Using exam exercises for improving general English 

Raising your general level with exam methods and materials. 

Have you ever used exam exercises for improving English, for simply improving your general level? Exam materials and exercises can be used to improve a learner's general level even if they are not studying for an exam. 

If you are simply trying to improve your general level or you need English for your professional life, you might consider using exam exercises for improving English from past exams to improve your level, even if you are studying business English or a general course. Tasks from past exams contain exactly the same grammar and much of the vocabulary required to improve your skills in any part of your life, whether that is professional, personal or academic. 

The reasons for using them this way are: 

1.  Exams are written with answers which are as unequivocal as possible. This means that each question in the test has only one or two answers or better said, the answer you give is either correct or incorrect, with no room for doubt. 

2. Exam questions often focus on something specific which the student wants or needs to learn. There is maybe not much grammar focus in the exercises, with the exam being a test of your general grammatical knowledge at a certain level. The exercises might focus more on sentence structure or the formation of words and phrases, so there would be more of a focus on the skills of finishing sentences rather than specific grammar structures. 

Bearing these in mind, we will now look at a few ideas for using exam exercises to learn something new.

Using exam exercises for improving English.

A general English learner, or students of business English for example, might find that using exam exercises for improving English is quite effective for noticing new items of grammar in context, or finding vocabulary.

Students might also find that these exercises provide good examples of how the grammar links to vocabulary. A good example is in the Use of English section of the Cambridge English exams, which is a section with a grammar and vocabulary focus, and contains exercises focusing on sentence structure, word forms and paraphrasing. All of these exercises are useful for general improvement and language students should consider exploiting them for vocabulary and grammar practice. 

A good example of a useful exam exercise for learning vocabulary and how it connects to the grammar in a sentence is the Cambridge Use of English Part 1. This exercise is found on the First Certificate (B2-Upper Intermediate), Advanced (C1) and Proficiency (C2) exams.

It is a multiple-choice exercise, with four options. Typically, there is a choice of four words or phrases. They might be nouns, prepositions, verbs or adjectives for example so the words before and after the gap are important. 

The four choices would normally be from a similar word group, for example a choice of four prepositions, linkers or words with -ed endings.

Look at the example below: 

The Vikings ______________ to Ireland in 795AD, sacking and pillaging monasteries. 

A. reached B. arrived C. got D. toured 

Three of these words mean the same thing, 'to finish your journey at your destination', which we need for the correct answer, and one is wrong as it has a general meaning of travel or movement but does not fit here. 

Can you figure it out? Try a sample Cambridge-style exercise here, which is typical of the B2 (FCE-First Certificate), C1 (CAE-Advanced) and CPE (Proficiency) exams. Download the study sheet and add it to your vocabulary notes as it has explanations for the choice of correct answer.

Finding, recording items and learning from exam practice.

Each of the questions contain four items of related vocabulary, normally connected by meaning, use or word form. Often, three of these options are related and the fourth is only vaguely connected to the word group. You should first try to eliminate the vaguely-connected option before reading the context to eliminate the other incorrect options. In this way, you are working towards the answer with the negative as well as the positive. 

As you study the gaps and options, you should check the words before and after each gap. For example, the choice of preposition after each word would affect the answer, by seeing the correct answer in context, with three answers incorrect to this example but correct in others. However, the options might be prepositions, so depending on the word before the gap, only one preposition is correct as prepositions go after certain words in English. 

If you are unsure of a word or a phrase, look these up online. Often, simply writing the word with 'definition' or 'meaning' into Google or any search engine will produce a definition. EG; 'mariner definition' or 'raiding meaning' will generally produce an answer at the top of a search engine list. 

Importantly, you should record the correct answers and the surrounding grammar and context into a vocabulary book. Your vocabulary book should not be a simple list of words but the vocab or phrases inside personalised example sentences. This means that you provide context for the new vocab or grammar with an example and because it is your own example, it is something you can relate to. 

You should also record the incorrect options in multiple-choice exercises as these are distinct examples with their own grammar partnerships. Finally and very importantly, you should also record mistakes in your vocabulary book so that you know what NOT to use the next time. Always use e negative with the positive to learn. 

Trying an example exercise:

Let's try an exercise of the general style of the Use of English Part 1 now. Read the exercise below and study the options in numbers 1-8. Then fill your answers into the quiz section below the text. Remember to record any new vocabulary in your language learning notebook as you read and answer, including the incorrect options and their meanings. 

Use of English Part 1.

The Vikings and Ireland.

Read each of the examples 1-8 in the quiz below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0). 

0.    A. which B. who C. when D. whose

(Answer: B. who)

The Vikings were groups of Scandinavian mariners 0._____ left relatively few written records themselves, so historians often rely  1.____ written accounts left by Irish monks, 2. _____ Ireland seems to have escaped the destruction of literature in a time in European history known as the Dark Ages. Nevertheless, the Irish monasteries did not completely escape the violence of the time. 

The Vikings 3. _____ to Ireland at the beginning of the ninth century, sacking and pillaging monasteries. The first known attack on the Irish coast was on Rathlin Island in the northeast, and this 4. _____ the standard for the first raids, which were normally carried out by Norwegian Vikings. 5. _____, by the middle of the ninth century, Danish Vikings had arrived and as well as fighting with the native Irish, they also fought with the Norwegians, often making pacts with Irish chieftains who were either fighting each other or other Vikings. The warring finally 6. _____ in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, when the army of the high king of Ireland, Brian Boru, defeated a military alliance of Vikings and other Irish chieftains.

The Vikings are generally remembered in Ireland for their raiding and warlike tendencies, but they also made a huge 7. _____ to the nation by building the first cities, especially Dublin, and they also left their mark 8. _____ place names, with many Irish towns or areas bearing the suffix -ford, which comes from the Norse fjord, like Waterford or Strangford.

Choose your answers and fill them into the quiz below the options:

1. A. on B. in C. at D. for

2. A. while B. since C. yet D. still

3. A. reached B. arrived C. got            D. toured

4. A. made B. set C. did D. had

5. A. In spite B. Although C. Even       D. However

6. A. manifested B. culminated           C. came D. eliminated

7. A. impact B. influence C. effect       D. contribution

8. A. on B. at C. for D. by

Keeping a Vocabulary Record

As we have previously said, remember to keep a vocabulary notebook or folder with your notes, such as the notes you have made from this exercise, and look over it regularly. Make your vocabulary record colourful and write in different shapes and sizes, not just in lists of words with translations. 

Your vocabulary notebook should be something to memorable to look at so boring word lists should not be too prominent in it. Have a look at our related article on improving your English with exams at this link for ideas on how to structure a vocabulary book. These are also known as language records and it is probably a better name as they can keep more than vocabulary. A good language record might have good examples of work, marked errors to remind the student, and pronunciation notes.

Your vocabulary notebook should be something to memorable to look at so boring word lists should not be too prominent in it.

Extra Resources 

Click here to try some more Cambridge exercises. You can decide what level you would like to practice but FCE tests the B2 level, CAE tests C1 and CPE tests C2 level. Keep an eye on each level as there will be more exercises added to these sections of the learning resource area over time. 

You can also find various levels of exam-preparation material at this link to the Cambridge Assessment English website.

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