Overall mark: 3 out of 5. You’re getting better and better with the structure of the test but it’s still going to be difficult on exam day. Remember that the other student is going to speak as well but you are not being compared with him or her. Just be yourself and do what you do best–show off your great vocabulary. You can still work a bit on part 2 (see my suggestions under communicative effectiveness below), but overall just relax and do the best you can.

Communicative effectiveness: You do a good job when you are answering questions directly, but you are spending too much time in part 2 saying which pictures you will talk about and describing the pictures instead of comparing them. Don’t say, I’m going to talk about this picture, I can see some kids. Say: I’m going to talk about the kids and the climber. Both of them are happy but for different reasons. The kids are boisterous, etc… but the climber is proud. The kids are happy for no reason but the climber is ___, etc. Remember that the question asks you to compare the pictures, not describe them (look on page 120 of your orange CAE 3 book), so try and make everything you say be part of a comparison.

Pronunciation: Pretty good, although you are starting to pronounce an extra syllable in some verbs and adjectives ending with -ed (you said the climber achieve-ed a feat at 4:33 and there is no extra syllable in this word and it happens a couple of other times as well).

Accuracy: Some problems with prepositions (from time to time) and tenses when you are talking about the picture of the women making pasta/pastry (why they have chosen this or why they chose this), but no major problems.

Range: Very good!

You can listen to the recording below and see my comments as you listen. If you put the mouse over one of the tiny pictures of my face in the image of the recording, you can read the comment. If you click on “Info” on the right of the player and then click on the words “Raul4,” you can see all of my comments on the Soundcloud page.

Overall mark: 3 out of 5. Nice work! There’s a little more hesitation than you want to hear, but the structures are good and the vocabulary is very strong, as always. You said you had a bad day and so I think you were maybe just tired.

Communicative effectiveness: Good work! You do a good job of providing relevant answers and giving examples. Sometimes if you find yourself struggling and hesitating a lot, it may be good to just go back and paraphrase something you said before so that you have a good ending for your talk instead of just running out of words.

Pronunciation: Not a big problem, although you might want to check your pronunciation of accurate and without a doubt (this is the song I mention in the comment at 17:45, the last line of the chorus (1:40-2:00) is “without a doubt” and you can really hear the rhythm of the phrase in this song)

Accuracy: Some small errors but very minor.

Range: Excellent as always!

You can listen to the recording below and see my comments as you listen. If you put the mouse over one of the tiny pictures of my face in the image of the recording, you can read the comment. If you click on “Info” on the right of the player and then click on the words “Raul3,” you can see all of my comments on the Soundcloud page.

Overall mark: 3 out of 5. Good work! I think you definitely have the ability and the skills necessary to pass. Now we just have to get you more comfortable with the structure of the exam and this will help you react more quickly to the questions and so speak more during the test. I think I am giving you too much time in this practice test. For example, in part 1 of the test I asked you 4 questions and that part took 4 minutes. In the exam, that part should only take 3 minutes and both students will answer questions so you will probably only get to answer 2 questions unless we improve your speed.

Communicative effectiveness: Good! You did a good job of completing all parts of the task in part 2 (comparing the pictures) and you also did well in part 3 (talking together about the pictures). In part 4, you admitted that you didn’t understand the question—which is essential if you are going to communicate effectively! So that wasn’t actually terrible.

Pronunciation: There were a few too many words that I couldn’t understand this time and a couple that were a little bit incorrect. It could just be that you were tired, last time I didn’t hear any problems like this. Check the website http://www.howjsay.com for examples of any words I put in the comments that you aren’t sure about.

Accuracy: Very good. There were only a few minor grammatical errors and not too many vocabulary problems at all.

Range: Very good. The only phrase I think you are using too much is “in my opinion”. Especially at the end, when I asked which event you would like to have been a part of, the question is about your opinion so you don’t need to say “in my opinion.”

You can listen to the recording below and see my comments as you listen. If you put the mouse over one of the tiny pictures of my face in the image of the recording, you can read the comment. If you click on “Info” on the right of the player and then click on the words “Raul2,” you can see all of my comments on the Soundcloud page.

Overall mark: 2.5 out of 5. Not bad at all! In fact, you give the impression that you have a lot of really good things to say but you just can’t get the words out. The vocabulary is consistently impressive, the only problem was the hesitation and the second question in the test, which you didn’t really answer correctly.

Communicative effectiveness: The second question asked “What do you do there (in Barcelona)?” and you answered more about why you enjoy living there. It’s a mistake but I’m sure you won’t make it again. You did a good job of involving your partner in part 3, but we might have to give you a test with a partner who talks too much because that could be a problem for you.

Pronunciation: Your accent is a little bit strong, but it is natural to have an accent and there was never any confusion about what word you meant. It’s not a problem.

Accuracy: Overall it was quite good, although there were some tiny mistakes in parts 3 and 4 (sometimes you mixed up is and are: “the problems is” for example). Try to listen for these and if you correct them as you are speaking they are not considered errors (the same way you can correct your writing).

Range: Excellent! This is a very strong area for you.

You can listen to the recording below and see my comments as you listen. If you put the mouse over one of the tiny pictures of my face in the image of the recording, you can read the comment. If you click on “Info” on the right of the player and then click on the words “Raul CAE 1,” you can see all of my comments on the Soundcloud page.

Content: nice introduction and good points raised in the body of the article. But the conclusion, as it is written, seems to be blaming young people for the problems in society and I don’t think this would be well-received by the editors of the magazine.

