International English Qualifications Frequently Asked Questions

Examination preparation

Does the learner have to do a preparatory course before sitting the exam?

It is not compulsory for learners to take a course before sitting our examinations, although we do recommend that a centre should provide their learners with a certain degree of preparation beforehand.

Generally speaking, learners benefit greatly from having completed a course prior to taking the exam. It is, however, entirely up to the centre how they chose to organise this - for example the course could be aimed at actually raising the learners' level of English or solely focused on providing practice of the tasks that the learners will meet in the exam.

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Do City & Guilds provide learning / support materials?

Each International English Qualification has a qualification handbook which lists the syllabus and provides sample papers, and often worked examples, at each level.

Current versions of the handbooks and free sample papers are on this CD in the resources section for each qualification. They are also available for download from www.cityandguilds.com/ieq.

For International ESOL & Spoken ESOL City & Guilds have published a suite of exam practice Student and Teacher's books for learners and teachers that can be purchased directly from City & Guilds. For more information and to order materials, please see the web or email: learningmaterials@cityandguilds.com.

For International ESOL & Spoken ESOL there is also a CD set of sample papers.

We also provide the online service SmartScreen to supportlearners and teachers as they prepare for City & Guilds IEQs.

For ACE, our teaching qualification, there are a set of FELT (Foundations of English Language Teaching) booklets, produced by City & Guilds which are made available upon registration for the qualification.

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Do the learners have to follow a certain course book?

They do not have to complete a particular text book, although we strongly recommend that they cover the exam preparation materials contained in the City & Guilds Student books before taking the exam.

If the learners need to considerably improve their level of English, there are a number of general English course books that can be used alongside our exam practice books such as Headway, Cutting Edge etc.

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Do you recommend any specific course books?

The list of suggested materials is currently being updated and will soon be available on the website.

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Where can I buy the City & Guilds learning materials?

You can order the City & Guilds published exam practice books from the Branch Office, from your localrepresentative, from our website (please see above) or by e-mailing learningmaterials@cityandguilds.com.

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Is there support material available on the Internet?

City & Guilds website offers a range of material to download free of charge (eg sample papers, syllabus, exam tips etc). In addition, centres can subscribe to a SmartScreen service that will give access student & teacher materials (see www.smartscreen.co.uk for details).

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Are there any sample exam papers?

We provide at least one sample paper per level of exam free of charge on this CD and the City & Guilds website.

For English for Business Communications and English for Office Skills there are additional copies of sample papers available in a separate handbook (available on the www.cityandguilds.com/ieq).

For International ESOL & Spoken ESOL qualifications there is also a CD set of sample papers available to buy.

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