FCE Reading and Use of

English Tips
1. Introduction
The Reading and Use of English paper is about grammar, vocabulary, and
reading comprehension. There are 7 sections to do in 75 minutes -
basically 10 minutes per section.

2. Changes in 2015
If you find an old FCE coursebook or testbook, be aware that Cambridge
changed the exam in 2015. The old books are still useful - they will help
you learn the grammar and vocabulary you need - but they have some
parts that aren’t in the post-2015 exam.

KEY CHANGES
 Overall, the exam is 30 minutes shorter and about 20 questions
fewer.
 The Reading section and the Use of English (grammar) sections
have been merged

3. What these pages will teach you

 Why you shouldn't start with section 1
 How to prepare
 How to improve your time management
 The importance of spelling
 Some tips and tricks

4. The order
Most students start with part 1 and finish with part 7. That’s fine, of
course, but isn’t really the most efficient way. And many students leave
part 4 to the end because they hate it. I think that’s a mistake. If you look
at an FCE answer sheet you’ll see that some of the answers are multiple
choice and some require you to write words.

My advice is to start with the sections that ask you to write words and
leave the multiple choice till later. That’s because if you run out of time at
the end of the exam you can quickly choose some multiple choice answers
and maybe get a lucky point. But you can’t just write words at random -
you have no chance of getting it right.

So, do the tasks in this order:

4, 3, 2, 1, 5 ,6, 7

or

2, 3, 4, 5 ,6, 7, 1
Or you might start with part 1 because it’s one you can do very quickly
(see section 5) but DO NOT leave parts 2-4 to the end.

5. Time management
Some of the sections in Reading and Use of English have answers that you
can work out if you spend enough time thinking about them. But some of
the answers are ones where you either know the answer or you don’t.

The trick is to whizz through questions where you know/don’t know the
answer - that will give you more time to spend on other parts of the exam.
(Whizz means go quickly.)

1. Start with part 4. Do it quickly. You either know the answer or you
don't. Don't waste time here.
2. Go to part 3. Spend a bit more time here because you can lose 'easy'
points by being careless. It’s worth spending a minute checking
your answers before you move on.
3. Part 2 has a lot of 'you know it or you don't' kind of questions, so do
it quickly.
4. Next is part 1. It's also one with 'I know this' or 'I have no idea' type
questions. This should be the fastest section of them all.
5. If you follow these tips and practice a few times, you should find
that you have lots of time left to do sections 5, 6, and 7. That’s
important because there’s a lot of text to read and you don’t want
to have time stress when you’re trying to understand a long piece
of writing.

6. Read the titles

Some of the sections have titles, and my students often ignore them. But
the headings give you quite a lot of information. Imagine a text with the
heading 'Why You Should Never Eat Ice-Cream' - now I know the theme
and it will make reading easier.

7. Read the examples, but don't do them

Some parts of the Reading and Use of English test have example answers.
This is for students who don't know what to expect in the exam. Don't
waste time trying to find the answers. The answer is right there at the top
of the page!
8. What about spelling?
In this part of the exam spelling is super important. All the words you
have to write are FCE level words - you won't be asked to spell
'serendipitous' or 'commensurate'. Cambridge do expect you to be able to
spell words like 'variety', 'objective', 'fashionable'. (Those are actual
answers to recent FCE exam questions.)
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FCE Reading and Use of

English Part 1 Tips
1. Introduction
In part 1 you have a short text with 8 words missing. You must choose
from 4 options the best word for each space. I think part 1 is a nice, easy
start. I mean, it's easy in the sense that it doesn't take much brain energy.
You either know the answers or you don't.

2. What it looks like

Here's the start of a text. The example answer (0) is 'branch' - genealogy
is a branch of history.

And the first 2 sets of options.

You know what? Let's go through the process of answering these
questions and see what that tells us about this part of the exam.

1.

The answer can't be instead because it would have to say 'instead

of'. 'Rather than' is good grammar. 'Except than' is wrong - should be
'except for'.

Lesson: You need to know which prepositions go with which words!

What about 'sooner'? There is an advanced phrase with 'sooner than', but
it doesn't fit the meaning of the sentence. The writer wants to say that
genealogy is about family history and not the type of 'big history' that
people normally think of. So 'rather than' is the only choice that fits
grammatically and logically.

It took me a couple of minutes to write the explanation, but actually

choosing the answer took me five seconds. If I didn't know all the
prepositions I would have just taken a guess and moved on.

2.

