This document provides tips for preparing students for the FCE Use of English Part 1: Multiple Choice Cloze exam section. It offers 6 tips: 1) Read the full text before answering questions; 2) Focus on vocabulary, not grammar; 3) Use a flashcard game to practice dependent prepositions and commonly confused verbs; 4) Go with your first instinct unless 100% sure it's wrong; 5) Eliminate obviously incorrect answers to narrow options; 6) Ease into practice by reviewing answers rather than guessing. The goal is to help students improve vocabulary, grammar, and test-taking strategies for this Cloze exam format.

1. FCE tips: use of English part 1: multiple choice cloze
By Alexander Case
Level: Intermediate Type: Teaching notes
Print
Aims to help students practise vocabulary, commonly confused
words and fixed expressions.
Example question
Many people think a dolphin is the same _____ a porpoise.
A: than B: as C: like D: with

2.  Tip 1
The students will have to read a text and answer 12
questions like the one above. As in any part of the
FCE, students should read the whole text through
quickly first before even looking at the questions.
Lack of time is rarely an issue in the FCE.

3.  Tip 2
This part of the paper is a test of vocabulary rather
than grammar. Part 2, open cloze is the closest to
an equivalent test of grammar. The areas that often
come up in part 1 are collocations (e.g. take part),
commonly confused words (e.g. make and do) and
fixed expressions. Class time is probably most
usefully spent on dependant prepositions and/ or
commonly confused verbs, although it is of
course relatively easier to predict what grammar will
come up in other parts of the paper than it is to
predict which dependent prepositions will come up
here.

4.  Tip 3
A nice activity for dependent prepositions or make/
do is SNAP. (The card game: players take turns to
place a card on the pile and shout out SNAP when
there are two cards which are the same - the first
person to shout SNAP gets the cards) With the
TEFL version the cards have the nouns etc. that go
with the verbs or prepositions, and students try to
remember what they go with and shout out when
they think they are the same. E.g. if the cards say
'’breakfast” and “a mess” they can shout out SNAP
as they both go with make.

5.  Tip 4
If students have a feeling that one ‘sounds right’,
they should go for it. They can always analyze why
it might or might not be right afterwards. They
should only change an answer if they are 100%
sure it is wrong. It is far more common to change a
right answer than to change a wrong one.

6.  Tip 5
If students really have no idea which is the correct
answer, they should start by deleting the ones that
they are sure are not correct. They can then guess
between those that are left. As always, no marks
are lost for wrong guesses. You can practise the
skill of narrowing down the possibilities by asking
students not only ‘which is it?’, but also
‘which isn’t it?’, especially when there are different
opinions as to which is the correct answer.

7.  Tip 6
You can lead students into the part 1 task gently by
giving them an exam task with the right answers
already selected and ask them why the other ones
are wrong.

8. TAKEN FROM:
 http://www.onestopenglish.com/exams/cambridge-
esol-exams/fce/fce-tips/fce-tips-use-of-english-part-
1-multiple-choice-cloze/144714.article