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I've said it before and I'll say it

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again the number one reason that

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students fail their Cambridge English

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exam or probably any English exam for

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that matter is lack of preparation now

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that may be because the student is

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overconfident you know they have a high

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level and they think well I can

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understand films in English I listen to

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podcasts in English maybe they even

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speak in English on a daily basis at

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work or with their friends and they feel

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that they don't need to prepare it may

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be just a simple lack of time maybe they

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live very busy lives with their families

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and work and other commitments and they

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can't find time to prepare for the exam

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or maybe it's simply procrastination so

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that's delaying or postponing something

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that needs to be done so this is true of

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the whole exam in general whether it's

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the B2 first C1 Advanced or C2

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proficiency but it's particularly true

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of the writing paper now I've seen

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hundreds of results papers from from

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students who have taken the exam and I

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would say that in around 880 or 90% of

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those results papers it's the writing

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score which is the lowest and I'm sure

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that's because the students haven't

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practiced the writing tasks in some

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cases the first time they've ever

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written an essay in English or report in

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English or an article in English is on

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the day of the exam and it's very

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difficult to get a high score in the

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writing paper if you've never practiced

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because these are very tough tasks the

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time is limited and you have to do a lot

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and include a lot of grammar and

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vocabulary in quite short texts and

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sometimes it can mean the difference

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between a pass and a fail or at least

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the student just not getting the result

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that they were really aiming for now

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it's understandable really that a

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student will avoid practicing the

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writing tasks there's some kind of

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psychological barrier to sitting down

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with a blank page or a blank Word

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document and just writing something

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especially if you don't write regularly

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in your own language right to to write

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in a second language is much more

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difficult but if the first time you ever

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write an essay in English is on the day

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of your exam you're going to be in

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trouble so what is the solution well I

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could simply say just do it right just

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sit down and practice come on find time

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and write an essay but that doesn't

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really help does it so what I would like

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to say to you today it's a little

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challenge is just write one sentence

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just write the first opening sentence of

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whatever task you decide to do nobody

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has to see it you don't have to send it

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to a teacher for Corrections or feedback

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your friends don't have to see it it's

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just for you but just sit down and write

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that first sentence I think you can do

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that right it's not you don't need much

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time you don't need much effort but it's

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a start and then tomorrow you can write

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the second sentence or maybe you'll

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write two or three sentences tomorrow or

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maybe a whole paragraph and the day

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after a little bit more and a little bit

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more the idea is that you build a habit

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this technique has proven to work in

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other areas of life like exercise if you

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if you feel you should be doing exercise

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but you don't want to go to the gym for

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an hour or go for a 10 km run then just

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do 5 minutes just anybody can do 5

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minutes of exercise whatever that may be

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and probably once you've started you'll

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do more maybe you'll do 10 15 20 minutes

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and it's the same with writing you write

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that first sentence and once you've sat

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down with the paper and you found a task

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you'll probably think well now I'm here

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I'll write a couple more sentences but

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really it's getting over that barrier of

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just doing it that Pro procrastination

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so as I said that's my little challenge

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for you if you're not practicing the

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writing tasks now then start write

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something it doesn't have to be

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Shakespearean it doesn't have to be

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perfect just write something and build

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the habit of doing something regularly

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and you'll be much more confident on the

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day of the exam okay so are you going to

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take up my challenge let me know in the

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comments and I'll see you very soon for

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another

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video