This is another one where prepositions are important. See where it says
'in' after gap 2? Circle it! Underline it! That's the most important word in
the sentence. Only one of the choices goes with 'in'. I'm not going to tell
you which one. Go and study those words!

Summary - we're looking for grammar clues like prepositions, and we're
looking for words that fit the meaning of the sentence.

To do well here you should brush up on phrasal verbs, collocations, and

the kinds of synonyms you'd find in a 'common mistakes at FCE' book. Get
some extra practice in the following article:
FCE USE OF ENGLISH 1 - EXTRA PRACTICE

Struggling with FCE Use of English Part 1? We've got some extra practice for you. Click it!

3. Should you read the whole text first?

Good question! Thanks for asking! It depends how much you read English
in your daily life. If you read a lot, you will probably be able to just look at
the sentences and find the best answer.

But most students should read the whole text quickly to get an idea of
what the writer really wants to say about the topic. That will make it
easier to choose the answers. The key word is quickly.

4. Tips
 The best way to prepare for the Reading test is to READ. Read a lot.
 If you know that two of the options have the same meaning, neither
can be the answer.
 Remember to read the title. It's there to help you.
 Never lose time trying to think of the answer to the example.
 Prepositions!
FCE Reading and Use of
English Part 2 Tips
Introduction
This is very similar to part 1, except you don't have a choice of words -
you have to think of the answer all by yourself! Oh, my god!

What does it look like?

Here's half of one:

The answer to (0) is 'as'. I work as a stunt rider.

Should I read the whole text first?

It's a good idea to read through the text before you start thinking of
answers. If you don't read and understand what the writer wants to say
you could put the wrong answer. For example, some words will be
negative.

Can I write 'don't' as the answer?

No. Don't is two words - do not. He'll is two words - he will.

But can't is one word, because it's the contraction of cannot.

What are the most common answers?

You'll never have to write 'umbrella' in part 2. It's always grammar stuff.
ARTICLES
I need to go to THE shop.
Heaven is A place on earth.

AUXILIARY VERBS
When WILL I be famous?
Who HAS eaten all my chocolates?

LINKING WORDS
But ALTHOUGH the ozone layer is recovering, we must continue to take
care of it.
One of the problems, HOWEVER, is that this technology is very expensive.

POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES
It was in HIS bathroom that he had the idea for the flux capacitor.
They discovered the kittens were living in THEIR garage.

RELATIVE PRONOUNS
The Black Widow spider, WHICH is perhaps the most famous of all
arachnids, is actually rather friendly.
The person WHO ate my chocolate is in for a world of pain.

COMPARISONS
He was as tall AS his brother.
But shorter THAN his father.

Other tips
 Sometimes you'll be able to choose an answer just by looking at the
words before and after the gap. Practice doing that.
 Sometimes you have to read the whole sentence, especially when
we're talking about linking words.
 If your answer is a verb, make sure it agrees with the subject. i.e. I
play, you play, he plays.
 Never use abbreviations. Write 'something' not 'sthg'. THIS IS AN
EXAM NOT A WHATSAPP CHAT. :)
  As always, be careful when filling in the answer sheet. Make sure
you write the words in the right spaces!

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FCE Reading and Use of

English Part 3 Tips
Introduction
Guess what - it's another text with 8 gaps. This time it's a test of your
ability to turn words into adjectives, nouns, verbs, or adverbs. You also
need to know negative forms, like turning 'interested' into 'disinterested'.

What does it look like?

You get some text with words missing, and on the right is a 'root' word.
You have to change that word to fit the sentence that it's next to. In
example (0) the word you have to use is 'common'. The answer could be
something like 'uncommon' or 'commonplace' (though that's more a CAE
word). This time we need 'commonly'. You HAVE to change the word -
you couldn't leave it as 'common'.
Just to make things clear
It's not a task where you match things on the left to things on the right.
Everything is right next to where it should go.

Now, this part of the exam is a lot about nouns, adjectives, and all that
stuff. So let's take a look.

Nouns
The next few paragraphs are a VERY quick guide. To understand this
grammar properly you need a good grammar book. I
recommend Destination B2.

These things are nouns:

 Names (Captain Jack Sparrow);

 Concepts (time, information);
 Names of jobs or types of people (skiiers, doctors, scientists);
  Things (cheesecake, flowers).

Sometimes you know a noun because of its ending. Look out for: -eer; -
tion; -ment, -age, -al, ance, -hood, -iety, -ness, and so on.

Plural words or possessives are nouns.

