Q. How many answers must the candidate produce? A. Two.

One compulsory task (Part 1) and another from a choice of tasks (Part 2). Q. In what ways is Part 1 different from Part 2? A. In Part 1 there is one compulsory task. The candidate is not offered a choice of task or task type. The task is based on input material of up to 160 words, e.g. advertisements, extracts from letters, emails, schedules etc. In Part 2 candidates answer one task from a choice of five. The options offer a range of task types with instructions. Q. How many marks is each question worth? A. Each question in the Writing paper carries 20 marks. Candidates must answer two questions and thus the Writing paper is worth 40 marks, which is 20% of the total FCE examination. Q. Where do candidates write their answers? A. In the question booklet. This booklet also contains sufficient space for candidates to write their rough work. Q. What kinds of tasks will my students have to write? A. Part 1 is a letter or an email and is compulsory for everyone. In Part 2, they will be able to choose from a range of writing tasks including an article, a report, a review, a short story, an informal letter or a letter of application. Not all the different writing tasks will appear in every exam. If your students have prepared the set texts, then they will also be able to choose from the two tasks in questions 5a and 5b. Q. What happens if a candidate answers two or more questions in Part 2? A. Candidates will only be given marks for one question. All questions will be marked but only the highest mark will be taken. Q. What happens if a candidate produces a well-written text but does not answer the question? A. In order to answer the question effectively candidates must address all the points in the task. It is essential that candidates read each question very carefully. Q. What happens if a candidate doesnt answer Part 1? A. If Part 1 is not attempted a candidate scores 0 for this question. Part 1 and Part 2 carry equal marks. Q. Can candidates write about a set book? A. Yes. Question 5 has two options. Candidates can write an article, an essay, a report, or a review based on one of the 2 set books. Q. Some of my students write too many words. What will happen to them in the exam? A. If a candidate writes too many words, the examiner draws a line at the approximate place where the correct length is reached and directs close assessment to what comes before this. If, on the other hand, a candidate writes fewer than 50 words, they will receive no marks for this answer. If they write between 50 and 80 words, they will probably not have fulfilled the task requirements and will be penalised. Q. One of my students has such terrible handwriting that I have difficulty reading their writing. How will the examiners react to this?

A. Examiners will make every effort to read poor handwriting. However, if their handwriting is totally illegible, they will receive no marks at all. Q. Some of my students use American spelling. Will they be penalised? A. No. Both British and American usage and spelling are equally acceptable. Q. I have a student who speaks very well but Im worried about his writing. If my student does poorly in this paper, does that mean hell automatically fail the whole exam? A. The five FCE papers total 200 marks, after weighting. Each paper is weighted to 40 marks (i.e. 20% of the total). The overall grade is based on the total score gained by the candidate in all five papers. Candidates do not pass or fail in a particular paper, but rather in the examination as a whole. It is, therefore, possible not to achieve an adequate performance in some of the papers, but pass the FCE examination.