Advanced English and Exams (B2, C1, C2)

We've brought a new trio 🤓 Don't forget to hide your answer, using the 'spoiler' formatting!

Quite often, we receive enquiries about IELTS preparation. While our IELTS course is still being developed, we currently work only with individual students. This usually involves personalised guidance on writing and speaking, as many of our learners are teachers themselves and can practise the receptive skills independently. This summer, however, things are particularly busy at the school. We are preparing a series of webinars on methodology, language, and literature (all completely free, so stay tuned - you won’t want to miss them!). We are also putting the finishing touches on our methodology course on assessment, while working on the final editorial stages of several coursebooks that will be published soon. As a result, we have decided to pause accepting new IELTS applications for the time being. We truly appreciate the trust you place in us, but we also feel a strong responsibility to deliver the highest quality support, and we never want to take on more than we can do well. That said, we do have some good news. Our dear colleague Anna has just a few places available this summer. I’ve been following her work for quite some time, and I’m genuinely happy to recommend her. A little bird also told me that she’s offering summer discounts! This isn’t an advertisement - it’s simply a recommendation that comes from our sense of responsibility towards our community. If we can’t support you at the moment, the least we can do is point you towards someone we trust. Hope this helps!

After months of writing (and, ultimately, years of teaching) we are delighted to present our new coursebook: C2 Key Word Transformation. The book includes 12 systematic units, more than 500 practice items, around 300 complete transformations, examination-format tests, and 100 additional cumulative questions. This is not simply a collection of random tasks. The course is organised around the principal grammatical and lexical systems tested in Key Word Transformation:

• meaning, equivalence and sentence architecture; • time, tense and aspect; • modality, probability, intention and obligation; • conditionals and alternative condition markers; • passive, causative and reporting structures; • inversion, emphasis and focus; • gerunds, infinitives and complementation; • nominalisation and dependent prepositions; • comparison, preference, concession and degree; • cause, result, purpose and consequence; • relative clauses and complex sentence recasting; • negation, quantifiers and fixed lexical expressions.

As you work through these areas, you will also develop greater control of collocation, practise multi-word verbs, explore high-frequency “hub words” with several possible meanings, and consolidate fixed phrases and dependent prepositions. Throughout the course, the central focus remains the accurate preservation of meaning during paraphrase. A detailed answer key is provided. It includes complete answers, pedagogically useful language components, error labels, and accepted alternatives where appropriate. All examination-style questions are original. The language and task design reflect the demands of C2 Proficiency, while none of the sentences have been reproduced from official past papers. You can also view a free sample unit on our website.

Dark romance is everywhere. I have yet to explore the genre myself, but as someone who is genuinely fascinated with Heathcliff, I do understand the appeal. No matter how creepy, intense, or outright sociopathic such characters become, if they’re written well, their pull is irresistible. Today I’m sharing an article that breaks down why the genre resonates so deeply right now. 👩‍🏫 Quizlet

Who’s looking ridiculously pleased with himself today? Me. Finally finished my essay-writing workbook today. Sixty-three pages of explanations, examples, tasks, and all the other stuff that somehow multiplied while I wasn’t looking. I’ve now sent it off to my colleagues with two simple instructions: “Have a look.” “Be brutally honest.” Now we wait.

The exam season is just around the corner. Many students are frantically working through past papers, hoping to receive their certificates soon. However, calculating the final result from a practice test can be surprisingly difficult. Cambridge publishes grade boundaries on the Cambridge English Scale, but it is not always easy to determine how a particular raw score translates into a Grade A, B or C. It can be even harder to understand what a component score such as 208 in Use of English actually means in relation to your overall performance. There are already several score calculators available online. Some are mathematically reliable, while others are limited by spreadsheet-based calculations. Some require you to install an app, and others are simply not particularly easy to use. That is why we decided to add a simple, practical and user-friendly Cambridge English Scale Calculator to our website. It currently supports the three major Cambridge qualifications from B2 to C2: • B2 First • C1 Advanced • C2 Proficiency The calculator offers two modes: Quick mode, where you can enter the total raw score for each paper, and Detailed mode, where you can enter your results for individual parts, tasks and assessment criteria. The calculator then estimates: • your Cambridge English Scale score for each component; • your overall score; • your likely grade; • your corresponding CEFR level. It is quick, easy to use and, most importantly, completely free.