Words connected to 'the, my/your/their (etc), whose, another, other,

a/an' are probably nouns. Look:

 I want another banana.

 My banana is bigger than your banana.
 Whose banana is this?
 A banana is a wonderful thing.

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO FCE PART 3?

Change the root word to make nouns that fit the sentences.

It is my __________ that global warming is a big threat to the

planet. BELIEVE

The __________ of One Direction is a complete mystery to me. POPULAR

It was a great __________ to meet you today. PLEASE

(Answers: belief/popularity/pleasure.)

Adjectives
Adjectives describe nouns.
Notice that adjectives often come after the verb 'to be'? What kind of
word do you expect in this gap?

It is __________ to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables.

Yep, an adjective.

So if the root was 'IMPORT' you'd probably know you needed to write
'important' in the space.

What are the adjective forms of:

ENJOY

BELIEVE

OBJECT

Now plug those answers into these sentences. In one case you need a
negative form.

Going to the beach can be very __________.

The way Bolt accelerated through to the finish line was __________.

People being interviewed expect the interviewers to be __________.

(Answers: enjoyable/unbelievable/objective.)

Adverbs
Adverbs are my favourite! Like adjectives describe nouns, adverbs
describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

Remember this sentence from a minute ago?

People being interviewed expect the interviewers to be objective.

How objective?

People being interviewed expect the interviewers to be __________

objective. COMPLETE

(Answer: to be completely objective.)

Verbs
Can! Will! Should! Must! These are all followed by the infinitive without
'to'. So if you see this in the exam:

The most important factor seems to be how quickly muscles can contract
and thus __________ the time a runner's foot is in contact with the
ground. MINIMUM

The word 'can' there connects with the verb 'to contract'. But it ALSO
connects to the word in the gap. They're both verbs. So all I need to do
now is learn what the verb form of MINIMUM is.

The most important factor seems to be how quickly muscles can contract
and thus minimise the time a runner's foot is in contact with the ground.

Positive or Negative?
Read the sentences carefully because some of the words you need are in
the negative form.

Example 1:

When I began cycling, I found the flat rounds easy but the hills almost
__________. POSSIBLE

That's a pretty clear example of a sentence that needs a negative word in

the gap. The first adjective, 'easy', is positive. Then there is the word 'but'
which introduces a contrast. Using another positive word would be
kerrrrazy. Also, we HAVE to change the word. We cant' leave it as
'possible'. So that leaves us with the only option of 'impossible'.

Example 2:

Even skilled interviewers may, without realising it, __________ favour

people who make them feel at ease. CONSCIOUS

This is from a text about job interviews. What kind of word do we need in
the gap? The biggest clue is the word 'may'. I know that may connects to
the word favour. That means that favour is a verb. So the word that goes
in the gap describes a verb - that's called an adverb.
The adverb of conscious is 'consciously'. But the meaning of the missing,
which I know from the context of the whole text, has to be negative. The
negative word we're looking for is 'unconsciously'.

FCE Reading and Use of

English Part 4 Tips
1. Introduction
Known as 'word formation', this is one of the hardest parts of the whole
exam. It tests your grammar and vocabulary.

You are given a sentence and a keyword. You have to be able to complete
a second sentence so that it has the same meaning as the first sentence
using 2-5 words.

Like this:

English food is better than Italian food.

AS
Italian food __________________ English food.

The answer: Italian food is not as good as English food.

2. The Rules / Common Mistakes

 You MUST use the keyword, and you can't CHANGE the keyword. If
the keyword is 'follow' you cannot write 'follows' or 'following'.
 You must use between 2 and 5 words. It might be possible to create
a grammatically correct sentence by writing 13 words, but you will
get no points for that.
 Contractions count as two words. Didn't = did not; isn't = is not; etc.
However, can't = cannot = one word.
 Correct spelling is very important here
 Write your answers in CAPITAL LETTERS
3. Don't Waste Time Here
Because this part of the exam is so hard, do it quickly. Some questions will
be too hard for you - write your best guess and move to the next one. If
there is an answer you know, take a few seconds to double-check that
what you have written makes sense.

4. General Tips
* Make sure the nouns and verbs in your sentence 'agree' with each
other. I play/you play/he plays.

* Try to keep the meaning from the first sentence. Use the same words
where possible. Example:

John finds trains very interesting.

IN
John is very interested in trains.
Not that I didn't write 'John is interested in trains'... the first sentence
says 'very interesting'.

