Part 1: Form Completion
What Part 1 is
A conversation between two people in an everyday situation - booking accommodation, joining a gym, reporting lost luggage.
You complete a form, a table or a set of notes with names, numbers, dates, addresses and times. These are the most predictable marks in the entire test, and strong candidates expect to get all ten.
That expectation is exactly the danger. Part 1 marks are lost to spelling, to plurals, and to writing three words where the instructions allowed two - almost never to comprehension.
The correction trap
This is deliberate, it appears in nearly every Part 1, and it catches people who write the first thing they hear.
The speaker gives an answer and then changes it. “My number is 07700 900 461 - sorry, no, that is my old one, it is 900 641.” The answer is the second one.
Listen for the repair signals: sorry, actually, no wait, I mean, let me check that. When you hear one, cross out what you wrote. Never write your answer until the speaker has finished the thought.
Read the instruction before anything else
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER is an instruction, not a suggestion.
- Three words where two were allowed scores zero, even if the meaning is perfect.
- A hyphenated word (car-park) counts as one word. A number written as digits (25) counts as a number, not a word.
- Contractions count as one word, but avoid them - write the full form.
- Copy the spelling exactly as you hear it spelled out. If the speaker spells a surname, that spelling is the answer, however unusual it looks.
What to do in the preparation time
You get around 30 seconds before the recording starts. Used properly, this is worth two or three marks.
- Read every gap and decide what kind of word is missing - a name, a number, a date, a time, a price, a plural noun.
- Predict the form. If the gap follows “a”, it is singular. If it follows a number, it is plural. If it follows a preposition, it is probably a place.
- Underline the word just before each gap - that is your cue in the audio that the answer is coming next.
- Note the units already printed on the form. If the gap says £___, do not write the pound sign again.
Spelling that is tested every time
Part 1 will contain at least one of these. Practise them until they are automatic.
The alphabet
The confusable pairs are A/E/I, B/P/V, G/J, M/N, and S/F/X. British speakers say “zed”, not “zee”. Double letters are usually said as “double L”.
Numbers
Thirteen and thirty, fourteen and forty, and so on - the stress moves. THIR-teen has stress on the first part in careful speech; thir-TY does not. Listen for the final consonant.
Dates
Both “the fourth of June” and “June the fourth” are used. Write it however the form is laid out.
Addresses and postcodes
Street types are frequently tested: Road, Street, Avenue, Lane, Drive, Close, Crescent. Postcodes are read as letters and digits with a pause in the middle.
Useful language for this lesson
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