Sunday 25th February 2007

Hello CAE student,

Welcome to Flo-Joe's EXAM SUCCESS Newsletter. If you're a new visitor to the Flo-Joe site don't forget to visit our introduction to the site at the following url:
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/cae/students/induct.htm

In this week's issue:

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TWO MORE WEEKS TO SIGN UP FOR EXAM SUCCESS PLUS! SERIES 1
SPLENDID SPEAKING: LATEST PODCAST!
NEWSLETTER TIP OF THE WEEK
HINT FROM THE EXAMINER
WORD BANK TEST
WRITING CLASS
PRODUCT SHOWCASE

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TWO MORE WEEKS TO SIGN UP FOR EXAM SUCCESS PLUS! SERIES 1
CAE EXAM SUCCESS PLUS is specially designed to help you stay motivated throughout your CAE studies and to help you organise your learning on a week-by-week basis. Available in convenient 13-week blocks, it gives you the following each week: model answers for the Writing task; more Reading or English in Use tests; extra 'Spotlight Paper 3' exercises for grammar and vocabulary; and a 25-question revision test featuring all the phrasal verbs, collocations and word formations from Flo-Joe's Word Bank. Sign up now and you will have access to units 1-12.

To find out more about CAE Exam Success Plus or to sign up please visit this page:
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/newsletter/cae/caeletter.htm

Please note that subscription to 'Series 1' is only available for another few weeks. The 11th March 2007 will be the last opportunity to sign up for Series 1 of 'CAE Exam Success Plus!'. Series 2 will be available from the week commencing 12th March 2007 featuring a new syllabus and resources.

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SPLENDID SPEAKING: LATEST PODCAST!

In this week's Splendid Speaking podcasts you can listen to an interview through Skype with Solange from Brazil. We decided to practise giving a spontaneous short talk. A complete transcript of the latest podcast along with comprehension questions is available by signing up to the Splendid Speaking newsletter.

Listen to the podcasts and sign up here:
http://www.splendid-speaking.com/community/listen.html
And don't forget, if you're aiming to develop your speaking skills and strategies either for your CPE studies or work, you can now subscribe to the 'Splendid Speaking Self-Study Course'. Please note that there is currently an introductory offer, due to end soon: Get Volumes 1 and 2 combined for only £25.00 (49 USD) for a three month subscription. The price would normally be £30.00 (59 USD).
Find out more about this exciting new product at the Splendid Speaking website:
http://www.splendid-speaking.com/products/index.html

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NEWSLETTER TIP OF THE WEEK
A weekly tip to help you achieve success at CAE. This week we examine English in Use Part 3: Error Correction
In the error correction exercise you are given a text containing about 16 lines. You may be asked to identify spelling and punctuation errors. Alternatively, you might have to identify which lines contain words that should not be there. In the case of the latter format, you will often find that the extra words are related to certain grammar points which appear quite frequently in this task. You should therefore train yourself to look out for these whenever you do Part 3. For example, it is often the case that auxiliary verbs (be, do, have) are the extra word so you should always check tense and passive constructions carefully. You might also find that the definite article is added to nouns that do not take an article, so always pay attention to this.
If you haven't yet tried them have a look at the exercises on Flo-Joe that highlight these common errors.
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/cae/students/strategy/p3pt3a.htm
And the next time you try an Error Correction test have a list of common errors like the one below to help you find those extra words:

determiners: 'a', 'the' 'much', 'many', 'all', etc.
auxiliary verbs: 'be', 'do', 'have'
pronouns: 'I', 'he', 'it' etc.
prepositions: 'on', 'in', 'at' etc.
word order: especially with words like 'always', 'usually' etc.

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HINT FROM THE EXAMINER
Continuing our series of hints from the examiner, we look at lessons you can learn from other candidates' mistakes. This week ... making the most of your time in the Writing paper.

A common mistake made by CAE exam candidates is to write out the task instructions for the question that they are answering. Not only is this unneccessary, but you will also lose valuable minutes that could be spent a) making a plan before you write and/or b) checking your work for errors afterwards.

Another time-wasting exercise when writing a letter is to include the address(es). If you read the task instructions carefully, you will see a reminder that you do not need to include postal addresses in any of the CAE letter-writing tasks. (If you do, you will not lose marks directly, but it will waste time that could be better spent!)
On the subject of letters, don't forget to visit the exercises about formal expressions on the Flo-Joe site:
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/cae/students/writing/express/index.htm

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WORD BANK TEST
How many of the following words and phrases do you know which appear in this week's edition of Exam Success Plus:

the phrasal verb equivalents for the following:
'to happen unexpectedly'
'to arrive (in a train) at the station'
'to tease somebody by pretending something is true'
'to make a speech or piece of writing longer with unnecessary content'
'to listen without interrupting'

the various forms of the following words:
'breath'
'continue'
'fan'
'voluntary'
'honour'

the collocations for
'to ........ or deny' (assure/guarantee/confirm/prove)
'........ reason' (with/in/inside/within)
'in the ........ of nowhere' (midpoint/middle/centre/heart)
'to ........ a lift' (pull/catch/stop/hitch)
'the ........ public' (simple/general/usual/ordinary)

If you have missed some of the days or want to sign up for a complete revision test (25 questions) of all the words/phrases from Day 1 through to Day 5 then please visit our CAE EXAM SUCCESS PLUS area. You can also get access to the archive of all previous Word Bank practice tests in Series 1 dating back to 4th December 2006:
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/newsletter/cae/caeletter.htm

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THE WRITING CLASS
The current writing task on Flo-Joe is an 'article'.
See the new task here:
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/cae/students/writing/task.htm
See the criteria here:
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/cae/students/writing/criteria.htm
See the Writing Forum here:
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=list&forum=DCForumID39&conf=DCConfID2

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PRODUCT SHOWCASE
If you're thinking of starting an CAE course then visit the Product Showcase, where you can check out a list of schools and colleges which offer CAE courses. In addition to information and direct links to instituions there are also details of CAE materials and links to some of the major publishers. You can see the Product Showcase at the link below:
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/adverts/schools/index.htm

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Best wishes from the Flo-Joe team.
info@flo-joe.co.uk

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*Winners of the British Council ELT Innovation Awards 2003!*
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