5. Some Case Studies

01. Paula can't wait to hear the band's new album.
FORWARD
Paula is really ________________________________ the band's new album.

One thing you could do is to match parts of the second sentence to the
first sentence to see what's missing. Let me try to show you what I mean.
Paula can't wait to hear the band's new album.
FORWARD
Paula is really ............................................ the band's new album.
Does that make sense?

Now we can see that the phrase starting with 'is really...' means 'can't
wait to hear'.

So do you know a phrase with 'forward' inside? Of course you do! You
write some version of it at the end of every email:

I'm looking forward to meeting you.

I look forward to meeting you.

Grammar tip - in that construction 'to' is a preposition so the verb the

follows must be a gerund (meeting/seeing/visiting etc).

So...

01. Paula can't wait to hear the band's new album.

FORWARD
Paula is really ___looking forward to hearing__ the band's new album.

Why did I use the verb 'hearing'? Because the original sentence used the
verb 'hear'. Easy!

Next one.

02. It's a shame I'm not able to come to your party on Saturday.
COULD
I ................................................................................... to your party on Saturday.
This one is a little bit tricky because there are so many ways to use the
word 'could' in English. Also, you have to be careful to get the right tense.
When is the party? Past or future? Yep, future.

Here are some wrong answers:

I could not come to your party on Saturday. (that has a past meaning)
I couldn't have come to your party on Saturday. (also past)

Anyway, we have to say 'it's a shame'. Here's the right answer:

I wish I could come to your party on Saturday.

or
I wish that I could come to your party on Saturday.

That means exactly the same as the original sentence. You could also say
'I wish I could GO to your party' but I advise you to use the same verb
that's in the first sentence unless you have a good reason to change it.

GRAMMAR FOR FCE: CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

Top English teacher Elly explains how she teaches conditional sentences in her English lessons.
These are important for FCE students so this should be very useful.

Read More →

FCE Reading and Use of

English Part 5 Tips
1. Introduction
Part 5 is a long text with 6 multiple-choice comprehension questions. You
have to show that you can understand what writers want to say.

It might take you some time to do this part of the exam, but students who
practice a lot can do it faster.

2. General Tips
 The answers are the same order as the questions - so the answer to
question 1 is near the beginning of the article, and answer 2
ALWAYS comes after answer 1. Sometimes question 6 is about the
whole text.
  Try your best to read what is SAYS in the text and don't bring your
own opinion into the topic. Example - if I read a text about teaching
English then I read it very quickly because I'm already an 'expert' in
the topic. Sometimes the answers match what you think about a
topic, but sometimes they don't. Be careful!
 Read as much English as you can. Read Harry Potter. Read The
Economist. You will notice a big difference in how easy this task is
after a few months of reading.
 Read the QUESTIONS as carefully as the text itself.

3. Advanced Tips
* Read the text BEFORE the questions. This is the most efficient way to do
it. Don't argue with me. Just do it.

* Be careful of TRAPS! If a word in an answer is also in the text, it's

probably NOT the answer. Example:

Once upon a time there was a handsome Englishman and many women
around the world fell in love with him because he was so kind and
generous.
01. Why did women love the Englishman?
A Because he was English.
B Because he was handsome.
C Because they were kind and generous.

So what's the answer? None of them! It's certainly not C because 'they'
means the women. The answer is, of course,

D Because he was kind and generous.

* Another trap is when more than one answer is mentioned in the text.

Once upon a time there was a handsome Englishman and many women
around the world fell in love with him because he was so tall, kind and
generous, but most of all because he had a great collection of Pokemon.
02. What is the main reason the women loved the Englishman?
A Because he was tall.
B Because he was kind.
C Because he was generous.
D Because of his Pokemon collection.
As you can see, all 4 options are mentioned in the text. However, the
question says 'what is the MAIN reason', and that links to 'most of all' in
the text. So the answer is.... have you got it yet?... D again.
1. Introduction

You have to read another long text. This time, some sentences have been
removed. Your job is to put them back into the right place.

There are 6 gaps, and 7 sentences, so there is one you won't use.

This can be a hard part of the exam, but the answers are actually very
logical. The tips on this page should make it easier.

2. General Tips
Read the text with the gaps first (before the questions). It's very helpful to
know what the text is about and get some idea of the structure of the
writing BEFORE you start trying to find the answers.

The most important sentences are the ones before and after each gap -
read these very closely.

You don't have to fill in the answers in order - start with the one you
think is easiest and when you get to the most difficult one there will only
be 2 answers left.

