  • A catchy title is recommendable , but do not go Huffington Post-clickbait-ish.
  • A school newspaper requires a style that a tech magazine does not. Learn how to pass from informality to formality in your writing.
  • Away from the exam, read as many articles as you can given that they are your raw material.

#1 Keep it simple : if you can’t put on paper a Fareed Zakaria’s prose , don’t try. A couple of ideas, linear clauses, appropriate nouns and adjectives, good connectors: that’s all.

# 2 Care your GSP (Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation) : no point in writing the best article ever if you drop a wheater you leik it or not . 😱

#3 Never forget that you’re being evaluated for your English , which has to be B2. Not for your originality in terms of content or style: just for your English . Cambridge does not deliver Pulitzer prizes anyway.

💬 Now it’s your turn again: read the assignment below –> write it yourself –> check my version of it. ✒️

A real-life example of an Article

In your opinion, is learning programming languages necessary in today’s world? Is it something you would invite all young people to do?

The best article will be published next month in our college magazine.

💬 Again, COUNTLESS are the ways to write this. I’m just putting down one of them here below.

Human languages are the present: programming languages the future

In modern-day society, a good curriculum has no real appeal if not completed with the mastery of one or two foreign languages. But… Do you think it will always be this way? I don’t think so.

Sooner or later, human languages will be translated and interpreted by machines that will run on an entirely different set of languages: that of computers. Programming languages, we call them.

That’s the future. It will take ten years, perhaps twenty: but in that moment, these tools will be as popular and embedded into our daily life and professions, that ignoring Python, C+ or Java will be just as prejudicial as is nowadays not knowing English or French.

Hence, I strongly recommend our youth to start exploring the subject. It’s no more difficult than learning any other discipline: a bit of patience, some guidance, good materials.

So, guys: read about it, try coding, come to our so-called “Hackatons”, attend courses and hone your programming skills. Before you know it, it will be impossible to live without.

💬 And here we are. Nothing otherwordly, don’t you think?

Any material to boost my Article writing skills?

Of course. It is possible to accomplish this task even without this book, to be honest. On the other hand, if you want to learn how to write an article in an excellent way, you shouldn’t miss this one:

FCE Writing: Email

The Email is also one of the options you’re given in the Part 2 of this section, so it is not compulsory .

In this, you have to write in response to a certain situation , formal or informal, being careful to include everything you’re told according to the conventions of an email. 📧

You see this ad on an English-language literary magazine website.

Writing Contest

Ready to share your novel or poem with the world? Whether you’re a newbie or more established writer, you’re welcome to take part in our Fiction or Poetry contests.

Submit by sending us an email briefly introducing yourself, as a person and an author, beside a few words on your creation. Don’t forget to attach your work!

So now, what’s the purpose of the email?

  • To explain who you are , both in life and in the literary sphere,and
  • to succinctly describe the piece of fiction you’re participating with.

Informal or formal? Kind of in between here, don’t you concur? It’s a writing contest, granted, but the phrasing used in the announcement is not Victorian literary English . 👑

The cues are:

  • the Ready to share… rather than a more pompous Are you ready to share…
  • words like newbie , rather than a formal neophyte or even novice
  • you’re instead of you are
  • the exclamation mark in the end of the ad and the absence of pleases or other expressions of deference.
  • Prove that you master a B2 vocabulary : inner voice, the heart of the story, blurb, etc;
  • the conventions of the genre must be respected: opening, main body, closing formula;
  • you have to balance somehow the different points you’re asked to talk about: your biography, who you are as a writer and what’s your literary work about. 📗 You can be the new Charlotte Brontë but if you miss these three things you’re hardly going to succeed.

Again, it’s a useful exercise to take a few minutes to think of the words, idioms and expressions you may use, plus to draw a simple outline of how you’re going to unfold the email, paragraph after paragraph.

Points I want you to be aware of:

#1 The Email writing is more difficult than what it looks like.

Why? Because in life you may read a lot of essays, articles or reports so that you will have an idea of how to draft them even if you do not specifically train yourself for them. But emails? Not really.

That’s when textbooks and prep books come in very handy: they contain this stuff, so you should rely on them. 📩

#2 A maximum of 190 words is less than what you imagine.

Don’t get carried away or you’ll still be talking about yourself by word nº 220 and you still haven’t even glossed over your writing genius and your manuscript.

#3 Don’t warp your English in an effort to make it superduper cultured. 

It’s unlikely that this email will end up in a posthumous collection such as The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. At a B2 you know enough English to communicate richly, but to be Virginia Woolf-like, a great deal remains to be done.

💬 Time for you to test your skills: read the assignment below –> do it yourself –> check how I would have done it. ✒️

A real-life example of an Email

Scholarships 

Every year, two scholarships are offered to candidates from overseas who can show how our one-year course in English studies would help their career.

Scholarships cover fees, accommodation and food but not transport or personal spending money.

To apply, write an email explaining why you think you deserve a scholarship.

💬 I hope you really did it, rather than scrolling down endlessly 🤨 Anyway, this is what I’d write.

Dear Sir/Madam, I hope this email finds you well.

I am writing to your attention about the ad on your website, concerning the two scholarships for overseas students. I believe it would make a huge difference for me: allow me here to explain why.

As you know, Italy is a tourism-based country. Thus, I have been pursuing an education in Hotel Management and Sustainable Tourism. Unfortunately, in my country English teaching is not cutting-edge: neither within the education system, nor in the general society. As a result, undergraduates like me are forced to take matters into their own hands.

I have carefully read your one-year English studies program: I believe it would be very formative for me, beside being a boost for my employability.

This email would not be complete if I failed to mention either my excellent academic results (I hereby attach my curriculum) or, particularly, my limited budget. Hence, a financial aid in the form of a scholarship would be most welcome.

I look forward to hearing from you and please do not hesitate to contact me for any queries you may have.

Yours sincerely, Tyrion Lannister

💬 And here it is. As long as you study well, the Email does not constitute any danger.

Any textbook to improve my Email writing skills?

Yes, there’s one which is as good as a granita siciliana while laying on a beach in Favignana in August. 🍦

FCE Writing: Review

The Review is one of the options you’re given in Part 2: again, it is not compulsory .

The Review assesses how well you can describe and motivate your opinion about something you have first-hand knowledge of (the like of an electronic gadget, a theatre play, a holiday package, etc.), with a final suggestion to the reader. 📝 In other words, in a review you have to describe, detail and give your opinion.

A review may be published on different media: daily newspaper, online magazine, nationwide printed cultural journal. Hence, different styles for different outlets.

The Best Tablet of the Year

On our lifestyle webzine, we’ve been gathering reviews from our readership concerning the best tablet of the year. If you have recently purchased or used one, write us your opinion including brand, model, features and other data you deem relevant.

We will then publish a chart based on the devices which have received the most praises!

So, the assignment couldn’t be clearer. You have to include in your review (I am totally making stuff up here below between parenthesis):

  • Brand and name of the device (Maple iMoon), 📟
  • what did you use it for (to track supernovas in the sky in-sync with a telescope),
  • relevant features (material, screen size, USB ports, Bluetooth, processor, battery life, pre-installed Apps, front camera lenses, etc.),
  • what has mattered the most for you (next-gen processing speed but short battery life, for instance),
  • a resume of your opinion and a recommendation to other readers (not the best piece of equipment for pros but good value for money for amateurs). ✔️
  • Brag about your B2 vocabulary : screen-to-body ratio, headphone jack, processing power , etc;
  • if you are utterly uninformed about the matter (i.e. technology here), you may want to skip a review like this. On the other hand, if you’re an electronic gadget buff, tune down your prose . No mere mortal understands stuff like “a 16MB Intel Smart Cache behind a 1080p non-touch capacitive display would earn my praise only with a our USB-C SD carbon fibre card adapter”;
  • organise carefully your review in sequential paragraphs .

