OSL The Language Boutique is pleased to announce that it is running an excellent course to prepare students for the Cambridge Advanced Exam in Madrid. It will be run by trained Cambridge examiners who know exactly what is expected in the exam and have a lot of experience and a high success rate in training candidates up for the exam.
www.cambridgemadrid.com
In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the demand for the Advanced exam in Madrid. This is in part due to the natural progression up the Cambridge ladder, as more and more people have attained the First Certificate they are looking to try the Advanced. Likewise, it is also because of the improvements in the education system and the way English is now being taught in schools. Yet these improvements are putting a lot of additional strain particularly on teachers, as the changes have often been introduced quickly with teachers being told, with relatively short notice, that they will be teaching their subjects in English and that they will be needing the Advanced level to do so.
The downside of this is that the level of the candidates wanting to sit the exam has gone down, with many people feeling forced to sit the exam with insufficent level and preparation. The exam is difficult. As the name suggests, this is an exam of advanced level English with a demand for an advanced comprehension and flexiblility of the language. To be able to pass the exam well and comfortably, it is usually recommended that the candidate takes two years to study and prepare for the exam, but frequently people are entered after just one year of preparation. Of course some people do not need two years, if you pass the First Certificate with a strong mark then you are not far off scrapping a pass at the Advanced level. But more often than not, candidates pass the First with an average grade and then it is a big jump up to the Advanced.
The course we are providing is for candidates who have studied up to the Advanced level and who ideally have a sufficient level to pass the exam. We will not be teaching advanced grammar, we expect the candidate to already know it. We will be training them on how to pass the exam, fine-tuning their techniques, improving their weaknesses and making sure that they know exactly what is being expected of them to pass the exam.
The Cambridge exams are not simply a question of being able to communicate in English, many people have lived in an English-speaking country and come back to Spain with the idea of getting a qualification to demonstrate that they have a good level of English. This is not enough. In our normal everyday lives we do not usually speak an advanced level of our language. We do not regularly use conditionals, the passive voice, complex grammatical structures, advanced vocabulary and conjunctions when we are chatting to friends about what we did at the weekend or when we are telling the boss about the project you are doing. Naturally these forms enter our speaking randomly, when it is necessary to do so, but not continuously. The Advanced Speaking Exam is fifteen minutes long and in that time you must demonstrate an advanced comprehension and use of the language at all times or else the examiner is not going to know that you can do so. The same with the Writing exam, I have often seen examples of excellent pieces of writing, with very few mistakes. However, there is very little or no advanced use, it would be a very good First Certificate or PET level piece but not Advanced. It takes thought, time, effort and practise to be sure to include stretches of writing using advanced grammar, structures, expressions and vocabulary. Frequently candidates are unaware of what is lacking in their work, as I have mentioned they feel they can communicate well in English and do not realise that more is expected of them in the Advanced Exam.
Our intention is to take these candidates and make them Advanced level candidates. They have the ability in them but they need to learn how to show this in the exam. The course is intensive and we expect a lot from the candidates; hard-work, homework and full attendance, but at the end of the course they will be ready and prepared to show themselves at their best in the exam and pass it.
Our success rate is high. We know what we are talking about and we work together with the candidates to help them to pass the exam. But if the candidate does not put in the effort they will fail, we do not have magic wands.
We also offer an Intensive Course for the Preparation of the Cambridge First Certificate in English exam.
Please check out the webpages:
www.cambridgemadrid.com
www.onestop-language.com
