FCE READING TIPS - PART 1
Description
- A text of 650 words 
- 8 MCQ in chronoloigical order. 
- What tested: 
+ detailed understanding
+ global understanding (main idea) , writer's purpose, feeling, opinion. 
+ reference (proonoun - he, ....
+ deduce meaning ( a word or a phrase) 
Tips 
1. Read the text quickly to get a general idea of what it is about. 
2. Then read only the questions, and underline key words. Don't read the options A - D yet. Find which parts of the text where you expect to find the answers. 
3. Go through the choices and underline the key words.
4. Keep in mind that the information may be rephrased. 
5. Even if you think you know the correct answer, always check. 
6. Avoid options that use words from the text but convey a different meaning. 
7. Don't choose options which sound likely but there is no evidence in the text. 
8. Pace yourself - leave time at the end to go back to any questions you may have left. 


PART 2
Description
- A Text of 550 words 
- 7 gaps + 8 given sentences or phrases
- Gap fill task 
- Skim reading first
- Intensive reading to fit sentences into the gaps.
- Careful with conjunctions, phrases, pronouns, verb tenses, coherence, cohesion. 
Tips
1. Read the text through and think of what kind of information is missing.
2. Read the list of missing sentences. 
3. If you cannot fit a sentence into a gap, move on to the next one. Go back to the gap later. 
4. Remember to look for clues such as referencewords (he,it,that,this,ectc)
5. Check your answers and read the text through to see if it makes sense. 
6. Try to find links between the sentences and the text before and after the gap. 
7. Pay special attention to information that refers to poeple, time and places. 
8. Don't be discouraged by unknown vocabulary. 


PART 3 
Description
- A set of texts of 700 in total. (4 - 6 texts) 
- 15 questions/statements. 
- testing detailed information, opinions
- require intensive reading/ scanning

Tips
1. Read all the texts through before looking at the questions. 
2. Read the questions and under line the key words. Find which part each question refers to. The information might be paraphrased. 
2. The texts contain similarities. 
3. Scan the text and look for paraphrases of the questions rather than the same words. 
4. Don't waste time reading the whole text in detail - zoom in on what answers the questions. 
5. It may be useful to do through each section in turn and match the questions which refer to it.
7. Remember that texts contain similar information in order to distract you. It is vital to read the questions carefully; they contain details which limit your options. 
8. When reading the text, be aware of negatives and questions that may appear similiar. 
9. You may find it helful to underline the parts of the text that relate to the key points in the questions and then do a quick matching. 
10. Quickly eliminate the easy questions, leaving yourself time at the end to deal with the harder ones.