#1 Choose a title that is alluring and at the same time gives the readers an idea of what to expect from your review. 💯

#2 It’s a good thing to read reviews profusely in preparation of the exam.

A brief summary of your go-to resources:

– Gizmos: Techradar – Restaurants & Hotels: Tripadvisor – Books: Goodreads – Movies: BBC Film Reviews

It’s good to remark that most of the reviews you’ll find over the Internet are user-generated but not reviewed by a proofreader : nevertheless, at a B2 level you should be proficient enough to tell the bad from the good.

#3 Don’t get lost in the analysis that you forget to include your final recommendation .

💬 Your turn: read carefully the assignment –> do it –> have a look at my attempt. ✒️

A real-life example of a Review

The following announcement has been published in your English-language university website magazine.

Film reviews wanted!

Have you recently watched a film in which you particularly liked the main character?

Write us a review of the film explaining what the main actor did and why in your opinion he deserves praise. Tell us also to whom you would recommend this film to other viewers.

We will publish the best review in our magazine.

💬 Not an easy one. Still, we need to be prepared. Here’s my piece.

The Call of the Wild review: a light-hearted, comforting story

The latest adaptation of Jack London’s most famous novel, directed by Chris Sanders, won’t satisfy the sophisticated appetite of our most salacious critics, but it does have an appeal, in my opinion.

Starring Harrison Ford as gruff Thornton and a CGI imposing dog as Buck, the film will likely become a young adult’s classic. Unfolding in the northern wilderness, the story is about two losers, harshly beaten by life, that come to recognize one another and team up.

I found that Ford’s acting is convincing, not entirely so that of the computer-generated Collie-St. Bernard mongrel: at times it falls short of nowadays’ FX standards, besides conferring the dog an incomprehensible, semi-supernatural ability to understand the English language.

The other characters’ performances are not subpar, nor are they Oscar-winning. There are no cliffhangers or unexpected plot twists, as it’s easy to imagine.

All in all, in my opinion is worth seeing, for those that are in search of an eighty minute-long solace, an unadventurous film evolving among the jaw-dropping Alaskan landscapes. One to relax, rather than reflect.

💬 This is one of the hundred reviews one may jot down. The genre has its own peculiar traits, but it entirely doable, as you can see.

Any volume to ameliorate my Review writing prowess?

Not really, which is a pity. However, you may want to dissect the book below.

It is not specifically for this type of text, but considering the insane variety of reviews there can be, it’s a terrific idea to review your vocabulary (no pun intended):

FCE Writing: Letter

The Letter is an option you’re given in Part 2, among others. Thus, it is not compulsory .

In the Letter, you have to write a written communication to a friend, a relative, an editor in chief, a head hunter, etc. ✍️

A pet to care for

Two English-speaking friends have accepted to take care of your turtle while you’re abroad for three months, but they’d like to know more in detail what it entails. You thank and inform them through a letter.

So, it isn’t so complicated, is it?

  • They’re friends, so the language has to be informal ;
  • first you thank, then you provide instructions ;
  • you begin, end and fill the email with B2 words and expressions, in a laid-back tone.

What are some basic principles you should follow in this part of the FCE Writing?

  • Don’t let the informality of the letter fool you . You still have to prove that you know proper English;
  • you can steer a bit the composition in the direction you prefer : food, shelter, special needs of the turtle, if you prefer your friends to come at your place versus you bringing a terrarium to theirs; 🐢
  • A letter is similar to, but not identical, an email. Respect the differences .

#1 The example I brought up above is that of an informal letter, but some – such as job applications – are so not informal. You need to be equally prepared for both styles .

#2 Just as other types of writing, you may hardly have in your daily life the chance to send and receive letters of any kind . It seems so from the Eighties now. 📨 A couple of good textbooks and prep books are what you need for this.

#3 No exception to the GSP rule (care your Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation): it’s friends you’re writing to but neither you are allowed to misspell nor to use abomination like b4 for “before”, 2 for “to” or bcz for “because”.

💬 Time to practice the Letter! As usual: read the assignment as carefully as you can –> write your composition –> compare it with mine below. ✒️

A real-life example of a Letter

You met an old ex colleague at a trade fair, when he informed you his current company has been looking for an experienced account manager in the publishing business.

You write a cover letter to the head of Human Resources that will have your CV attached. In the letter, you briefly introduce yourself, mention a few highlights of your profile and ask for an interview.

💬 A cover letter, an evergreen. Here’s how I’d do it.

Dear Mr Gladstone,

I’m writing under the suggestion of my former coworker, Mr Mormont, whom I have recently met at the press trade show in Zurich: there, he made me aware that your company is in need of an accomplished salesperson: I’d like to be included in the recruitment process.

I know your company to be one of the top-five providers of marketing services to publishing enterprises: ambition and commitment seems to be in the DNA of your firm, so they are of mine.

As you can see in the hereby attached curriculum, I’m a young yet experienced key clients administrator in the same field, with a proven track record. My educational background is in International Relations, which comes extremely useful when dealing with firms from all over the world. The fluent knowledge of French and Spanish complete my profile.

I’d be honoured to have an interview with you at a mutually convenient time. In the meantime, in case of further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

I look forward to speaking with you about this opportunity and thank you for the time taken to read this.

Sincerely, Alys Karstarck

💬 No need to write about insanely overqualified profiles, as long as your English is correct and appropriate.

Is there a book I can use to scribbles letters better than now?

Yes and no. I’d suggest you the book below: it does focus partially on emails, and it has a business inclination. Having said that, it’s a good book to study : formal language is formal language in business, in the FCE Writing and elsewhere.

FCE Writing: Report

The Report is one of the options you’re given in the Part 2 of the FCE Writing: again, it is not compulsory . In the Report, you have to explain facts and express a recommendation.

After a class discussion, your English teacher has asked students to write a report on the role of pets in modern families. You have to include positive but also negative outcomes, making a recommendation on how to curb these latter.

  • A title isn’t required but neither is forbidden: add it if you come up with a good one;
  • information has to be orderly. A paragraph structure is paramount, and if you want, you can give each paragraph a heading; 📐
  • don’t gloss over the requirements of the report to jump straight to recommendations.

#1 Choose a report if you’re knowledgeable about the topic.

All reports follow a similar scheme, therefore there’s a lot that you can learn and use in each of them, whatever the topic is.

However… do not choose the report just for this reason. Neither should you be up for it because you like the topic. You have to consider, first and foremost, how much you know about the theme . 🧐

To follow up on the example given above, you may love pets, have two dozens of them at your place and want to discuss it: whatever! The question is: are you able to write authoritatively about it? Passion about the topic does not help: mastery of it does.

#2 Spend time planning carefully to save time writing.

That’s it. Four to five minutes spent outlining your report are going to save you many minutes later when you do the actual writing.

It does not have to be rocket science. A very primitive plan could be:

  • Recommendations

For each of these four parts, jot down ideas ; then, sentences, vocabulary, phrasal verbs and idioms you may use.📏 Then, attack the task and start writing. Why is it effective? Because without a plan, most of us get lost in the meanders of our brain.

You might spend twenty minutes writing only to realize afterwards that:

  • You’ve gone off topic ,
  • you haven’t balanced the pros with the cons,
  • you have just made a long recommendation from the first line to the last.

#3 Headings may come to your rescue.

A report is one of these kinds of text in which headings help to define a clearer structure of the text. You certainly do not put them in a letter or email.

