Full video

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if you're planning on taking a cambridge

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english exam

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you've come to the right place because

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in this video i'm going to give you

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lots of tips on how not only to pass the

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exam

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but to get the best score possible so

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let's do this

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over the last few months i've made lots

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of videos giving tips

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on how to pass the cambridge exams some

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quite specific videos on the different

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parts of the exams

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but i realized i haven't made a general

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video just telling you how to pass

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the exams so that's what i'm going to do

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today

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and we're looking specifically at the

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fce cae

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and cpe so that's the b2 first c1

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advanced and the c2 proficiency

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so what i want to look at first is the

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preparation

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i have made another video on preparation

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tips for the cambridge exams so

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i'll link to that at the end of this

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video but i'll just go

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quickly through some of the tips now so

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you have some idea of what you need to

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do before the exam

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so first of all and very importantly you

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need to

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start your preparation well in advance

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of the exam

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these are difficult exams so you you

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can't prepare

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in one week or two weeks i would

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recommend that you give yourself at

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least

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two months more if possible i mean some

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people

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spend years preparing for the cambridge

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exam

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so the more time the better and i would

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say the most important thing to do in

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your preparation is to get

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to know the exam as well as possible get

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to know the format

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the structure of each part each paper of

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the exam

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and then go into detail to each part of

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each paper

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the more you know the exam the easier it

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will be

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really so that's that's probably the

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most important part of the preparation

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another good idea in the preparation

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part of this

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is to find a partner find a friend or a

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classmate or a colleague

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it will give you a huge advantage if you

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can prepare together

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you can test yourselves if you have any

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doubts you can check with

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your partner and also you can often

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do the speaking part of the exam with

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your partner and that's a huge advantage

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if you can prepare that beforehand

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also i recommend that you read a lot

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reading is the best activity you can do

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to prepare for the cambridge exams

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you learn vocabulary grammatical

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structures you learn to read more

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quickly in english

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because there's a lot of reading in in

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the exam so read everything and anything

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books internet articles magazines

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facebook posts

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instagram posts anything which contains

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words in english

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read it and in general for the

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preparation just immerse yourself in

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english as much as possible so watch

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films

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series youtube videos speak to people

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if you can in english if you don't have

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people to speak to

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read out loud read a book out loud to

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practice your pronunciation

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find facebook groups where you can

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communicate with people

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it's really important to immerse

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yourself in english in the preparation

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for the cambridge

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exams okay now let's talk about the exam

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itself hopefully you followed my tips

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for the preparation but now

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the exam is here let's imagine it's the

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day before the exam

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um now you're not going to improve

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your level of english the day before the

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exam

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just accept that so don't worry about

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studying grammar and vocabulary

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those things the day before the exam i

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think that's not necessary

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the most important thing you can do the

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day before the exam is get

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sleep get enough sleep there are people

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who think that a few

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extra hours of studying will give them a

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benefit to to pass the exam

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in my opinion i think it's been proven

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in scientific studies

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sleep is more important to two hours

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of extra sleep are more valuable than

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two hours

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of extra study before an exam so make

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sure you get at least eight hours

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sleep before the exam what you can do

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the day before the exam is start to

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visualize

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the exam imagine you're in the exam

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visualize each paper each part of the

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exam

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what strategy you have for each part

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what you're going to do

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how much time you're going to dedicate

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to each part for the

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especially the use of english and the

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reading and the speaking is usually on a

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different day to the rest of the exam

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so and it's much shorter but again it's

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the same the same

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recommendations visualize how you're

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going to do

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each part of the speaking visualization

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is a very

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important and valuable technique before

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an exam

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and then the day of the exam the day has

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arrived probably the most important tip

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before the exam on the day of the exam

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is that you arrive early

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arrive to the examination center or

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where or your school or wherever you're

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you're taking the exam as early as

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possible

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you don't want to have the stress of

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worrying that you're going to be late

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you don't need to spend your energy on

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being stressed about arriving so leave

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one hour earlier than you normally would

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so you can arrive relaxed and calm

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to the to the examination center

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and your mind is not full of other

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things so when you arrive you'll have

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some time before you go into the exam so

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take advantage of this time to talk to

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your partner

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if if you are lucky enough to have a

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partner that you you'll

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be prepared with and you're doing the

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exam with and start to plan your

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techniques especially for the speaking

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part of the exam

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take advantage of that time if you don't

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have a partner

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speak to another candidate who is there

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just start up a conversation

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about what their strategy is so you can

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you can focus together on what you're

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going to do

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in the exam take advantage of that time

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if you're the type of person who gets

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very nervous before an exam like i would

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say

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the majority of people do spend

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a few moments just taking deep breaths

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just to relax yourself

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sit down in a corner somewhere where you

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have no distractions

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take ten deep breaths just to calm

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yourself down

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stress and nerves are good they are good

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emotions to help you focus

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but if you are too nervous it can

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have a negative effect so it's important

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to get the right balance

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and if you're not the type of person who

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gets nervous then what's wrong with you

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as i said most people do get very

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nervous before an exam and it's good

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nerves are good but so if you if you

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don't get nervous

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make sure you're not too relaxed you

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need to focus so

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i'm not saying you should be nervous but

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make sure you find a way to help

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yourself

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focus on the exam and focus

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is a very important word because it's a

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long exam

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and you need to be focused 100 all the

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time you cannot

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stop and get distracted for even a

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second

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you need to be concentrated all the time

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in the

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reading and use of english your time is

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very limited so you won't have time to

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to think about other things in the

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writing you may think you have a bit

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more time because maybe it doesn't take

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you an hour and a half to do the two

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parts

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but if you do have spare time at the end

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you need to take advantage of that time

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to go back over what you have written

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to see if you can make any changes to

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use better vocabulary or better grammar

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so you can't relax at any moment and of

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course in the speaking it's very intense

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and in the listening

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you have if you lose concentration for a

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second

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you could lose the answer to the

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question you're on so

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yeah that's the biggest tip i can give

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you for the exam itself in the exam

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stay focused all the time 100

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and that's it you've finished the exam

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congratulations and

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you can relax and forget about the exam

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for a while for a few days at least

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having said that i would try to remember

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your experience just

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whatever the result of the exam tried to

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remember what you did because

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if you fail the exam then you will

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probably want to take it again so you'll

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want to remember what you did wrong and

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what you did right but

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but also even if you pass the exam it's

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possible that if you did the

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b2 first or the first certificate you

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may want to take the cambridge advanced

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and if you took the cambridge advanced

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you may want to take the proficiency

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so yeah just spend maybe a couple of

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days after the exam spend some time

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thinking about the experience what what

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you learned from it

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so you can take that to the next exam if

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you decide to do one

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okay thank you for joining me again for

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another video check out my other videos

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on the cambridge exams if you enjoyed

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this one i also make more general

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english learning videos

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um which i release on sundays so you may

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find those interesting too

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and i'll see you very soon for another

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video

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