Cambridge First Certificate Exam Course | UIC London Language School

ABOUT THE COURSE
what will i learn?
what level am i?
why uic?

Max students per class	Maximum students in a class: 14 (minimum 6). Please contact us for terms and conditions before booking as the course will only run with the minimum number of students
Hours per week	15 hours per week (15 x 60 minutes)
Start dates	courses start 3 times a year on 28 January, 29 April, 21 October
Levels	Upper Intermediate level
Class times	This course is held in the afternoon from 13.40-17.00, Monday-Friday

The First Certificate course involves practice in writing and speaking skills, reading and listening comprehension, grammar and vocabulary for 'Use of English' and examination techniques and practice. This examination is widely accepted internationally by employers and universities as evidence of your ability in English.

We are the only school in the world ever to win both the Star Award (voted on by travel agents worldwide) and the British Council Award for Innovation in language teaching.

The First Certificate classes are designed to improve every aspect of the students' Enlgish by blending the use of a course book with the langauge items on the checklist as appropriate, which covers the items needed for preparation for the FCE exam.
This checklist is an outline of language items and areas that learners are expected to achieve / consolidate competence in at this level.
Exam technique and practice materials can be taken from the course book and exam practice books.

Grammar / function

Vocabulary

Skills development

Skills Development

The tense system (simple, continuous, perfect)

Habits in present / past

Be used to/get used to / would

Question tags

Narrative tenses

Expressing quantity

Countables/uncountables

Determiners

Deduction (present/past)

Mixed modals

Future forms (perfect and continuous)

Verbs taking gerund/infinitive

Relative clauses (defining/non-defining)

Present perfect simple/continuous

Reported speech

Articles

Conditionals – 0,1,2,3 & mixed

Wishes/regrets

Noun phrases

Adding emphasis

The passive (needs to be done/causative have)

Comparatives and superlatives

So, such

Ability - can, be able to, succeed

Expressions of purpose/reason/result - so that etc..

Modal verbs

Have something done

Wordbuilding –

prefixes/suffixes

Word formation

Deducing meaning from context

Prefixes/suffixes

Euphemisms

Synonyms/ antonyms

Adverb / verb collocation

Phrasal verbs & idioms

Travel/tourism

Memories/childhood

Technology

Make/do collocation

Education

Ecology

The arts

Work, Business & Money

Crime

Appearance body & clothes

Word pairs (e.g. ‘neat and tidy’) ‘Marriage, ceremonies & festivals

Families

Social issues

Geographical features

Sport & leisure

History

The media

Travel & holidays

Celebrations & festivals

Gadgets & appliances

Health

Speaking-

Awareness of conversational devices

Conversational skills - repair

Presenting an opinion

Exchanging experiences

Presenting an argument for and against

Turn-taking strategies

Reaching a consensus

Picture description

Role-play practice

Listening-

Listening for gist

Listening for specific information

Note-taking

Multiple matching

Multiple choice

Multi-word verbs -including

Get, take, give, set,
turn, break, put, go,
come, bring, look, run,
make, call,

Writing-

Correction symbols

Paragraphing & punctuation

Different styles/register

Topic sentences

Formal letters - complaint, application, of confirmation , giving information/directions, requesting information

Informal letters

Discourse markers and cohesive devices

Sequencers

Biography

Describing people & places

Describing an object

Giving an opinion

Presenting an argument

Writing a review (book/film)

Note-taking

Writing an article

Writing a report

Contrasting ideas

Reading-

Gapped text

Skimming and scanning

Multiple choice techniques

Headings match

Sentence/paragraph insertion

This course leads to a qualification at B2 level, it is very important for us to make sure you are in the right class from the beginning and spend some time on your first day both testing you and talking to you about your aims. Then we can make sure you go to the right class. The level test is grammar, writing and spoken to give us the best idea of your different skills.

You will be given regular tests and tutorials in your class and guidance on how to be successful. There are different ways of measuring progress and predicting where you will be in a certain number of weeks, almost all of our students make faster progress than the national average. Our exam pass rate is above the national average as well. If you would like more information about how much progress you can expect and what grade we think you might be able to achieve, please just ask us.

Learning a language is in many ways just like learning anything, it is best done if you have a teacher who has the experience, skills and resources to help you. At UIC we have the experience to help you achieve your goals - the teachers who work on these courses have expoerience both as teachers and as teacher trainers and can help you continue with your professional development.

UIC is a language school in the centre of London. As well as English we also teach 10 other languages to around 400 people a week. We are accredited by the British Council and ISI (the private school equivalent of OFSTED) and all the languages we teach are inspected. We are also an award winning school, we are the only language school in the world to have won both of the major awards - the STAR Language School in Europe (voted on by travel agents worldwide) and the British Council ELTon award for innovation in English Language Teaching.

So, great location, award winning, accredited and inspected, and many years of successful language learning experience.

UIC is London's Language School