Introduction
Focus on CPE is an online course designed for students who are thinking of taking the Cambridge Proficiency Exam. It consists of 12 modules and 200 units of English and provides approximately 120 hours of study for students.
Course aims
- Take students from Advanced CEFR C1 up to C2.
- Provide coaching and practice in all areas of the CPE exam to ensure students are fully prepared when taking the test.
- Blend grammatical structures necessary for this level with vocabulary, spelling, reading, listening, writing, and speaking.
Gramatika
By the end of the course, students will be able to…
- Manipulate word order to create subtlety of meaning, emphasis, and humour.
- Use cleft sentences to deflect difficult questions and take possession of an argument.
- Use more complex passive forms and know when to use the active and passive voice.
- Use advanced passive verb forms.
- Use conditional forms to talk about future possible and unlikely situations, alternative present situations, and hypothetical past situations and their results.
- Use alternatives to If structures and manipulate verb forms in conditional sentences to express a range of subtle meanings.
- Connect sentences using conjunctions and other connecting words.
- Identify transitive and intransitive verbs and accurately follow them with gerund or infinitive forms.
- Report statements and questions using complex verb forms and structures.
- Use past forms of modal verbs to express possibility, regret, certainty, and negative certainty.
- Use present and past subjunctives to add formality to speaking or writing.
- Use inversion for formality or dramatic emphasis.
- Place adverbs and adverbials in their correct positions within sentences.
- Use fronting and prefacing to add variety to spoken English.
Slovná zásoba
- Learn approximately 800 lexical items, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, phrasal verbs, idiomatic language, different registers, and lexical sets.
Skills
- Exposure to and practice in reading and hearing formal and informal English from a variety of registers, accents, and contexts.
Unit Summary
Introduction
- General Introduction: An introduction to the course the student will be taking
- Exam: CPE Basics: general information
- Exam: CPE Basics: Paper 1
- Exam: CPE Basics: Paper 2
- Exam: CPE Basics: Paper 3
- Exam: Entry Test
Module 1
- Gramatika: Tense review
- Slovná zásoba: Adjectives of character
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 01
- Gramatika: Adverb position and meaning change
- Slovná zásoba: Adjective and noun collocations 2
- Spelling: Spelling test 09
- Čítanie: Happy families
- Počúvanie: Honey, I’m sorry!
- Čítanie: Globalisation
- Počúvanie: The UN Food Programme
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 01 revision test
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 1, Part 1
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 1, Practice test 1
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 2, Part 1
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 1, Practice test 1
Module 2
- Gramatika: Articles
- Slovná zásoba: Adjectives of mood
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 02
- Gramatika: Reported Speech
- Slovná zásoba: Wordbuilding 01
- Spelling: Spelling test 10
- Čítanie: The selfish giant
- Počúvanie: Shakespeare’s sonnet 18
- Čítanie: My clever dog
- Počúvanie: The Emerging Brain
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 02 revision test
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 3, Part 1
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 1, Practice test 1
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 1, Part 2
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 2, Practice test 1
Module 3
- Gramatika: Relative Clauses
- Slovná zásoba: Confusing words 1
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 03
- Gramatika: Relative Clauses advanced points
- Slovná zásoba: Verb and noun collocation 1
- Spelling: Spelling test 01
- Čítanie: A conscientious objector
- Počúvanie: Sao Tome
- Čítanie: Eyewitness: 911
- Počúvanie: Tony Blair
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 03 revision test
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 2, Part 2a – Article
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 3, Part 2 – Sentence completion
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 2, Practice test 1 – Sentence completion
Module 4
- Gramatika: It’s time / would rather
- Slovná zásoba: Animals
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 04
- Gramatika: Inversion
- Slovná zásoba: Wordbuilding 02
- Spelling: Spelling test 02
- Čítanie: Cloning humans
- Počúvanie: Pet hates
- Čítanie: Top ten inventions in history
- Počúvanie: Concorde
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 04 revision test
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 1, Part 3 – Wordbuilding
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 3, Practice test 1 – Wordbuilding
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 2, Part 2b – Formal letter
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 2b, Practice test 1 – Formal letter
Module 5
- Gramatika: Modal Verbs
- Slovná zásoba: Crimes and criminals
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 05
- Gramatika: Quite
- Slovná zásoba: Collocations: Adjective + Noun 1
- Spelling: Spelling test 03
- Čítanie: Tabloids
- Počúvanie: The Weather
- Čítanie: Stock market report
- Počúvanie: Ukrainian Miners
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 05 revision test
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 3, Practice test 1 – Multiple choice
- Exam: CPE Practice: Paper 1, Part 4 – Key word transformations
Module 6
- Gramatika: Causative Have and Get
- Slovná zásoba: Confusing words 2
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 06
- Gramatika: Passive
- Slovná zásoba: Wordbuilding 03
- Spelling: Spelling test 04
- Čítanie: World cup profits
- Počúvanie: David Beckham
- Čítanie: The nanny
- Počúvanie: Cane toads: Pest or guest?
