writing an essay in the b2 first exam is
not difficult really it's not if you
know what and what not
to do my name is toby this is smash
english and here are the five biggest
most common mistakes that students make
when writing their essay for the v2
first exam
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one of the criteria that the examiners
are marking your essays on is called
content this is about two things one if
the content of your essay is relevant to
the topic and question
and two
if the target reader is informed being
informed here means that the examiner
can understand the topic the question
and the three prompts of the essay by
reading your essay if your essay is too
short then you cannot include all the
details necessary to write the essay and
also you're not including enough
material for the examiner to assess
remember the examiner is trying to
assess your language if you don't
produce enough then how can the examiner
market on the other hand
if your answer is too long then you will
start including irrelevant information
and this will reduce your marks for
content furthermore if you write in very
long sentences and add lots of
unnecessary words this can make your
essay harder to follow and this can hurt
your marks for communicative achievement
but we will talk about that later so
please try to aim for between 140 to 109
words an easy way to do this is to write
two sentences in your introduction three
sentences about your first prompt three
sentences about your second prompt three
sentences about your third prompt and
three sentences in your conclusion if
you do that your word count will be
about right do not count your words in
the exam you do not have time to spend
counting words no what are you doing
don't do that
when you're writing your essay ask
yourself this question can the examiner
understand the topic the question and
the prompts by reading the essay if the
answer is no then i'm sorry but you need
to start again an easy way to ensure the
examiner can understand the topic and
the question is to include that
information in your introduction i
always tell my students to introduce
their essay with a general statement
about the topic not about the question
but about the topic for example if the
essay is about whether sports in school
should be obligatory they could write a
statement about how important sport is
then i ask my students to rephrase the
question
this means you take the question and you
write it again but this time in your own
words this way the examiner can
understand the topic and the question
your essay is answering after only the
first two sentences this is great for
your marks in content and also for
organization and communicative
achievement because you have a clear
introduction to your essay yeah don't
forget the introduction making sure you
talk about each prompt is easy your
essay should be five paragraphs long the
first paragraph of course is your
introduction the last paragraph is your
conclusion so this leaves three
paragraphs one for each prompt that way
you can never forget to include one
i know planning is boring when i was at
school i did not plan anything when i
was at university i didn't really plan
either yeah i shouldn't be telling you
that should i but you must if you want
to get top marks for communicative
achievement here the examiner is
assessing you to see if you can hold the
reader's attention that means that your
ideas are logical and easy to follow
not only within paragraphs but also
between paragraphs this means that the
body of your paragraphs must be logical
so open each of your paragraphs with a
statement follow this by an explanation
and then conclude with an example or
perhaps an example of a solution to a
problem depending on what the question
is why don't we look at an example
obesity is becoming an increasing
problem in society
do you think this problem can be solved
write about one junk food
two education
three your own idea
this question is asking whether we
believe there is a solution to a problem
we should try to mention possible
examples of solutions for each prompt
let's look at a possible paragraph about
junk food firstly one of the reasons
people are putting on weight is diet
today's modern lifestyle often means
people do not have the time to prepare
meals at home and so they need to eat
pre-cooked meals which are often
unhealthy if food companies decided to
reduce the salt and fat content of their
foods perhaps this problem could be
avoided
here we have a statement followed by an
explanation which links the prompt to
the question and finally an example of a
possible solution
there is a logical progression to the
paragraph
the reader can easily understand the
thought process of the writer but it
gets more complicated not only do we
need to be logical within paragraphs but
also logical between paragraphs for
example the last paragraph we saw was
about junk food and its relation to
obesity can this problem be solved
well i want my next paragraph to be
about education
but to do that i must somehow link
junk food consumption and education so
there is a logical development in my
argument so all the prompts are somehow
linked together so in this example maybe
we could talk about how in school they
should educate children about having a
healthy diet then after that i want my
next paragraph to be sport so i could
talk about how sport should be
compulsory in school this is why you
must plan you must think of your own
prompt and then you need to order the
prompts before you start writing so you
can connect to them all logically in the
essay if you do this you will score
fantastically in communicative
achievement so please do it
one way to avoid over simplification is
not being too personal don't talk about
yourself and don't talk about how the
issues relate to you instead talk about
them generally talk about society for
example if you have a question about
pollution don't talk about how you
recycle or about how the area where you
live is dirty and polluted but instead
talk about how everyone could or should
be recycling to reduce waste globally
only make things personal and about you
in the conclusion where you can finally
give your opinion oh yeah and don't give
your opinion before the conclusion oh
the amount of times i have seen essays
begin with the word i oh my gosh don't
do that
another way to talk about complex ideas
is to use hypothetical language
speculative language use unreal tenses
this means use modal verbs and use
unreal conditionals like the second
conditional or the third conditional
it's not that difficult to do let's have
a look at an example
here a possible solution is given to the
problem
but instead of saying if food companies
reduce salt and fat content the problem
will be solved it is presented
hypothetically with a second conditional
this is what examiners mean by complex
ideas and they are necessary to score
high marks
be hypothetical
be speculative
instead of talking about what is
talk about what could be or what should
be
of course one of the criteria that the
examiners are looking at is called
language wow how surprising in order to
pass with high marks you must use some
less common lexis this basically means
specialized language about specific
topics topics that are less familiar to
you this is why when planning because
you're going to plan i tell my students
to write a list of vocabulary that they
can think of about the topic in general
and also about the prompts then they can
choose some of this vocabulary when they
are writing their essay to score higher
marks
for example this essay question is about
obesity
so some general vocabulary could be
putting on weight
overweight
lose weight get in shape
sedentary lifestyle
the first prompt is junk food
so vocabulary could be saturated fat
high salt content high sugar content
fattening
the second prompt is education so we
could have
educational institutions curriculum
assignments
for the third prompt i have chosen the
topic sports
so potential vocabulary could be active
lifestyle team sports
working towards a goal to be highly
motivated
now of course you don't have to use lots
and lots of less common lexis this is a
b2 exam just three or four words would
be enough however plan so you don't
leave the exam room and think ah put on
weight
great that's a great expression why
didn't i use that oh yes because i
didn't plan so what you need to remember
is number one try not to write too many
or too few words try to stick between
140 to 190 and don't count your words to
check that's ridiculous you don't have
time make sure you include every single
prompt and make sure you answer the
question remember the examiner should be
able to understand the topic the
question and the prompts by reading your
answer and number three
plan your essay this is vital to ensure
that your essay is logical both within
the paragraphs and between them number
four
don't simplify things
don't make things too personal try to
keep things general don't talk about
what is but talk about what could be or
what should be use unreal tenses second
conditionals and third conditionals this
is good for your language because you
will get higher marks for grammar and
it's also good for communicative
achievement because you are talking
about complex issues and number five use
less common lexis related to the topic
do you notice how in your english books
everything is organized by a topic one
module might be on the environment the
next on diet and food the next one on
sport the next on jobs well this is why
it's organized that way so you have
these word groups in your head that you
can reproduce at a time like this so
please put it to good use and with that
we are finished now you know the five
biggest mistakes to avoid when writing
your essay for the b2 first cambridge
exam if you liked the video don't forget
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my name is toby and this
was smash
english
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you