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British Council Club Card – new benefit for loyal members

From September 2011 brings British Council new benefit for our Loyalty programme members. Enjoy the card full of advantages! Take your advantage when shopping and using services of our partners. Get British Council Club Card! Click here for more information.

Addvantage Award Ceremony
Addvantage Award Ceremony: the award ceremony of the Addvantage loyalty program for teachers of primary and secondary schools took place on 22 June at the British Council in Prague. Teachers with the highest number of registered candidates for Cambridge exams at the British Council were rewarded. Prizes included a trip to Cambridge, a summer language course at the British Council, an exam of English language of their choice, and more. The program is for everyone who registeres at least 10 candidates per school year for any British Council exam. The programme is open to all primary and secondary schools throughout the Czech Republic and will continue in September again. We look forward to your participation! Read more.
Extended certification

From March 2011, Cambridge ESOL is making further enhancements in the way candidates’ results for many of the Cambridge exams will be presented. The process is called “Extended certification”.

Extended certification’ will give candidates additional credit for the language skills they have demonstrated and a clearer picture of how results relate to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

Extended certification applies to:

  • Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)
  • Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE)
  • Cambridge English: First (FCE)
  • Cambridge English: Preliminary (PET) and Preliminary for Schools
  • Cambridge English: Key (KET) and Key for Schools
  • Business English Certificates: Preliminary, Vantage and Higher (BEC)

A candidate who performs particularly well in the exams can get credit at a higher level on the CEFR. For example, candidates who get grade A in ‘Cambridge English: Advanced‘ receive a ‘CAE’ certificate indicating that they are at C2 level.

Candidates can also receive credit for their English language skills, even if they do not achieve a passing grade. So a candidate who does not get enough marks for a grade C in ‘Cambridge English: Advanced‘ can still be awarded a certificate showing performance at level B2 if they show this level of ability in the exam.

Extended certification will be rolled out for all the exams listed above during 2011, with most of the new certification arrangements in place for exams in March 2011.

NEW NAMES OF CAMBRIDGE EXAMS

Cambridge ESOL have renamed their well known Cambridge exams. Newly the umbrella term “Cambridge English” will now be used, followed by the appropriate level. The new title was chosen for a simpler and more powerful way to promote Cambridge exams, products and services, avoiding the use of acronyms.

KET = Cambridge English : Key

PET = Cambridge English : Preliminary

FCE = Cambridge English : First

CAE = Cambridge English : Advanced

CPE = Cambridge English : Proficiency

KET for Schools = Cambridge English: Key for schools

PET for Schools = Cambridge English: Preliminary for schools

FCE for Schools = Cambridge English: First for schools

Verify a Cambridge ESOL certificate
The University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations launched a Results Verification Service to help organisations, individuals and agencies to validate candidates' Cambridge ESOL examination results. The service is free of charge.
Anyone can use this free service once they have been given permission to verify a result by the certificate holder. The service offers all examinations results gathered from 2005 inclusively. The Results Verification Service might also be useful for universities that would like to confirm students' English language qualifications.
New sample tests for PET, FCE, CAE and CPE in Braill
British Council has recently provided sample papers for PET, FCE, CAE and CPE in Braill. All sightless candidates can take advantage of this possibility. For more information please contact Pavla Stara - pavla.stara@britishcouncil.cz.
FREE 30 HOURS ONLINE PREPARATION
FOR BRITISH COUNCIL IELTS CANDIDATES

http://www.ieltspractice.com/Clarity/RoadToIELTS/login.php

We have launched extra examination preparation benefits for registered IELTS candidates. The self-study preparation course ‘Road to IELTS’, written by the British Council, is now available online in the Czech Republic as a free added-value service for their IELTS candidates. The course takes the test candidate through all four parts of the test; reading, listening, speaking and writing.  The material gives explanations of question types, provides tips on how to handle the tasks and provides online scoring of exercises so that candidates can assess their level and progress. In the speaking section, sample videos take the learner through each stage of the speaking test.

‘Road to IELTS Online’ is available now and is open to any person who has registered for an IELTS test with the British Council in the Czech Republic.

For more information click here.

Take a computer-based exam

The first computer-based FCE exam was held in Prague in November. For the spring session computer–based exams for PET and CAE are also available. Come and try out a computer-based exam in our Study Centre before deciding if you would prefer this method. More information on computer-based testing can be found here.

We are pleased to announce that practice tests for CB FCE and CB CAE are now available to download from the Cambridge ESOL public website. These practice tests are intended to give candidates the opportunity to see the types of items which will appear in the live CB tests and to see what a full CB test will be like.

New loyalty programme Addvantage for teachers

From September 2009 we are introducing a new loyalty programme for teachers at primary and secondary schools. If you do a block registration for exams you will receive many benefits. There are special rewards prepared for you!

To read more please click here.

NEW PRODUCT: KET and PET for Schools

In the registration for the summer exams session we are introducing two new types of exams.

Cambridge University has developed new types of exam focused especially on schools, i.e. for age group 11 to 14 - KET and PET for Schools. They follow exactly the same format as KET and PET. The level of the question papers is also identical. The only difference is that the content and treatment of topics in KET and PET for Schools have been particularly targeted at the interests and experience of school pupils. It increases their motivation to learn English. Because it is based on topics and situations familiar to students, KET/PET for Schools gives pupils the confidence to use their English. Passing KET/PET for Schools inspires pupils to move on to further qualifications.

For more information please click here or visit a Cambridge ESOL website www.CambridgeESOL.org.

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