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Full video: C2 Proficiency Cambridge English exams - Books for self-study // CPE exam tips - preparation.

Course: Planning your Cambridge journeySection: C2 Proficiency self-study booksSubtitles: en

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0:00

hello and welcome to to the point

0:02

English with me Ben Gil and today I'm

0:05

going to be recommending three books to

0:07

help you with your preparation for the

0:09

C2 proficiency Cambridge English exam

0:12

also known as the CPE okay let's do

0:19

[Music]

0:21

this just a couple of quick important

0:24

things to say before we look at the

0:25

books the Cambridge proficiency exams

0:28

changed in

0:31

2013 um so the format changed so

0:34

whatever book you decide to buy whether

0:38

it's a book that I recommend or not um

0:41

always make sure that it was published

0:43

after

0:44

2013 because you could get confused or

0:49

get the wrong idea of the exam if you

0:51

buy a book from before 203 that's that's

0:55

very

0:56

important now all the books that I

0:58

recommend will be linked to in the

1:00

description so if you decide to buy one

1:03

click on the Amazon link and it will

1:05

take you directly to that book on the

1:07

Amazon

1:08

website okay let's start with the first

1:10

book now I'm starting with the Cambridge

1:13

English proficiency 2 book which is

1:16

simply a book which contains lots of

1:19

authentic exam papers it contains four

1:22

complete tests so all all of the parts

1:25

um and four

1:27

examples the reason I'm starting with

1:30

this book is because the proficiency

1:33

exam is extremely tough it's it's really

1:36

very difficult and unlike the advanced

1:39

and the first exams you can't really

1:41

prepare for it in in 6 months or a year

1:45

you need to S of have the level

1:49

already and to prepare for the exam you

1:52

just need to get to know the exam as

1:55

well as possible and understand what the

1:58

different parts of the exam are like and

2:01

what they are asking of you so the best

2:03

way to prepare is to practice practice

2:05

practice so that's why I think this book

2:08

is probably the most important one um

2:10

along with practice tests that you can

2:12

find on the Cambridge assessment English

2:15

official website you can you have some

2:17

free downloadable practice tests there

2:19

too but you'll need more you need as

2:21

many as possible to to really get an

2:23

idea for each part of the exam so this

2:26

is the best way you can you can prepare

2:28

with a book

2:30

as I always recommend in all of my

2:32

videos for all the exams but

2:34

specifically the proficiency you need to

2:37

just make English a part of your life in

2:40

fact if you're studying studying for the

2:41

proficiency it should have been part of

2:44

your life for for a few years now um so

2:47

you should watch all the films and

2:48

Series in English you should be reading

2:50

regularly in English um listening to

2:53

radio podcasts hopefully having an

2:56

opportunity to speak to people in

2:58

English so with your preparation now

3:00

it's just focusing on on getting to know

3:02

the exam as well as possible and

3:03

learning certain tips and tricks to to

3:07

pass which takes me on to the next book

3:10

and this one is the objective

3:12

proficiency book now this is more like a

3:15

course book um and as I said you can't

3:17

really expect a book to prepare you for

3:20

the proficiency exam it's it's much too

3:23

too big for that your level just has to

3:25

be there but what this book can help you

3:27

with is getting to know the exam better

3:30

and it gives you certain tips and advice

3:34

um on how to approach each part of the

3:36

exam so if you're new to the Cambridge

3:38

exams in general if you've never taken a

3:40

Cambridge exam before this will help you

3:43

familiarize yourself with the different

3:45

parts which is extremely important and

3:48

you have lots of vocabulary sections in

3:50

there you have some grammar files um

3:53

writing exercises and of course Very

3:56

importantly you have the answers uh so

3:59

this is for self-study this video is for

4:01

self-study um so that's you know

4:04

essential to have the answers okay let's

4:06

look at the next book and this is

4:07

grammar and vocabulary for advanced and

4:10

proficiency now in my survey that I

4:13

conducted with my students and the

4:16

telegram group this book came up again

4:19

and again uh many people have found it

4:22

very useful for their

4:23

preparation uh they say that it's very

4:26

clear uh the good good explanations with

4:29

good examples and it's just a very easy

4:31

to follow book now again I'm repeating

4:35

myself but with at the proficiency level

4:38

you should have a very good base of

4:40

grammar and advanced grammar but

4:44

sometimes it's good to have a reference

4:47

um to to check to revise and to know

4:50

exactly what you need for the exam and

4:53

it contains a special focus on

4:55

vocabulary with words and phrases that

4:57

are useful in the exams I mean there are

4:59

lots of grammar books around you

5:01

probably have a grammar book at home

5:03

already a reference book you probably

5:06

have grammar in use don't you the Murphy

5:08

book most people have that one uh

5:10

there's the Michael Swan

5:11

book the grammar doesn't change

5:14

depending on the book but the way it's

5:16

presented and how it the format of this

5:19

book in particular is in line with the

5:22

the Cambridge exams so um for revision

5:26

and reference it's it's a good one I

5:28

always say the same and repeat myself

5:30

but don't forget the objective when

5:32

you're studying for an exam the exam is

5:34

not the objective it's not the final

5:36

objective it's one step in your process

5:38

of learning English in order to

5:40

communicate communication is the

5:42

objective with that in mind check out my

5:45

telegram group because there are some

5:47

really active enthusiastic uh motivated

5:50

people there who are helping each other

5:52

um and if that sounds good to you click

5:55

on the the link and I'll I'll put you in

5:57

one of the groups okay guys thank thanks

5:59

for joining me and I'll see you very

6:01

soon for another video take care bye

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