You know what? If for whatever reason you haven’t got plenty to say, you may want to include headings to increase your word count . 🆒

It has to be wisely done, of course: if they’re just paraphrasing what’s below them and as long as the paragraphs they’re on top of, hmmmm, not a good thing.

💬 Time for you to practice the Report: read the assignment –> do it –> check my own below. ✒️

A real-life example of a Report

Y ou see this announcement on your city council website.

We are conducting research about how to save water in our town. We would like to hear our citizen’s feedback and ideas on the matter: what are we doing well? Which area of improvements do you see? What would you propose?

💬 Water management: one of the most common topics. You can’t be caught off guard.

The aim of this report is to assess the current situation in our town regarding the usage of water and how to reduce it. What follows is the result of my own investigations: recommendations are given to the best of my knowledge.

In our city, this matter is particularly relevant as it lays on a basin characterised by the scarcity of water resources. Frankly, I haven’t seen any environment-minded policies so far, that’s why I welcome such forms of citizen participation.

I am told that our Urban Cleaning Services use non-potable water to clean streets and waste containers: that’s an excellent approach, but it’s far from being enough.

There is a battery of measures that could be implemented, among which:

  • Substituting sprinkling irrigators in parks with more efficient dripping systems,
  • making new buildings water-efficient,
  • recurring to underground tanks to recover rainwater in public buildings,
  • refurbishing existing housings with water-saving taps and bath-wares.

To sum up, some proposals do need a minimum budget to be implemented: perhaps, we can start from the cheapest, most cost-effective ones, to grow in ambition according to what the municipal funds allow.

💬 Here it goes. No need to solve world’s water issues: just to deliver a fair text, with a few ideas woven in clear sentences and paragraphs.

Would I recommend a textbook in order to learn to write better reports?

I know a few about improving the way we write reports in general : How to Write Reports and Proposals by Patrick Forsyth is arguably among the best, though it does not focus on the FCE.

Cambridge English: First – Writing: conclusions

We have come to the end of this post about the FCE Writing section. I hope to have clarified one main point: no need to stress in the FCE writing task .

Unlike the other sections, here you have a degree of freedom to include structures you know and language you are proficient in. If you follow the advice listed here, your FCE Writing task will be marvellous.

Have you missed the main guide about the FCE exam? Here you have it ⬇️

Having said that…

  • Would you like to suggest something about this post? ➡️ Leave a comment below.
  • Did you find the post useful? ➡️ Share with friends, relatives and fellow English learners.
  • Do you need further help with the FCE Writing? ➡️ Contact me . I’ve been assisting for years learners like you to pass the FCE exam with flying colours. These colours:

FCE with CAE grades

Wash your hands, sneeze into your elbow, keep learning English and write a lot. I wish you the best. 😉

Your personal language exam trainer, Fabio

Anything else I can help with?

Reader interactions.

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26th November 2020 at 2:22 pm

I have browsed a lot of websites about this and I have NEVER found such a complete review of FCE Writing. Sir, I’d like to hire your services. I need to take FCE soon. Thank you.

26th November 2020 at 8:27 pm

Thank you Haldor! I’m sending you a PM 😉

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23rd August 2022 at 5:59 pm

Absolutely loved this. Thank you sir, very appreciated.

24th August 2022 at 10:14 pm

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How to Write an Essay for B2 First (FCE) Writing

Luis @ kse academy.

  • noviembre 24, 2019

As you probably know already, Cambridge English exams usually have some or all of the following parts: Reading, Writing, Use of English and Listening. In this post I am going to talk about the FCE Writing B2 part and, more specifically, about how to write an essay for FCE Writing . We will see a good example of an essay for FCE and you can check out a full FCE Writing Guide where you can find more examples of emails , letters and other types of writings.

Essay Sample Answer

Este artículo también está disponible en castellano.

The Ultimate B2 First Writing Guide: 15 B2 Writing Sample Tasks and 300+ Useful Expressions (Guías de Writing para Exámenes de Cambridge)

What are the parts of the FCE Writing?

The First (FCE) Writing has only two parts. For each part, you must write a composition which will depend on the instructions you receive for each task. For the  first part , you will always be asked to  write an essay , as it is the only option provided. However, in the  second part , they allow you to choose one out of 3 options. These include  different types of writing , which are : letters/emails ,  articles ,  reviews and  reports . Each piece of writing must have between 140 and 190 words , approximately.

Since they are different types of writing , the language and structures to use will also differ. But that’s what I’m here for, to explain to you exactly how to write each part. And today, I’m starting with  how to write an essay .

How to Write an Essay for FCE Writing

An  essay is an opinion writing with which we analyse a topic , a situation or an issue from different points of view , providing different arguments and expressing our opinion about it. For this reason, an  essay must have the following features:

  • Purpose: What we usually do with an essay is to analyse and assess a topic, situation or issue which, in some way, is interesting or controversial. It is normally set as a writing task after a class debate. In the exam, you have to imagine the debate, obviously.
  • Tone and style: Given that you’re writing about a  serious or controversial issue , an essay is written in a formal style, so we must stick to an objective tone and style . Our language must be formal, thus avoiding words that are simply too common or generic (E.g.:  things, stuff, get,   etc.) and contractions (E.g.:  can’t, don’t, won’t,  etc.).
  • Structure: Like every piece of writing,  an essay must present a defined structure . For starters, we can choose either to give it a title or not. Personally, I would say that it is more appropriate to have an essay with title . Then, the body must be divided into introduction, idea 1, idea 2, idea 3 and conclusion. This means that, in general,  essays must have 5 paragraphs ,   although it is not entirely necessary.
  • Opinion:  There are countless ways of expressing your opinion in an essay, so you must choose the one that suits you best. However,  it is advisable to remain impartial throughout your writing and give your opinion only in the last paragraph , as a conclusion. But, as I say, it is optional. The most important thing is that you justify everything you say in your essay.
  • Coherence: Coherence is essential in every type of writing, but especially in an essay. As it tends to be an argumentative text, you must avoid writing incoherent paragraphs that have nothing to do with one another. Your ideas must  follow a logical order and be well connected with appropriate linkers .

FCE Writing Essay Example

Now that we are familiar with the  characteristics of an essay for First (FCE) Writing , let’s take a look at an  example of an essay at B2 level , both at the task and at a sample answer.

Instructions of an Essay

In the following image you can see the instructions of an essay which involves a typical topic, that of the environment:

How to Write an Essay for FCE sample task / cómo escribir un essay para Fce ejemplo actividad

In these instructions, we must pay attention to the following:

  • The  first paragraph introduces the topic: … different ways in which you can protect the environment.
  • The  second sentence is usually the same in every task:  Write an essay using  all the notes…
  • In the box , you are given the main topic as a question and they give you something to talk about:  recycle, using bicycles and walking, your own idea . As you can see, you have to come up with the third idea, something connected to the topic which is not provided in the exam task.

Given the model task above, each paragraph will correspond to a different idea, apart from the introduction and conclusion. Again, it is only natural to have 5 paragraphs. So, the best way to know how to write an essay for FCE Writing is to take a look at an  example of an actual essay for FCE Writing :

How to Write an Essay for FCE sample answer / cómo escribir un essay para Fce ejemplo respuesta

At first sight, the essay has  a title and 5 paragraphs (introduction + idea 1 + idea 2 + idea 3 + conclusion). And if we stop to read the essay more carefully, we’ll notice the following things:

  • The paragraphs are visual and well defined , which is very important.
  • The title summarises the topic  of the essay. Another option is to use the question ( What can people do to help protect the environment? ) as title. However, it usually tends to be too long, so I prefer to summarise it into a shorter heading.
  • Introduction: it introduces the topic in a general way and it leads to the second paragraph (first idea).
  • Paragraph 2: it deals with idea 1.
  • Paragraph 3: it deals with idea 2.
  • Paragraph 4: it deals with idea 3.
  • Conclusion: we express our opinion to conclude and summarise the essay.
  • It uses connectors to define the development of the essay:  firstly, second, finally, etc.
  • It doesn’t use many contractions or pet words.
  • One of the things that
  • In the last few decades,
  • For this reason,
  • First, / Second, / Third,
  • By doing so,
  • For example,
  • In conclusion,

This is a good example of an essay for FCE Writing . By the way, you must bear in mind that it has been written to simulate a strong B2 level, without reaching C1.

