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KET, PET and BEC Activities Menu
These are some suggestions of activities that teachers can conduct with their
students with the aim of familiarizing them with the KET, PET and BEC exams and
the type of skills they will need in order to pass the exam. At the end of the
document, there is a list of the changes introduced this year for the KET and PET
examinations.
KET
1. MMCl@ass – Cambridge Corner – ketmocktest – this ppt provides sts with an
overview of the exam, with the 2004 changes. (This ppt will be updated in the server
at the end of the week, but a copy is being sent via e-mail to the Managers’ /
Secretary’s computer. Nevertheless, the current ppt in the server can be used as
long as teachers are aware that changes have been made for the 2004 exams.)
2. Activity in skills training: Developing awareness of lexical fields and paraphrasing
skills. (Skills needed for Part 6 in Paper 1)
- Ask sts to describe something, as if they didn’t know what the exact word was.
- Tell sts to sit with his/her back to the board, facing the others.
- On board, T. writes a word/ shows picture e.g. scarf
- Class has to help sts guess the word, saying things like, “It’s something you wear
when it’s cold. / You wrap it around your neck.”
PET
1. MMCl@ass – Cambridge Corner – PETmock2004 – this ppt provides sts with an
overview of the exam, with the 2004 changes. (This ppt will be updated in the server
at the end of the week, but a copy is being sent via e-mail to the Managers’ /
Secretary’s computer. Nevertheless, the current ppt in the server can be used as
long as teachers are aware that changes have been made for the 2004 exams.)
2. Activity in skills training: Developing spelling awareness.
- Devise anagram activities and either put these up on the board / ppt / or create an
anagram poster in the classroom. Ideally, the lexis selected should form part of a
lexical field in order to facilitate note-taking, e.g. Education: wokemorh (homework),
tream bike (break time), coshlo becsjuts (school subjects), minufor (uniform), mesax
(exams), etc.
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BEC
1. MMCl@ass – Cambridge Corner – BECVantagemock – this ppt provides sts with an
overview of the exam at Vantage level.
2. “I can talk about...” activity: The idea of this activity is to develop a working
knowledge of some of the topics students might have to talk about, or listen to or
even read about when they are taking a BEC examination. Generally speaking, the
topics are the same at all three levels, but the level of linguistic complexity increases
accordingly. The following questionnaire could be used with students so that they
begin to feel confident about the topics they will have to deal with.
As a BEC candidate, I can:
- Introduce myself and others;
- Describe jobs and responsibilities;
- Arrange meetings and appointments;
- Confirm and change plans;
- Make, accept, reject suggestions or offers;
- Discuss interests and leisure activities;
- Make enquiries, reservations, orders and bookings;
- Answer the phone and make a phone call;
- Negotiate contracts;
- Present and describe a company structure;
- Describe and present a product;
- Ask and give information about a product or service;
- Describe and explain company performance;
- Talk about general business topics
E-pr@ctice for KET / PET / BEC:
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Teachers / Multimedia Centres can make sts aware of activities to be done via Epractice to focus on the KET, PET and BEC exams.
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Exam Centre / Cambridge Exams / The Exam Preparation Guide / PET / Mock
Exam: for those who want to try their hand at one of the Question papers in the test.
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Exam Centre / Cambridge Exams / The Exam Preparation Guide / PET
Language Challenge: Quiz Show / Crossword Puzzles
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BEC candidates may use the PET, FCE and CAE mocks as a guideline of the level
of the language they will be exposed to. However, please remind these students the
examination is business orientated.
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KET and PET 2004 updated examinations
In March 2004, the first candidates will sit the updated KET and PET examinations. The
changes, which are relatively minor, are summarised below.
Key English Test
Reading/Writing
 The previous Part 1 questions 1-5 (short signs and notices with three-option
multiple-choice format) have been removed, as similar text types appear
elsewhere in the paper.
 The previous Part 2 dictionary definition matching exercise has been converted
into a productive task (Part 6 of the updated test).
 There is a new multiple-choice vocabulary section (Part 2 of the updated test).
 The previous Part 7 information transfer exercise now samples a wider range of
input and output text in the updated test (Part 8 of the updated test).
 In the continuous writing question (Part 9 of the updated test), candidates must
now write 25-35 words (as opposed to 20-25 words).
Speaking
 The Personal Question Activities have been removed from Part 2 of the test, so
all candidates will now use the current Non-Personal Question Activity type.
Preliminary English Test
Reading
Part 1 of the test (signs and notices) is now three-option multiple-choice instead of fouroption and samples a wider range of formats, including short personal messages such
as e-mails and 'post-its'.
Writing
 In the Part 1 sentence transformation task, candidates will be given the beginning
and end of the sentence.
 The previous Part 2 form-filling task has been replaced with a guided writing task.
This expands the range of text types that PET students produce in the writing
component.
 In Part 3 (extended writing), there is now a choice of task to reflect the types of
writing that PET-level students are currently producing.
Listening
 Parts 1 and 2 are now three-option multiple-choice (rather than four-option).
Speaking
 Part 1 is now interlocutor-led, but still focuses on the same area of personal
information.