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 06 revision test
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 2, Part 2c – Informal letter
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 2c, Practice test 1 – Informal letter
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 3, Part 4
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 4, Practice test 1 – Multiple matching
Module 7
- Gramatika: Question tags
- Slovná zásoba: Jobs and professions
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 07
- Gramatika: Inversion
- Slovná zásoba: Verb and noun collocation 2
- Spelling: Spelling test 05
- Čítanie: Smoking
- Počúvanie: Gambling
- Čítanie: Lucian Freud
- Počúvanie: Aristocracy
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 07 revision test
- Exam: CPE Coaching, Paper 1, Part 5 – Multiple choice
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 5, Practice test 1 – Multiple choice
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 2, Part 2d – Review
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 2d, Practice test 1 – Review
Module 8
- Gramatika: Third Conditional
- Slovná zásoba: Parts of the body
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 08
- Gramatika: Gerunds and Infinitives
- Slovná zásoba: Wordbuilding 04
- Spelling: Spelling test 06
- Čítanie: A holiday in Panama
- Počúvanie: Too many shoes
- Čítanie: A phobia of buttons
- Počúvanie: A typical English summer
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 08 revision test
- Exam: CPE Coaching, Paper 1, Part 6 – Gapped text
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 6, Practice test 1 – Gapped text
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 2, Part 2e – Report
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 2e, Practice test 1 – Report
Module 9
- Gramatika: Conjunctions and Connectors
- Slovná zásoba: Gradable and non-gradable adjectives
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 09
- Gramatika: Conjunctions and connectors
- Slovná zásoba: Verb and noun collocation 3
- Spelling: Spelling test 07
- Čítanie: Business lessons from an immigrant entrepreneur
- Počúvanie: An extract from a novel
- Čítanie: Cooking with kids
- Počúvanie: Bad dreams
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 09 revision test
- Exam: CPE Coaching: Paper 1, Part 7 – Multiple matching
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 7, Practice test 1 – Multiple matching
Module 10
- Gramatika: Wishes
- Slovná zásoba: Confusing words 3
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 10
- Gramatika: Conditionals – advanced points
- Slovná zásoba: Wordbuilding 05
- Spelling: Spelling test 08
- Čítanie: Lucozade
- Počúvanie: Burma
- Čítanie: Multi-tasking
- Počúvanie: Crocodiles
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 10 revision test
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 1, Practice test 2 – Multiple choice cloze
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 2, Practice test 2 – Open cloze
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 3, Practice test 2 – Wordbuilding
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 4, Practice test 2 – Multiple choice
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 5, Practice test 2 – Key word transformations
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 6, Practice test 2 – Sentence completion
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 7, Practice test 2 – Multiple matching
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 1, Practice test 2 – Compulsory part
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 2a, Practice test 2 – Article
Module 11
- Gramatika: Verb Patterns
- Slovná zásoba: Physical appearance
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 11
- Gramatika: Verb Patterns
- Slovná zásoba: Prepositional collocations 5
- Spelling: Spelling test 09
- Čítanie: My life without a mobile phone
- Počúvanie: Mars
- Čítanie: What time is it?
- Počúvanie: My paranoid friend
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 11 revision test
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 1, Practice test 4 – Multiple choice
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 2, Practice test 5 – Sentence completion
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 3, Practice test 5 – Multiple choice
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 4, Practice test 5 – Multiple matching
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 2c, Practice test 2 – Informal letter
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 2d, Practice test 2 – Review
Module 12
- Gramatika: Talking about quantity
- Slovná zásoba: Clothes and clothing
- Slovná zásoba: Phrasal verbs 12
- Gramatika: Subjunctive
- Slovná zásoba: Business idioms 1
- Spelling: Spelling test 10
- Čítanie: Primitive man
- Počúvanie: Self esteem
- Čítanie: The nature of wisdom
- Počúvanie: Young at heart
- Revision: Focus on CPE, Module 12 revision test
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 1, Practice test 3 – Multiple choice cloze
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 2, Practice test 3 – Open cloze
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 3, Practice test 3 – Wordbuilding
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 4, Practice test 3 – Key word transformations
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 5, Practice test 3 – Multiple choice
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 6, Practice test 3 – Sentence completion
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 1, Part 7, Practice test 3 – Multiple matching
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 1, Practice test 3 – Multiple choice
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 2, Practice test 3 – Sentence completion
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 3, Practice test 3 – Multiple choice
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 3, Part 4, Practice test 3 – Multiple matching
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 2e, Practice test 2 – Report
- Exam: CPE Practice, Paper 2, Part 2b, Practice test 2 – Formal letter
Follow-up
Students completing the Focus on CPE course should feel confident in tackling any advanced course.