FAQ: Do I get penalised for writing over 190 words?

This is the most typical question in this part of the exam and the answer is « yes and no «. Let me explain myself. Cambridge English examiners don’t count the number of words and penalise you based upon that fact alone. There’s a rumour going around among teachers and pupils that says that for every 10 words over 190, they take «this many» points off, but it is not true. However, think about this: if you’ve written 50 or 100 words more than asked, you are probably including irrelevant information to the task , right? Now that’s a reason for losing points. In the same way that if you  write under 140 words you are probably missing essential information , don’t you think?

For this reason, I always recommend writing up to 10 or 20 words over the limit. In this way, you won’t lose any points for including irrelevant information.

FCE Writing Guide with examples (pdf)

Although I intend to write more posts on how to do each piece of writing for FCE, if you don’t want to wait any more, simply download the official KSE Academy FCE Writing Guide . In this guide you will learn:

  • How to write an essay  and 3 examples.
  • How to write an article  and 3 examples.
  • How to write a review  and 3 examples.
  • How to write a report  and 3 examples.
  • How to write an email or letter  and 3 examples.
  • Over 300 useful expressions for every FCE Writing .

Would you like to see a sample of this guide? Here it is!

Did you find this useful?  Why not share it with other teachers and students of English? Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, y YouTube. 🙂

Luis @ KSE Academy

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Meet ‘Smaug-72B’: The new king of open-source AI

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A new open-source language model has claimed the throne of the best in the world, according to the latest rankings from Hugging Face , one of the leading platforms for natural language processing (NLP) research and applications.

The model, called “ Smaug-72B ,” was released publicly today by the startup Abacus AI , which helps enterprises solve difficult problems in the artificial intelligence and machine learning space. Smaug-72B is technically a fine-tuned version of “ Qwen-72B ,” another powerful language model that was released just a few months ago by Qwen, a team of researchers at Alibaba Group. 

What’s most noteworthy about today’s release is that Smaug-72B outperforms GPT-3.5 and Mistral Medium, two of the most advanced proprietary large language models developed by OpenAI and Mistral, respectively, in several of the most popular benchmarks. Smaug-72B also surpasses Qwen-72B, the model from which it was derived, by a significant margin in many of these evaluations.

writing in fce

According to the Hugging Face Open LLM leaderboard , which measures the performance of open-source language models on a variety of natural language understanding and generation tasks, Smaug-72B is now the first and only open-source model to have an average score more than 80 across all major LLM evaluations.

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While the model still falls short of the 90-100 point average indicative of human-level performance, its birth signals that open-source AI may soon rival Big Tech’s capabilities, which have long been shrouded in secrecy. In short, the release of Smaug-72B could fundamentally reshape how AI progress unfolds, tapping the ingenuity of those beyond just a handful of wealthy companies.

The open-source advantage

“Smaug-72B from Abacus AI is available now on Hugging Face, is on top of the LLM leaderboard, and is the first model with an average score of 80!! In other words, it is the world’s best open-source foundation model,” said Abacus AI CEO Bindu Reddy in a post on X.com.

“Our next goal will be to publish these techniques as a research paper and apply them to some of the best Mistral Models, including miqu (a 70B fine-tine of LLama-2),” she added. “The techniques we used specifically target reasoning and math skills, which explains the high GSM8K scores! Our upcoming paper will explain more.”

Smaug-72B – The Best Open Source Model In The World – Top of Hugging LLM LeaderBoard!! Smaug72B from Abacus AI is available now on Hugging Face, is on top of the LLM leaderboard, and is the first model with an average score of 80!! In other words, it is the world's best… pic.twitter.com/CGHawmLhqI — Bindu Reddy (@bindureddy) February 6, 2024

With today’s release, Smaug-72B becomes the first open-source model to achieve an average score of 80 on the Hugging Face Open LLM leaderboard, which is considered a remarkable feat in the field of natural language processing and open-source AI.

Smaug-72B excels especially in reasoning and math tasks, thanks to the techniques that Abacus AI applied to the fine-tuning process. These techniques, which will be detailed in an upcoming research paper , target the weaknesses of large language models and enhance their capabilities.

Smaug-72B is not the only open-source language model that has made headlines recently. Qwen, the group behind Qwen-72B, also released Qwen 1.5 , a suite of small powerful language models ranging from 0.5B to 72B parameters.

Qwen 1.5 outperforms popular proprietary models like Mistral-Medium and GPT-3.5, has a 32k context length, and works with various tools and platforms for fast and local inference. Qwen also open-sourced Qwen-VL-Max , a new large vision language model that rivals Gemini Ultra and GPT-4V, two of the most advanced proprietary vision language models developed by Google and OpenAI, respectively.

Implications for the future of AI

The emergence of Smaug-72B and Qwen 1.5 has sparked a lot of excitement and debate in the AI community and beyond. Many experts and influencers have praised the achievements of Abacus AI and Qwen and expressed their admiration for their contribution to open-source AI.

Amazing! New Qwen 1.5 72B model rivals GPT-4 even on the Length Adjusted Alpaca v2 Leaderboard. (original alpaca has heavy length bias, this gives a clearer picture) Thank you @jeremyphoward for pointing me to the lengths. Also idea for length adjustment from @teortaxesTex https://t.co/gyoyVDI0hJ pic.twitter.com/KJx3AZCM8y — Blaze (Balázs Galambosi) (@gblazex) February 5, 2024

“It’s hard to believe that less than a year ago, we all got excited about models like Dolly,” said Sahar Mor, an AI influencer and analyst, in a LinkedIn post , reveling at the progress of open source models in the past year.

Smaug-72B and Qwen 1.5 are currently available on Hugging Face, where anyone can download, use, and modify them. Abacus AI and Qwen have also announced their plans to submit their models to the llmsys human evaluation leaderboard , which is a new benchmark that evaluates the performance of language models on human-like tasks and scenarios. Abacus AI and Qwen have also hinted at their future projects and goals, which include creating more open-source models and applying them to various domains and applications.

Smaug-72B and Qwen 1.5 are just the latest examples of the rapid and remarkable evolution of open-source AI this year . They represent a new wave of AI innovation and democratization that is challenging the dominance and monopoly of the big tech companies and opening new possibilities and opportunities for everyone. Only time will tell how long Smaug-72B will remain at the top of the Hugging Face leaderboard, but for now, it is safe to say that open-source AI is having a big moment to start the year.

Correction: February 7, 2024 – An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the nature of the GPT-3.5 model. It is a proprietary technology, not open source. We regret the error.

