Here are all of the useful websites I can find to help students preparing for the Cambridge First Certificate exam. Please let me know if there are any broken links, or if you find something you think I should add.
General
Great website, full of tips, especially for Reading, Use of English and Writing. I’d definitely recommend students look at the word bank every day, and that teachers try to make use of those words in their classes to motivate students to use it! There is also a bank of writing showcasing all of the different text types, including teacher feedback.
http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/fce/index.html
The official Cambridge FCE website, with information about the length of the papers and the task types, as well as some free materials to download.
http://firstcertificate.wordpress.com/
Two blogs aimed at students. Both include information, tips and exercises covering all parts of the exam.
Practice exams
Two sets of Reading, Writing and Use of English practise exercises..
http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/index.php
A free practice test, not including speaking.
Vocabulary
http://quizlet.com/group/114523/
http://quizlet.com/subject/fce/
Three places to find online flashcards to play games with on the quizlet website, to download onto smartphones or to print off and use in class.
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The rest of the links are organised by paper. The links above also include some information for each paper, and there’s doesn’t seem to be anything specific for Paper 1: Reading that isn’t just a practice test.
Paper 2: Writing
http://languagesint.blogspot.com/2010/05/fce-advice-how-to-write-review.html
http://languagesint.blogspot.com/2010/05/fce-tips-how-to-write-article.html
http://languagesint.blogspot.com/2010/05/written-by-languages-international.html (report)
http://languagesint.blogspot.com/2010/05/12-top-fce-story-tips.html
Hints and tips on how to write reviews, articles, reports and stories.
Paper 3: Use of English
http://www.ihbristol.com/learn-online/exercise-esol.php
Lots of Use of English exercises.
http://www.imparareinglese.co.uk/esercizi_inglese.htm
Use of English exercises (under the ‘Intermediate’ heading)
http://practiseenglish.blogspot.com/2009/03/fce-key-word-transformation-practice-3.html
72 key word transformation sentences, but no key.
http://www.autoenglish.org/FCEUse/FCEUsePart4.htm
This link will take you to Use of English part 4 Key Word Transformation information and exercises. At the top of the page you can also find links to Reading and the other Use of English sections.
http://quizlet.com/8782322/fce-sentence-transformations-1-20-flash-cards/
http://quizlet.com/8782817/fce-sentence-transformations-21-40-flash-cards/
http://quizlet.com/8782986/fce-sentence-transformations-41-60-flash-cards/
Key word transformations on quizlet. Students can play games to help them practise the forms.
Paper 4: Listening
http://www.britishcouncil.org/professionals-exams-fce-listening-intro.htm
Listening practice from the British Council.
Paper 5: Speaking
http://www.britishcouncil.org/professionals-exams-fce-speaking-intro.htm
Speaking practice from the British Council.
http://www.splendid-speaking.com/exams/fce_speaking.html
Tips and example questions to help students prepare for the Speaking Paper (Paper 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=LxCoEdFUcBw
A video showing two students doing part 1 of the Speaking paper. Once you have watched the video, click on the links to the right to take you to the next section. All four sections are available.
Update
Here is another directory of links from teflgeek.
Comments on: "Useful FCE websites" (10)
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Dear Sandy
I have been trying to put all FCE material together and to design a sort of plan, so far I have been unable. It’s a feeling that I have been fighting with for a long time. I just refuse to give my students only exam practice. I just feel that this practice takes me away from the tools ike list. tools, collaborative writing, Dogme, which are so motivating for all of us. It’s hard to design a plan to coach students to pass FCE successfully trying to merge interesting tools and formal exam practice. I would appreciate your feedback on this topic very much.
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
but hope it helps a little!
Sorry it has taken me so long to reply to this comment. I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t done it, and I apologise for leaving you hanging for so long.
I have to admit that I didn’t really do much outside exam practice, except for some grammar practice which they needed for the Use of English paper. We didn’t have a lot of time, and the students had to do a lot of work to push their level up high enough to pass the exam. That didn’t mean that all of my exam practice was under exam conditions though. They did some of the writing tasks collaboratively to learn from each other. I gave them ideas to help them practice outside class if they wanted to, and we exploited exam tasks as much as possible – for example, after a Use of English exercise, we would analyse collocations, phrasal verbs etc and add them to the lists that we kept. I also tried to have games to revise collocations, word formation and phrasal verbs, although we probably didn’t do enough for this.
I think that with students who are preparing for the FCE exam, they are so focussed on getting through it that other things can distract them, but that shouldn’t stop you from throwing in useful tools etc which they can make the most of.
Not sure if that was worth the wait or not
Sandy
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Thanx for sharing! I was just on the lookout for helpful material for my students. I’ll send them some links, see what they think.
Thanx again
Hope that helps!
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