There are milestones galore: big and small, important and less so. And then there are Milestones - with a capital M. For language teachers, these include universally recognized TESOL qualifications (CELTA and the like), top-tier language certificates (such as a Grade A in the CPE), and, of course, the achievements of our students, who keep coming back to class even after their courses are over. And then there is something even more special: research. In our relatively small ELT world, few can casually say they hold a Candidate of Sciences degree (or, if you prefer, a PhD). Even fewer can say they have it all: teaching methodology qualifications, language certificates, and the status of a researcher. Today, one of our teachers took a major step toward joining that club. Karina successfully sailed though the pre-defense of her Candidate of Sciences dissertation, and I have no doubt that very soon she will add yet another diploma to her already impressive portfolio. Karina, I couldn’t be prouder to have you on our team. To say that you are an indispensable part of AEE would be an understatement. Sending you all the support, love, and positive energy as you take this final step. AEE Students & Faculty

Today, we had the final session of our teacher-training course, Grade Like a Pro: IELTS Writing Task 2 Assessment Practice, where we finalised our understanding of the assessment criteria for IELTS Writing Task 2. Overall, we had three sessions, and even though the course was recorded, I was genuinely happy to see that quite a few people consistently joined the training live. Thank you for your amazing company! Regarding the recordings, though, rumour has it that you can still purchase them on Maria’s website. So, if you teach IELTS or are preparing for the exam yourself, do have a look. Not only do we delve into the world of marking, but there are also quite a few genuinely good essays there that you can use as a starting point.

Today I came across an opinion essay that somehow made me both sad and happy — and more than happy: hopeful. It reads like a personal story about a father–daughter relationship, yet it delves much deeper into the psychology of the author and her father than you might expect.  I loved the raw honesty. Susannah Meadows doesn’t gloss over the damage a parent can do, but she doesn’t vilify her father either. Instead, she shows him with both his flaws and his humanity. Most importantly, she shows how people can salvage a relationship that felt cold or distant for most of their lives — and how both parties are richer for it.  The piece is truly wholesome, and the vocabulary is superb. Give it a read. 👩‍🏫 Quizlet

Dear language enthusiasts, Here's a quick update on courses you can join now:

Beyond Proficiency

Tue 10:00 More info: website Contact Vladimir

Writing: Effective Communication

Tue 18:00 & Sun 10:00 More info: website 🪼

Speaking Club C1+/C2

Thu 19:00

Speaking Club B2+/C1

Sun 12:00 More info: website Contact Karina

Vladimir: Are there any word lists or grammar lists that I need to teach my students for them to successfully pass the FCE or CAE examinations? This is a question we recently received from one of the candidates for the Assessment Technologies course that Susan and I are about to teach. And there’s a quick answer - God, mark my words, I wish all answers were like this - NO. If you’re OK with this answer, you may continue watching reels on Instagram. If you need an explanation, bear with me. You see, language assessment, while not exactly rocket science, is still not that simple. An assessor - or rater - must keep many things in mind while evaluating someone’s productive skills. Most importantly, there are the can-do statements carefully outlined in the CEFR. For example, when it comes to vocabulary use, we can see something like this at C1 level:

“Can select a suitable phrase from a readily available range of discourse functions to express him/herself clearly, without having to restrict what he/she wants to say.”

Sounds nice, doesn’t it? But what does that actually mean? Learning all the words marked “C1” in the Cambridge Dictionary, or Oxford, or both… or neither? Surely, that is not how it works. One candidate may know the word “centenarian” - which, by the way, I once saw in Headway Elementary - while another candidate may never have encountered it. Both, however, will be able to talk about living a long life. One word, ten words, or even a hundred words will not make the difference, because the key lies in the following wording: “select [vocabulary] to express [themselves] clearly”. The same applies to grammar: you will not fail an exam if you do not know how to use inversion in mixed conditionals, nor will you automatically pass simply because you use a cleft sentence. But we can and should use exam preparation books and graded coursebooks to our advantage: they give us a range of TOPICS that students at a particular level are expected to be able to discuss. So, if you are unsure whether you know (or have taught) enough, you can flip through the pages of, for example, the aforementioned Headway Advanced, as well as the lower-level books, and see whether you can participate naturally in discussions based on the questions provided in the various speaking activities throughout the book. If you can easily give an extended answer without searching for words, everything is probably fine. If not - well, you do not need me to tell you what that means. Hope this helps. Why did I decide to write this? Isn’t this exactly what we discuss on our course? Yep. That is exactly what we discuss: can-do statements, their full analysis and their practical application. But we do not sell a shortcut or a magic pill, and we certainly do not want people to have false expectations of our services. Assessment is not black and white, but a palette of numerous colours and shades, and the teacher’s job is to see them all.

Karina: I wish these were photos I've taken this June, but they are in fact images, illustrating a couple of English idioms ☀️ Can you guess which ones?

Ну, бывает и так!