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Trickle or Torrent? A Novel Algorithmic Approach to Reclaim Successful Academic Writing in the Face of Artificial Intelligence

  • Donna Poade Cornwall Business School, Falmouth University

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in academia has prompted various debates on the uses, threats, and limitations of tools that can create text for numerous academic purposes. Critics argue that these advancements may provide opportunities for cheating and plagiarism and even replace the art of writing entirely. To reclaim the creativity and depth that academic writing holds, we propose both an innovative approach to safeguard the creativity and depth of academic writing and a scaffolded way to enhance success in terms of authenticity for the author and, by extension, meaning for the reader. This novel conceptual algorithmic trickle filter model aims to inform successful academic writing and embody the writer’s agency—a task too sophisticated for current AI tools. Our model provides a scaffolded decision-making process in a highly personal, flexible, and iterative individual writing development tool applied in a health-conscious way. We position this model as a step towards a pedagogic paradigm shift in reclaiming academic writing that, rather than competing with AI, doubles down on the personal self-evaluative aspects that academic writing offers both author and reader. 

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Cambridge B2 First (FCE): How to calculate your score

How to calculate my score - FCE

How to calculate your score in the FCE exam

In my last post I told you everything you need to know before you decide to get ready for FCE . This article is going to explain to you in detail how the marking and scoring system in the FCE exam works. In addition to that, you will find out how to calculate your score on the Cambridge English Scale. Through this you’ll know what your level is in each of the different parts of Cambridge B2 First. So let’s start with a quick overview.

There are two different ‘scores’ in the FCE exam. The first one shows you the marks you get for each correct answer and the second one is your score on the Cambridge English Scale which we can calculate from your marks. Your score on the Cambridge English Scale is the one on your certificate and it shows you your level for each of the five exam parts. You reach B2 level with a score between 160-180.

First of all, let’s have a closer look at the two different scoring systems before we check out the Cambridge English Scale and the different parts of the exam. Once we’re done, you will understand how everything works and you will know how to calculate your score in Cambridge B2 First.

Why are there two different scores?

When Cambridge English started to use their new scale many students got confused. Suddenly, there were two different numbers to deal with instead of the old system where you had to get to 60% to pass the exam.

Let me tell you that you don’t have to panic. As you are going to see in this article, the new system is not really complicated. However, if you feel overwhelmed by the new system, you can still use the 60% rule as a nice guideline because it still works more or less.

The two different scores in the new system are your marks and your score on the Cambridge English Scale . Your marks are basically the points you get for each correct answer you give in the exam. Some correct answers can get you one mark, some others even two marks. With these marks you can now calculate your score on the Cambridge English Scale. The score is what you find on your certificate and it tells you your level in each exam paper.

The Cambridge English Scale explained

Cambridge English introduced their new scale in 2015 and they have used it ever since to report the result of all their exams to the candidates. Let’s see what it looks like:

Image of the Cambridge English Scale

You can see all the different Cambridge English exams and where they fall on the scale. B2 First is right there in the middle. On the left there are the scores and levels and Grades C, B and A of of the FCE exam are between scores of 160-190 on the scale . The interesting part is that Grade A in FCE is the same as Grade C in the next higher  CAE  exam. This means that you can show in the FCE exam that your level is even higher than B2. 

The great advantage of the new system is that it is very easy to see your level with your score instead of a percentage. A score of, for example, 179 in the FCE exam is the same as 179 in CAE and in both exams it means that your overall level is B2. In the old system the result in FCE would have been 79% whereas in CAE this student would have got 59%. Therefore, the Cambridge English scale makes it a lot easier to compare exam results even across different exams.

The results of the FCE exam are reported in a certificate that looks like the one below.

Screenshot of an FCE certificate with overall grade and Cambridge English Scale score

This student did quite well and passed at Grade B as the overall score of her exam is 179. Again, her score of 179 would have been 179 in CAE as well and in both exams the reported level is the same at B2.

The 5 different parts of the FCE exam

Apart from your overall result, score and level, the certificate shows you your scale score in each of the five parts tested in the exam. In the example above the student had very good results in reading, Use of English and writing while listening and speaking were a bit lower than the rest.

Now, I’m going to show you how you can calculate your score in each of the five parts. Of course, you need to know how many marks you’ve got in each part before you can get your scale score. Also, for speaking and writing it is a good idea to speak to your teacher and ask them what marks they would give you. Once you get your marks, you are ready to go.

In Cambridge B2 First you do Reading and Use of English together in one exam paper, but to calculate your score we have to break them up again. The exam paper has seven parts and for the reading portion we have to look just at parts 1, 5, 6 and 7.

  • Reading counts 20% towards your overall result.
  • Parts 1, 5, 6 and 7 of the Reading & Use of English paper count towards your reading score.
  • For parts 1 and 7 you get 1 mark and for parts 5 and 6 you get 2 marks for each correct answer.
  • There is a total of 42 possible marks in this part.

Image of marks and score for reading - Cambridge English Scale

The image above shows you the number of marks on the left, the Cambridge English Scale scores in the middle and the level for these scores on the right. A score between 140-159 means that your reading level is B1, 160-179 represents B2 and scores above 180 is level C1. As you are going to see with the other parts, the Cambridge English Scale scores and CEFR levels are always the same , but the test scores (your marks in the exam) change from paper to paper.

2. Use of English

Because parts 1, 5, 6 and 7 make the reading portion of the exam, you have to calculate your score for Use of English from parts 2, 3 and 4.

  • Use of English counts 20% towards your overall result.
  • Parts 2, 3 and 4 of the Reading & Use of English paper count towards your Use of English score.
  • For parts 2 and 3 you get 1 mark and for part 4 you get up to 2 marks for each correct answer.
  • There is a total of 28 possible marks in this part.

Image of marks and score for Use of English - Cambridge English Scale

3. Listening

Listening is easy to calculate. You don’t have to break up the exam or worry about different marks in different parts. Everything is straightforward.

  • Listening counts 20% towards your overall result.
  • Every part of the listening exam counts.
  • You get 1 mark for each correct answer.
  • There is a total of 30 possible marks in this part.

Image of marks and score for Listening - Cambridge English Scale

Calculating your score in the writing paper is a little bit more difficult than in the three previous parts. First of all, you have to write two texts so you have to take the sum of the two results and secondly, there are four different criteria to mark your writing. In total, that’s eight different marks to combine.

  • Writing counts 20% towards your overall result.
  • The two texts you write in the exam count in equal parts towards your result.
  • Communicative achievement
  • Organisation
  • With two texts and four marks for each text there is a total of 40 possible marks in the writing paper.

Image of marks and score for writing- Cambridge English Scale

5. Speaking

I kept speaking until the end because it is even a little bit more complex than the writing paper. Again, there are five criteria and they count differently towards you total score. I’ll try to make this as short and simple as possible.

  • Speaking counts 20% towards your overall result.
  • The different criteria in the speaking exam count differently towards your total score.
  • Grammar & Vocabulary (Multiply your marks by 2, so there are 10 possible marks )
  • Discourse management (Multiply your marks by 2, so there are 10 possible marks )
  • Pronunciation (Multiply your marks by 2, so there are 10 possible marks )
  • Interactive communication (Multiply your marks by 2, so there are 10 possible marks )
  • Global (Multiply your marks by 4, so there are 20 possible marks )
  • With five different criteria and different weight for each of them, there is a total of 60 possible marks .

Image of marks and score for speaking - Cambridge English Scale

Can you fail the exam?

Strictly speaking, no. You can’t really fail the exam because you get a score on the Cambridge English Scale instead of a fail or pass grade. However, you want to get at least level B2 in the FCE exam so we can look at a score below 160 as a “fail”. Also, if you get less than 122 in any of the five parts, Cambridge won’t report the result in your certificate. So, even though you can’t technically fail, you need to reach a score of at least 160 to say that you “passed” the FCE exam .

Additional information

If you want to get some extra information on the Cambridge English scale, you can watch the video below. If you want more information on Cambridge B2 First, find out everything else you need to know here .