3. The Text is Full of Clues

Like in a good Agatha Christie book, there are lots of clues to the right
answer.
What sort of clues are in a text?

 Names and pronouns (Jack... he... this...)

 Chronology (Then... Finally...)
 Quotation marks ("I couldn't believe it.")
 Contrast words (However, but)
 Verb tenses (had gone... will have finished)
 Cause and effect (Therefore... as a result...)
 Repetition (in other words...)

Let's look at each clue type in more detail.

NAMES AND PRONOUNS 1

Once upon a time there was a boy named Jack. [1] __________________________.
Then he died.

Choose one of these sentences to go in gap [1]:

A - He ate all the chocolate in London.

B - Their house was on a hill.

That's pretty easy, isn't it? Jack is a 'he', not a 'their'. There's also a logical
connection between eating all the chocolate and dying.

NAMES AND PRONOUNS 2

The documentary featured interviews with many of top scientists.
[2] __________________________. But the story was not funny, and many
viewers complained about its depressing ending.
A - It was watched by 8 million people.
B - One was Simon Baron-Cohen, brother of the famous comedian.

This one is hard. A could be the answer because 'it' means 'the
documentary'. But B could be the answer because 'one' refers to 'top
scientists'. But it is still useful to look at names and pronouns because in
the exam you will have 7 answers to choose from.

So in this example what do we do next? The three sentences must fit

together like a lock fits a keyhole.

The clue is in the relationship between the words but, funny,

and comedian. Those three words fit together perfectly.
The word 'but' is a good example of a contrasting phrase, which brings us
to...

CONTRASTING PHRASES
We've seen an example of 'but'. Here's another one:

At first, the show was not popular. [3] __________________________.

A - However, in 2014 more people watched it every week and it ended the
year as the number 1 show in America.
B - In 2014 more people watched it every week and it ended the year as
the number 1 show in America.

Which do you think is a better story?

Answer A gives a nice contrast. At first the show was not popular but later
it WAS popular. The word 'however' introduces the change from negative
to positive.

TIME PHRASES
In the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, actors and actresses were
tied to one-sided contracts. [4] __________________________.
A - These days, however, they are free to choose projects that interest
them.
B - More movies are now made in India than in Los Angeles.

'The golden age' is a time period in the past which contrasts with 'these
days'. Basically it means 'in the past... but now...'

Sentence B might be true, but has nothing to do with this story.

QUOTATION MARKS
Sometimes the gap will be in speech marks ("") - that makes it pretty easy
to find the answer. Which of the sentences sounds like it was said by a
person? If there is a text written in a neutral tone and one of the answers
has the word 'I' then that must be in quotation marks.

But there was more to his performance than scoring the winning goal. He
also motivated his younger teammates. '[5]_____________________.'
A - He had become a true leader.
B - I felt like I was on top of the world.
See? It can only be B.

AND THE OTHER CLUES?

There are more tips that I could give you about this section, and maybe I
will in a video. But the best advice is for you to practice this exercise and
learn how the answers are chosen.

You and a friend could take a text each, remove some sentences, and test
each other. Once you've tried to put the sentences back, you could discuss
whether those were the same sentences that Cambridge would remove
from the text.

FCE Reading and Use of

English Part 7 Tips
1. Introduction
Here you have 10 statements that you have to match to the information in
one long text or a few shorter texts.
As you can see in this example, it's possible to have lots of the same
answer. Text A might match with 2, 3, or 4 answers.

2. How to Do It
Start by reading the introduction to the task (the part that says 'you are
going to read...') and the title of the article (in this case 'Rising Star') - they
give you an idea of what the text is about.

Now you have two options - you can either read the questions first or the
text first. Cambridge put the questions before the text because they
suggest students read the questions first.

So let's assume you're going to read the questions first. Underline the key
words and phrases.

Then read section A of the text and try to find 2 or 3 sentences that match.
Repeat with B, then C, etc.

3. Tips
Your job is to find synonyms - if a word is in both the text and a question
it is probably NOT the answer. That would be much too easy, wouldn't it?

When you're practicing this part of the exam, underline the part of the
text that you think matches the question. Then when your teacher asks
you why you chose that answer, you'll be able to tell him. That will help
him diagnose your mistakes. If you're training alone, underlining your
reasons will help you see why you made mistakes.

A lot of the questions are about peoples' thoughts and feelings, so learn as
much of that vocabulary as possible. For example, make sure you know
words like regret, accuse, reassure.