A language learners’ forum

I‘m going to attend the BEC（V） examination next month，but I do feel that……it's a little hard to get an A.
For I work in the daytime from Mon 2 Fri，it seems that I have plenty of time to prepare for my exam.
not really.
But，I do，really want to get an A！
So，is there any good suggestions on that？Such as methods of expandding vocabulary，or something else helpful？
Thanks for in advance.

That's a little difficult to answer in general terms. Where do you think your greatest weaknesses are? I haven't taken BEC but CAE.

Thanks advance！
I think that speaking will be a little limited for me，cos I don't speak with others in English quite often，specially business English.
Maybe no one to talk with，maybe I need more practice.
I‘m afraid the part of listening would be the weakest of mine.
I began to listen to BBC English News about 1 week ago，found that a little hard to catch the speed of the announcer.
Till now，I did keep on listening to BBC News 1-3Hours everyday，I am not so satisfied with the small progress.
A little confused....
Could you tell me something about your method on the preparation？
Thanks for all！

The only preparation I did was getting familiar with the test setup and structure.

The speaking part of the test is not that hard. In my test I only took about 15-20 minutes and there was one other test taker with me in the room. The examiner asked simple questions, like what music do you like or describe the feelings of the people in this picture. After speaking for about a minute I was interrupted and asked another question.

Obviously, you need to be familiar with business-related vocabulary. That's something you can prepare quite well in advance. For the speaking part, I imagine they will ask you to introduce yourself, your skills and working experience as you were in an interview. Or maybe, they'll ask you to image you were in a telephone conversation with a supplier. These are things you practice already on your own.

When you listen to the BBC and they are interviewing somebody, try to answer the questions they ask, or give an oral summary of the topic they covered.

Wow！
So grateful for all the experiencs and opinions you share！

micoyeung wrote:Thanks advance！
I think that speaking will be a little limited for me，cos I don't speak with others in English quite often，specially business English.
Maybe no one to talk with，maybe I need more practice.
I‘m afraid the part of listening would be the weakest of mine.
I began to listen to BBC English News about 1 week ago，found that a little hard to catch the speed of the announcer.
Till now，I did keep on listening to BBC News 1-3Hours everyday，I am not so satisfied with the small progress.

I don't know what you are listening to exactly, but have you tried BBC World Service?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio

It has always been my impression that the speed of delivery was a little lower than in their domestic services.

And if you haven't tried it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4

It includes news and discussions about the news, but also many other types of programme; some serious, others less so. It tends to be standard RP British English , but not always.

And some podcasts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts

micoyeung wrote:I‘m going to attend the BEC（V） examination next month，but I do feel that……it's a little hard to get an A.
For I work in the daytime from Mon 2 Fri，it seems that I have plenty of time to prepare for my exam.
not really.
But，I do，really want to get an A！
So，is there any good suggestions on that？Such as methods of expandding vocabulary，or something else helpful？
Thanks for in advance.

If you are planning to gain a B2 certificate in business English you need to tighten up your writing. For example, you leave spaces before punctuation, and this instantly makes your writing appear as broken as if you were stuttering in speech. Fortunately that should be easy to fix. Since the certificate is in Business English you should also eliminate colloquialisms like "cos" from your writing. They can work in social media but in formal communication they look unprofessional.

My advice would be to write something every day in Lang-8, and let people know that you are aiming to write for a business English exam. I had to look up what a BEC is, so simply telling native English speakers that you plan to sit a BEC exam is not enough information.

Montmorency wrote:

micoyeung wrote:Thanks advance！
I think that speaking will be a little limited for me，cos I don't speak with others in English quite often，specially business English.
Maybe no one to talk with，maybe I need more practice.
I‘m afraid the part of listening would be the weakest of mine.
I began to listen to BBC English News about 1 week ago，found that a little hard to catch the speed of the announcer.
Till now，I did keep on listening to BBC News 1-3Hours everyday，I am not so satisfied with the small progress.

I don't know what you are listening to exactly, but have you tried BBC World Service?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio

It has always been my impression that the speed of delivery was a little lower than in their domestic services.

And if you haven't tried it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4

It includes news and discussions about the news, but also many other types of programme; some serious, others less so. It tends to be standard RP British English , but not always.

And some podcasts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts

Thanks for all the suggestions and websites you provided！
I will give my best shot！
Thanks！

jeffers wrote:

micoyeung wrote:I‘m going to attend the BEC（V） examination next month，but I do feel that……it's a little hard to get an A.
For I work in the daytime from Mon 2 Fri，it seems that I have plenty of time to prepare for my exam.
not really.
But，I do，really want to get an A！
So，is there any good suggestions on that？Such as methods of expandding vocabulary，or something else helpful？
Thanks for in advance.

If you are planning to gain a B2 certificate in business English you need to tighten up your writing. For example, you leave spaces before punctuation, and this instantly makes your writing appear as broken as if you were stuttering in speech. Fortunately that should be easy to fix. Since the certificate is in Business English you should also eliminate colloquialisms like "cos" from your writing. They can work in social media but in formal communication they look unprofessional.

My advice would be to write something every day in Lang-8, and let people know that you are aiming to write for a business English exam. I had to look up what a BEC is, so simply telling native English speakers that you plan to sit a BEC exam is not enough information.

As you say，I am a bit casual when speaking in English.

You remind me of that：sometimes I have a habit of making sentences beyond the standard grammar，all I want is to get my audiences understood. As time passes，I also keep a similar habit of writing，maybe this is an invisible factor so that I ignored it. But now I realize it is really important！

And I appreciate your advice and decide to carry out it——write something related to business English everyday in Land-8 or in my notebook，try to express more professionally.

Thanks for your detailed advice，it helps me a lot！

micoyeung wrote:And I appreciate your advice and decide to carry out it——write something related to business English everyday in Land-8 or in my notebook，try to express more professionally.

I'm glad you've found my advice helpful. But the reason for writing in Lang-8 is that your writing will be given corrections by native speakers. In most cases I have found individuals point out mistakes, explain the mistakes, and the best correctors also give tips on avoiding similar mistakes. You can't get that from a notebook!