I hope that this article will help you to better understand the Cambridge English Scale and how to calculate your score.

Lots of love,

Teacher Phill 🙂

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I can’t understand how to calculate cambridge english scale score in reading section. There are 126 possible marks. But this is too low mark. 1 and 7 parts overall equal to 24+30=54 5 and 6 parts overall equal to 36+36=72 72+54=126 This is so confusing Please reply to me quickly.

I’m not sure how you get to those numbers, but if you look at the section on reading in my article again, you will see how it works.

https://teacherphill.com/fce-how-to-calculate-your-score/#The_5_different_parts_of_the_FCE_exam

Hi, I have seen a sample answer sheet, and was wondering what the 1, 0, and u are in the examiners’ box mean

Hi Leanne, These are just for examiners’ use during the marking process. Nothing the candidates should worry about.

Comments are closed.

Judge fines Donald Trump more than $350 million, bars him from running businesses in N.Y. for three years

The judge who presided over a civil business fraud trial against Donald Trump on Friday ordered the former president, his sons, business associates and company to pay more than $350 million in damages and temporarily limited their ability to do business in New York.

Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the former president and the Trump Organization to pay over $354 million in damages , and barred Trump “from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for a period of three years,” including his namesake company.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office brought the case, said that with pre-judgment interest, the judgment totals over $450 million, an amount “which will continue to increase every single day” until the judgment is paid.

“Donald Trump is finally facing accountability for his lying, cheating, and staggering fraud. Because no matter how big, rich, or powerful you think you are, no one is above the law,” James said in a statement, calling the ruling “a tremendous victory for this state, this nation, and for everyone who believes that we all must play by the same rules — even former presidents.”

The ruling also bars Trump and his company from applying for any bank loans for three years.

In his first public remarks after the ruling, Trump said, “We’ll appeal and we’ll be successful.”

Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night, Trump bashed the ruling as “a fine of 350 million for a doing a perfect job.” He also repeated previous attacks by calling the judge “crooked” and the attorney general “corrupt.”

Trump did not take any questions from reporters after speaking for about six minutes.

The judge’s decision is a potential blow to both Trump’s finances and persona — having built his brand on being a successful businessman that he leveraged in his first run for president. Trump is currently running for the White House for a third time. This case is just one of many he is currently facing, including four separate pending criminal trials, the first of which is scheduled to begin on March 25.

Engoron also ordered the continued “appointment of an Independent Monitor” and the “the installation of an Independent Director of Compliance” for the company.

In posts on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump called the ruling “an illegal, unAmerican judgment against me, my family, and my tremendous business.”

“This ‘decision’ is a complete and total sham,” he wrote.

During the trial, Trump and executives at his company, including his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, attempted to blame exaggerated financial statements that were the heart of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ fraud case on the accountants who compiled them. Engoron disagreed.

“There is overwhelming evidence from both interested and non-interested witnesses, corroborated by documentary evidence, that the buck for being truthful in the supporting data valuations stopped with the Trump Organization, not the accountants,” he wrote.

In explaining the need for a monitor, the judge cited the lack of remorse by Trump and his executives after the fraud was discovered.

“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again. This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways,” Engoron wrote.

“Defendants’ refusal to admit error — indeed, to continue it, according to the Independent Monitor — constrains this Court to conclude that they will engage in it going forward unless judicially restrained,” he added.

The ruling also bars the Trump sons — who’ve been running the company since their father went to the White House — “from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for a period of two years.” Both were fined over $4 million, plus interest, for their roles in the scheme.

Donald Trump Jr. posted on the social media site X that “We’ve reached the point where your political beliefs combined with what venue your case is heard are the primary determinants of the outcome; not the facts of the case! It’s truly sad what’s happened to our country.”

In a statement, Eric Trump called the judge “a cruel man.”

“He knows that every single witness testified to that fact that I had absolutely NOTHING to do with this case (as INSANE as the case truly is),” Eric Trump said.

He also attacked the ruling as “political vengeance by a judge out to get my father.”

 Trump attorney Alina Habba called the verdict “a manifest injustice — plain and simple.”

“Given the grave stakes, we trust that the Appellate Division will overturn this egregious verdict and end this relentless persecution against my clients,” she said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Trump Organization called the ruling “a gross miscarriage of justice. The Trump Organization has never missed any loan payment or been in default on any loan.”

High legal costs

An appeal in the case would likely take years, but Trump could have to post a bond for the full amount if he does so.

Read more: Trump faces about $400 million in legal penalties. Can he afford it?

The judgment is the second this year against Trump after he was hit last month with an $83.3 million verdict in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him. Trump has said he plans to appeal that verdict as well, but would have to post a bond for that amount as well.

James had been seeking $370 million from Trump, his company and its top executives, alleging “repeated and persistent fraud ” that included falsifying business records and financial statements. James had argued those financial statements were at times exaggerated by as much as $2.2 billion.

James contended the defendants used the inflated financial statements to obtain bank loans and insurance policies at rates he otherwise wouldn’t have been entitled to and “reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.”

Trump had maintained his financial statements were conservative, and has called the AG’s allegations politically motivated and a “fraud on me.”

“This is a case that should have never been brought, and I think we should be entitled to damages,” Trump told reporters when he attended closing arguments in the case on Jan. 11.

Trump testimony knocked

The monthslong civil trial included testimony from Trump and his oldest children . The former president was combative in his day on the stand, blasting James as a “hack” and calling the judge “extremely hostile.”

Trump repeatedly complained about Engoron before and throughout the trial, and the judge slapped him with a partial gag order after he started blasting the judge’s law clerk as well. Trump’s complaints led to a flood of death threats against the clerk, as well as Engoron, court officials said, and Trump was fined $15,000 for twice violating the order.

Among the examples cited as fraud by the attorney general’s office during the trial was Trump valuing his triplex home in Trump Tower in New York City at three times its actual size and value, as well as including a brand value to increase the valuation of his golf courses on the financial statements, which explicitly said brand values were not included.

Another example pointed to by the attorney general clearly got under his skin — a dispute over the value of Mar-a-Lago, his social club and residence in Florida. Trump’s financial statements from 2011 to 2021 valued Mar-a-Lago at $426 million to $612 million, while the Palm Beach County assessor appraised the property’s market value to be $18 million to $27 million during the same time frame. Trump had also fraudulently puffed up the value of the property by saying it was a private residence, despite having signed an agreement that it could only be used as a social club to lower his tax burden.

Trump maintained during the trial the property was worth much, much more .

“The judge had it at $18 million, and it is worth, say, I say from 50 to 100 times more than that. So I don’t know how you got those numbers,” Trump testified, adding later that he thinks it’s actually worth “between a billion and a billion five.”

In his ruling Friday, Engoron said he didn’t find Trump to be a credible witness.

“Overall, Donald Trump rarely responded to the questions asked, and he frequently interjected long, irrelevant speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial. His refusal to answer the questions directly, or in some cases, at all, severely compromised his credibility,” the judge wrote.

Michael Cohen testimony ‘credible’

James’ investigation into the former president’s business began in 2019 as a result of congressional testimony from his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen , who told the House Oversight Committee that Trump would improperly expand and shrink values to fit whatever his business needs were.

Cohen testified during the trial about his role in the scheme, and said while Trump didn’t explicitly tell him and then-Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg to inflate the numbers in the financial statement, he was like a “mob boss” who tells you what he wants without directly telling you.

Trump claimed Cohen’s testimony exonerated him while also painting him as an untrustworthy liar because he admitted having previously lied under oath.

In his ruling, Engoron called Cohen an “important witness” and said he found his testimony “credible.” “This factfinder does not believe that pleading guilty to perjury means that you can never tell the truth. Michael Cohen told the truth,” the judge wrote.

