Blank Page Syndrome - Use of English Part 4

Hello!
Can you believe that it's already Thursday? Time flies and with every day that passes you become closer to your exam date. But, for you this isn't a problem as every day that you've completed your training, you've become more confident in you ablities. 
Hey, we could almost call you a native :)

However there is stil one part of the exam that still haunts you. When marking exams I often see the syndrome known as 'BLANK PAGE'. This is why today's training will once again centre itself around Part 4 - Key word transformations. Here's a remind of what you'll find in this part.

So, what is so scary about this part? What stops you from putting pen to paper? 
Well, you needn't be so scared. 

Tips
  • NEVER leave the question un-answered! Even if you get the answer a little bit wrong, you can still achieve 50% of the mark availiable for each question. 
  • Practice. A lot! Some of the structures use in this part are repeated often. So with practice you'll start to recoginise these more easily.
  • Use 2-5 words.
  • Contractions count as 2 words.
  • Spelling is important.
Here are 4 simple steps to follow.
    1. Match the repeated information that you find in both sentences. This is how you can then see what's missing from the second sentence.
    2. Analyse the structures used in both sentences, look for verb patterns, phrasal verbs, tenses, position of the prepositions, etc.
    3. Now try adding some words to the sentence and repeat step 1, matching like for like. Is there any word in the 1st sentence you haven't used?
    4. Read the sentence again.
Remember the more you practice this process, the better and the faster you'll become at this part of the exam. 
Although this process is no short cut and you should revise the grammar structures used in the part. They include: conditionals and wishes, passives, reported speech, present perfect/simple past, model verbs, comparatives , so/such, phrasal verbs, verb patterns, etc.
Click the next link to practice and revise any of the above.
or

And now to put the 4 steps into action. Click on the links below to practice, practice, practice ;)



And that's it! Give yourselves a pat on the back, you've completed yet another day of productive training.

See you soon :)

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