Organisation and cohesion: your connecting phrases work very well (and the rhetorical questions at the beginning make a good impression

Range: very good, some very nice expressions (dole office, vicious circle, in full swing)

Accuracy: some careless mistakes especially with subject-verb agreement (Spain have has) and missing articles. Make sure you proofread your work on exam day! I know you can find and correct a lot of these errors without my help!

Appropriacy of register and format: consistent and appropriate.

Target reader: Would be partly informed. See my next comment about the conclusion.

Overall: Band 2.  Everything was going well until the conclusion. There are a couple errors in the paragraph and then the argument seems to get reversed: the article was very sympathetic to the youth and then it suddenly says that one of Spain’s problems is the youth. This leaves a bad impression right at the end and takes you below the passing mark.

You can see my specific comments on your writing by going to the Google Doc.  I’ve used some abbreviations in my comments, these abbreviations are explained here.  Read the feedback and try to make the changes I’ve suggested.  I have copied the document to my Google Drive so I will get an email when you start making changes :).  You don’t need to be logged in to Google to do this, you can just go and start editing “anonymously”.  Good luck with the corrections and please feel free to send any further questions you have.

Content: Complete and appropriate, nice work.

Organisation and cohesion: Good, there are a couple of comments about minor issues in the Google doc.

Range: Great!

Accuracy: OK.  Errors only appear when you are trying more complicated structures and expressions. This is OK, and it’s definitely better than not trying those expressions! Good work here.

Appropriacy of register and format: Consistently good.

Target reader: Would be informed.

Overall: Band 3.  This is a strong pass, because show a lot of knowledge and it really makes a good impression. Very close to a 4!

You can see my specific comments on your writing by going to the Google Doc.  I’ve used some abbreviations in my comments, these abbreviations are explained here.  Read the feedback and try to make the changes I’ve suggested.  I have copied the document to my Google Drive so I will get an email when you start making changes :).  You don’t need to be logged in to Google to do this, you can just go and start editing “anonymously”.  Good luck with the corrections and please feel free to send any further questions you have.

Content: Good—all points are addressed and a recommendation is clearly given at the end.

Organisation and cohesion: Very nice—good paragraphing (although there are a couple of “phantom paragraphs”), your analysis is clear and you give good reasons for your recommendation

Range: Good—nice expressions and phrasal verbs, no unnecessary repetition.

Accuracy: Good. There are only minor problems mostly with prepositions and some with rather advanced vocabulary points. The grammar is very good, no problems with verb tenses.

Appropriacy of register and format: OK—the second sentence feels a little too formal (about trusting in my criteria), but overall there is a good friendly tone

Target reader: Would be fully informed.

Overall: Band 3. You have informed your friend and written a good example of a letter in a friendly tone. Nice work! Just a little more work on linking words and phrases (“apart from”, “on the one hand”, etc.) and just a little more care when checking for spelling/minor grammar mistakes after you finish and you should be getting a band 4!

You can see my specific comments on your writing by going to the Google Doc. I’ve used some abbreviations in my comments, these abbreviations are explained here. I look forward to seeing your changes, talk to you soon!

Content: All points are addressed but not appropriately expanded.  The information about which student said he could only come at weekends was unnecessary.

Organisation and cohesion: The format is correct and the report looks good.  However, you’ve only provided a basic list of the complaints.  Imagine you are the principal who received this report: what is the biggest problem?  Which improvements should you make first?  Keeping the purpose in mind when organising the report will help you highlight the information you want your reader to notice.  For example, extra opening hours could lead to more members and a café or bar could lead to some extra money; this money could pay for improvements to the showers, etc.  The titles of the sections are also a bit confusing: what sports are mentioned in the section titled “sports”?

Range: very good.  Ambitious with only occasional errors.

Accuracy: OK.  There are a few errors but they are mostly a result of the range of complex sentence types you are using in this formal style.  There are some incorrect prepositions and inappropriate linking phrases, but in general these do not cause difficulty for the reader.

Appropriacy of register and format: Consistently good.

Target reader: Would be partly informed.

Overall: Band 2.  The actual writing is OK, but the weak organisation means that the target reader (the principal) would only be partly informed and so this writing would fall just below the passing mark.

You can see my specific comments on your writing by going to the Google Doc.  I’ve used some abbreviations in my comments, these abbreviations are explained here.  Read the feedback and try to make the changes I’ve suggested.  I have copied the document to my Google Drive so I will get an email when you start making changes :).  You don’t need to be logged in to Google to do this, you can just go and start editing “anonymously”.  Good luck with the corrections and please feel free to send any further questions you have.

Comments on your first revision

Nice!  Already, just by changing your conclusion to be more focused, you have improved this paper to a passing mark (Band 3 out of 5 or 60%)!  In general though, I think the weaknesses are still there in the original decisions you made about the organisation.  You did move the comment about badminton and squash into the sports section, but I’m still not sure that your headings are the best way to structure the paper. Did you make notes before you started?  If you have time, write the paper you have now very simply as an outline.  Then try and write a different outline, what other ways can you group and organize the information?  Are there different headings you could use?  Which of these ways will be the most persuasive?

Your writing is as the correct level (which means that it’s very good!), but I think you could spend a little longer in the planning stage of writing and this will make your papers much more effective.  The same way an artist doesn’t start painting a portrait with the eyes, he draws the head, shoulders, hips, feet, arms and hands first.  He draws everything really quickly and simply, so he knows that when he starts to focus on the details of the face and hands and clothes, that everything is in the right place and all of his work will go together perfectly.  If you make a plan for your writing, you can change the plan quickly and easily before you start writing, and then everything will fit exactly into place.