Former CFO ‘evasive’

Engoron was less forgiving about former Trump CFO Weisselberg, who previously pleaded guilty to carrying out tax fraud at the company.

Weisselberg’s “testimony in this trial was intentionally evasive, with large gaps of ‘I don’t remember.’”

“There is overwhelming evidence that Allen Weisselberg intentionally falsified hundreds of business records during his tenure” at the company, the judge wrote. “Weisselberg understood that his assignment from Donald Trump was to have his reported assets increase every year irrespective of their actual values. The examples of Weisselberg’s intent to falsify business records are too numerous to itemize,” he added.

The judge permanently barred Weisselberg “from serving in the financial control function of any New York corporation or similar business entity operating in New York State,” and ordered him to pay the $1 million he’s already received from his $2 million separation agreement from the company as “ill-gotten gains.”

AG initially sought less

James filed her suit seeking $250 million in damages from Trump in 2022, and the judge appointed a monitor to oversee the company’s finances that November.

In a summary judgment  ruling the week before the trial started, Engoron found Trump and his executives had repeatedly engaged in fraud. The “documents here clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business, satisfying [the attorney general’s] burden to establish liability as a matter of law against defendants,” the judge wrote, while denying Trump’s bid to dismiss the case.

Engoron summarized the Trump defense as “the documents do not say what they say; that there is no such thing as ‘objective’ value; and that, essentially, the Court should not believe its own eyes.”

The order, which Trump appealed, held that Trump’s business certificates in New York should be canceled, which could have wreaked havoc on Trump’s company and forced the sell-off of some assets.

Engoron backed off of that decision in his ruling Friday, saying the addition of the “two-tiered oversight” of the monitor and the compliance director makes that move “no longer necessary.”

Trump had complained about the summary judgment ruling while he was on the witness stand. “He said I was a fraud before he knew anything about me, nothing about me,” Trump said. “It’s a terrible thing you did.”

writing in fce

Adam Reiss is a reporter and producer for NBC and MSNBC.

writing in fce

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.

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Why the Case Against Fani Willis Feels Familiar to Black Women

In interviews, professional women were dismayed by the personal attacks on the Georgia prosecutor, but not surprised.

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A portrait of Fani Willis, the district attorney of Futon County, Ga.

By Clyde McGrady and Katie Glueck

Tangala L. Hollis-Palmer felt a sense of pride when she learned that Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., and one of the nation’s few elected Black female prosecutors, would lead the election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump.

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But that pride would be tempered by dismay as news emerged of Ms. Willis’s personal relationship with a fellow prosecutor, Nathan J. Wade , an outside lawyer she hired to help run the case. Ms. Hollis-Palmer, a Black, 40-year-old attorney from Mississippi, is mostly upset at critics trying, she said, to discredit Ms. Willis. At first, she was skeptical of the allegations. But when Ms. Willis herself conceded the relationship, Ms. Hollis reserved some disappointment for the prosecutor who should have used a “little more discretion and a little better judgment,” she said.

Mr. Trump and several co-defendants are calling Ms. Willis’s hiring of Mr. Wade a conflict of interest and want Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade disqualified, potentially upending a critical case against the former president and doing grievous damage to Ms. Willis’s reputation.

“We just have to be so careful when we are in these positions to not give people the ammunition to come after us,” Ms. Hollis-Palmer said.

On Thursday, a Georgia judge is scheduled to hear evidence on the relationship between the two prosecutors.

A defense lawyer for one of Mr. Trump’s co-defendants argues that Ms. Willis’s hiring of Mr. Wade is a “form of self-dealing” that provides Ms. Willis with incentive to keep the case going.

Mr. Wade has earned more than $650,000 since his hiring in 2021 while also spending money on joint vacations he has taken with Ms. Willis, issues that will be central to the hearing this week. Ms. Willis has said that the costs of joint personal travel have been “divided roughly evenly” between her and Mr. Wade.

Interviews with a dozen Black women at varying stages of their careers found them to be painfully conflicted about Ms. Willis’s situation and her treatment in the public eye.

To many, there is something galling about watching Mr. Trump and his allies attack Ms. Willis over a consensual romantic relationship when he has faced accusations of sexual misconduct and assault. Mr. Trump was recently ordered by a Manhattan jury to pay $83.3 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him of a decades-old rape. A civil jury also found Mr. Trump liable for sexually abusing Ms. Carroll.

Some lamented Ms. Willis’s conduct as a mistake, but not one that should remove her from the case against Mr. Trump. Others, thinking about their own experiences in the workplace, suggested another concern: They feel that Black women are held to a different standard and that Ms. Willis should have known that her identity, along with the enormous political stakes of the case, would create a white-hot spotlight on her personal conduct.

“I can’t sit in judgment of her as a human being, but I can say, in terms of her role as a public prosecutor, yeah, she showed bad judgment,” said Donna Brazile, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee, adding that she had always kept a clear separation between her own personal and professional life with “a bright red line.”

She said Ms. Willis faced “vitriol” and “racial animus” as a woman of color in a position of power.

But, Ms. Brazile said, some of the attention is to be expected for a high-profile person involved in a high-profile case, especially one that concerns a former president of the United States.

“She is undergoing public scrutiny — she’s a public official,” Ms. Brazile said. “Comes with the territory.”

Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman for Ms. Willis’s office, declined to comment.

The discussions about race, gender and Ms. Willis’s dilemma have played out in group chats with text messages flying back and forth, in kitchen table discussions between couples and at student hangouts.

“We deal with the sexism as well as the racism,” Ms. Hollis-Palmer said. “But sometimes the sexism is a little worse.” She practices law with her husband and said that when they walk into a courtroom, people automatically assume that he’s the lead counsel. “A lot of times people have thought that I was his assistant,” she added.

When publicly discussing Ms. Willis’s predicament, some women of color have tried to walk a tightrope of empathy and anger.

Those conflicting feelings played out during a recent discussion on the daytime talk show “The View.”

“I’m very pissed off, too,” said the co-host Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, who is a Nicaraguan American. “Because when you are a woman of color in such a high-profile position, you know that the scrutiny that’s going to befall you is greater than on anybody else, and she needed to have kept her house clean.”

The co-host Sunny Hostin, who is Black and Latina, chimed in, “Your stuff cannot stink,” before adding that she agreed with Ms. Navarro-Cárdenas.

In some cases, the concerns about Ms. Willis’s treatment are balanced with uneasiness over how her behavior could jeopardize a potential Trump conviction.

“My initial reaction was that it seemed to be kind of a halfhearted attempt to get the entire case thrown out, which I thought was just an incredible stretch,” said Faith Udobang, 25, president of the University of Chicago Black Law Student Association.

But now she is worried that the misconduct accusations against Ms. Willis could delay the outcome until after the election.

“I believe the American people deserve to have adequate information once they go to the polls,” she said.

Some legal observers have said the attempts to disqualify Ms. Willis rest on shaky legal ground. They say the allegations against Ms. Willis have nothing to do with whether or not Mr. Trump interfered with the state’s election in 2020, and conspired to subvert the will of Georgia voters. But lawyers for defendants could use the misconduct allegations to undermine perceptions about the fairness of the prosecution by calling into question Ms. Willis’s judgment.

In a January address at one of Atlanta’s oldest Black churches, Ms. Willis suggested that her critics are playing the “race card.” She defended her hiring of Mr. Wade and said that his “impeccable credentials” were only being questioned because they are both Black.

“Obviously, it was in somebody’s interest to bring her down,” said the former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Democrat of Illinois and the first Black woman to serve in the Senate. “The fact that she’s a high-profile Black woman just means that she’s a bigger target.”

