Is The Stress Worth it?

E. Sommerová, N. Šafaříková

Some youngsters might say that the CAE preperation was just eight dreadful endless months without any source of happiness and for us it was exactly like that. 

Eight months might feel like a lot of time, but in reallity it truely is not. We were fighting against time and mostly procrastination on our behalf. If we were told in the beginning that we only had three months, we would prepare much more earnestly. To be crystal clear with you, we both started to prepare for these exams around 5 weeks beforehand and maybe if we had started with our preperation sooner, we would not have been so stressed out about it. The biggest saviours were the mock tests on the internet and the exercise book we had gotten at the start of the school year. 

Firstly, trust your gut and do not overthink every answer, because you are usually right with the first choice you make. READ A LOT! WATCH MOVIES WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES! It will help you a lot with your grammar and listening maybe even with the pronounciation.  Also choose a speaking partner and obviously talk to them and practice. The more you talk the easier and less stressful it is at the final exam. 

You obviously do not have to listen to us, but not to brag, we both passed the exam without a scratch, even managed to get CPE! And previously we were so streesed that we would not even get the FCE.

So if you are reading this

RELAX

It is just and exam not the end of the world :)!

REACTIONS: 

I couldn't agree more. Definitelly find yourself a speaking partner. Speaking is basically free points. I practised with my friend, we did some of the exercise that are in the CAE advanced trainer and we got more that 90%. It was super easy! :) - Natalie 

I have a similar experience with girls as I was struggling with making myself to actually start doing something that would help me to pass the exam and because of that I was aplenty stressed, but in the end just taking the CAE seminar and doing the mock tests helped me to get the certificate with a pretty good grade.  - Ondrej Loos

I agree. The presented tips are amazing. Especially the tip to watch movies in English as it helped me to reach C2 level in the listening part of the CAE exam. - OH