Others are less sure that race or gender are central to fueling the accusations, but instead argue that anyone in Ms. Willis’s position would be the target of personal attacks from Mr. Trump.

Luci Walker, a 54-year-old data analyst from Decatur, Ga., said she doesn’t believe Ms. Willis’s race or gender had played a role in the scrutiny.

“It would be some reason or another, but I think they might just be looking for excuses to get out of it, or to get her off the case,” Ms. Walker said.

Leah D. Daughtry, a veteran Democratic strategist, said that the focus on Ms. Willis’s personal life was, in some ways, in keeping with the kind of attention that follows many in public life. But there is an added complication for Black women, she said.

“There are people who will be emboldened and invigorated by the fact that she’s a Black woman and make it, then, their business to go further and farther than they may have gone,” she said. It is “easy to argue that white men are not often held to the same scrutiny.”

She pointed to the many accusations of misconduct Mr. Trump has faced, including from Ms. Carroll.

“No one made that a disqualifier,” she said of the current Republican presidential front-runner. “But for Fani Willis, the fact that she’s in a consensual relationship with another adult person somehow makes her disqualified, or unqualified, to continue the work that she’s been doing. In that sense there’s a double standard, absolutely.”

Glynda C. Carr, the leader of Higher Heights for America, an organization focused on engaging Black women in politics, said she had been raised with the idea that Black women must be “twice” as good to navigate challenging dynamics in the workplace.

“Yes, we have a playbook about how we have to be twice as better, that we have to dot all the i’s and cross the t’s,” she said. When the public thinks Black women have made a mistake, she added, they “fall harder on the sword.”

Audio produced by Patricia Sulbarán .

Clyde McGrady reports on how race and identity is shaping American culture. He is based in Washington. More about Clyde McGrady

Katie Glueck is a national political reporter. Previously, she was chief Metro political correspondent, and a lead reporter for The Times covering the Biden campaign. She also covered politics for McClatchy’s Washington bureau and for Politico. More about Katie Glueck

Our Coverage of the Trump Case in Georgia

Former president donald trump and 18 others face a sprawling series of charges for their roles in attempting to interfere in the state’s 2020 presidential election..

RICO Charges:  At the heart of the indictment in Georgia  are racketeering charges under the state Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act . Here’s why such charges  could prove to be a powerful tool for the prosecution .

Who Else Was Indicted?:   Rudy   Giuliani , who led legal efforts in several states to keep the former president in power, and Mark Meadows , the former White House chief of staff, were among the 18 Trump allies  charged in the case.

Plea Deals: Sidney K. Powell , Kenneth Chesebro  and Jenna Ellis  — three lawyers indicted with Trump in the case — pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors   against the former president.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones: Since the indictment of Trump and his allies, a question has gone unanswered: Would charges also be filed against the longtime Trump supporter? It is now up to a state agency to find a special prosecutor to investigate him .

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    marking a piece of writing for an exam. For the B2 First for Schools exam, these are: Content, Communicative Achievement, Organisation and Language. 1. Writing Assessment Scale 2. Writing Assessment subscales 1. Assessment criteria 2. Assessment categories Each piece of writing gets four sets of marks for each of the subscales, from 0 (lowest)

  14. How to write an article?

    1st body paragraph The first paragraph should involve the reader in some way. 2nd body paragraph Build on the interest you have raised in the first paragraph by telling the next part of the story Conclusion Finish the article in an interesting way. This could be humorous or thought-provoking FCE, CAE, CPE Practice, Write & Improve

  15. First Certificate in English (FCE)

    FCE Paper 1: Reading and Use of English FCE Paper 2: Writing FCE Paper 3: Listening FCE Paper 4: Speaking Questions & answers Is the Cambridge First Certificate (FCE) a hard exam? Is there an age limit? Can I take FCE online? Can I get C1 with FCE? How long does a B2 test last? How much does the FCE exam cost? What are the FCE exam dates in 2024?

  16. Cambridge B2 First (FCE): How your writing is marked

    FCE | Writing Cambridge B2 First (FCE): How your writing is marked By Teacher Phill April 3, 2019 How your writing is marked One of the big mysteries about the FCE exam is how the writing exam is marked. Many of my students ask me about this and, to be honest, it is pretty complex.

  17. How to Write an Essay for B2 First (FCE) Writing

    Again, it is only natural to have 5 paragraphs. So, the best way to know how to write an essay for FCE Writing is to take a look at an example of an actual essay for FCE Writing: At first sight, the essay has a title and 5 paragraphs (introduction + idea 1 + idea 2 + idea 3 + conclusion). And if we stop to read the essay more carefully, we'll ...

  18. In History: Toni Morrison on why 'writing for black people is tough'

    In a 2003 interview, she told the BBC about why that made her writing sing. One of the great 20th-Century novelists, Morrison consciously aimed her work at black American readers.

  19. How to write a report?

    Exam: B2 First Writing Article navigation: B2 First (FCE) Report: Structure B2 First (FCE) Report: Writing Guide B2 First (FCE) Report: Example Answers B2 First (FCE) Report: Writing Topics B2 First (FCE) Report: Writing Checklist B2 First (FCE) Report: Tips B2 First (FCE) Report: Grading B2 First (FCE) Report: Useful Language & Phrases

  20. B2 First for Schools exam format

    Writing (1 hour 20 minutes) See sample paper. 2 parts. Students are required to produce two pieces of writing. The first piece is compulsory and will be an essay of 140-190 words. For the second, they can choose from an article, email/letter, essay, review or story of 140-190 words. Listening (about 40 minutes) See sample paper. 4 parts/30 ...

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    Abacus AI has released "Smaug-72B," a new open-source AI model that outperforms GPT-3.5 and Mistral Medium on the Hugging Face Open LLM leaderboard.

  22. Trickle or Torrent? A Novel Algorithmic Approach to Reclaim Successful

    The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in academia has prompted various debates on the uses, threats, and limitations of tools that can create text for numerous academic purposes. Critics argue that these advancements may provide opportunities for cheating and plagiarism and even replace the art of writing entirely. To reclaim the creativity and depth that academic writing holds, we ...

  23. Cambridge B2 First (FCE): How to calculate your score

    2. Use of English. Because parts 1, 5, 6 and 7 make the reading portion of the exam, you have to calculate your score for Use of English from parts 2, 3 and 4. Use of English counts 20% towards your overall result. Parts 2, 3 and 4 of the Reading & Use of English paper count towards your Use of English score.

  24. Judge Engoron fines Trump more than $350M, bars him from running

    The judge who presided over a civil business fraud trial against Donald Trump on Friday ordered the former president, his sons, business associates and company to pay more than $350 million in ...

  25. PDF Cambridge English: First (FCE)

    Cambridge English: First (FCE) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Is there a wordlist for Cambridge English: First exams? No. Examinations that are at CEFR Level B2 (independent user), or above - such as Cambridge English: First - do not have particular language specifications or vocabulary lists. Do I have to pass each paper in order to pass the whole examination?

  26. Why the Case Against Fani Willis Feels Familiar to Black Women

    But that pride would be tempered by dismay as news emerged of Ms. Willis's personal relationship with a fellow prosecutor, Nathan J. Wade, an outside lawyer she hired to help run the case. Ms ...

  27. How to write an informal Letter & Email ?

    B2 First (FCE) Informal Letter & Email: Tips. Begin your letter by saying why you are writing. Say where you saw the advertisement (if there is any) Remember, the letter uses informal language. Try to avoid using exactly the same words that appear in the notes. Make sure you have included all the points from the notes.