Ready, Set, Score: Exam Preparation Textbooks

You’ve likely come across a list of books used to prepare you for various exams such as IELTS, TOEFL, and a number of Cambridge English qualifications. I thought it prudent to further expand on why those books are selected, how they fit into our study programmes and what my experience with them has been. So whether you are a fellow educator, or a student and have a passion for textbooks, I hope to see you in the comments section, where you can share your own experience.

"Oxford Preparation Course for the TOEFL iBT Exam"

Much like any other test of English knowledge, the TOEFL exam is aimed at assessing students’ competence in the four skills; reading, listening, writing, and speaking. The first thing that you’ll find in pretty much any book we use for exam preparation is a detailed overview of each section of the exam. That’s definitely true of the Oxford Preparation Course. The book then goes on to meticulously break down each type of exercise and give practical advice to students on how to best approach the exam in order to minimise risk.

In my experience, this is quite important since some students, no matter how many mocks and dry runs they have done, tend to let their nerves get the best of them on the day of the exam and lose many easy points that they should be getting to guarantee them hitting the proficiency level required for gaining admission to the degree programme or course of their choice. While other books also give similar breakdowns of exercises and provide students with real exercises from past papers, what sets the Oxford Preparation Course apart is how all the materials are sorted by topic, in a fashion that’s reminiscent of many a general English course book.

"Complete IELTS Bands 6.5-7.5" by Cambridge English; "The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS for Academic and General Training" by Cambridge English

When it comes to the IELTS exam, we have to keep in mind that there are two versions: Academic and General Training. This allows us to pick the most suitable materials for each student/group. Much like TOEFL, the exam is not level dependent, and assigns students a band upon completion that can be converted into a CEFR level. As most institutions require a band 6 result or higher we tend to use preparatory materials adjusted to bands 6 and 7.

It is important to also point out to students that those bands roughly translate to B2-C1 CEFR levels, and that the timeframe for preparing for the exam should be adjusted according to the students’ needs. Additionally, test-takers that are seeking to gain admission to universities and other educational institutions will most certainly have to take the academic version of the exam.

While there is no difference between the listening and speaking sections of the exam, the writing and reading tasks are going to vary significantly. Hence, for academic IELTS preparation we use the Complete IELTS series. The books offer a very comprehensive list of exercises taken from real exams, sorted into compact topics targeting specific grammar and vocabulary. We also use other materials such as The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS, targeted at a slightly broader range of levels than any of the books in the Complete IELTS series. This book is quite manageable for lower level students that want to give themselves as much time as possible to tackle exam preparation or simple are not faced with such stringent requirements and can get away with a band 5.5 score. It primarily focuses on breaking down the exercises and giving students a solid foundation. Therefore it is my go-to book for students that feel that other course books are either lacking in exam focus or are two intensive.

"Ready For C1 Advanced" by Macmillan; "Complete Advanced" by Cambridge English

Last but not least, we have the range of Cambridge English qualifications, most popular of which are the FCE and CAE qualifications, proving B2 and C1 command of English respectively. For these, we tend to stick to two excellent series of books. Those that have glanced through the other sections of the article will have already heard of the first - the Complete series, made up of Complete First and Complete Advanced, for FCE and CAE respectively.

In addition to the aforementioned series, the Ready For books are good substitutes and come recommended by some students that feel the Complete series books don’t offer enough of a challenge, in particular the reading and listening tasks. However, I am of the opinion that the content in both series of books is roughly the same in complexity, so any perceived differences are rather negligible.

I hope that you found this little roundup of exam preparation textbooks useful. If you're interested in learning more, feel free to share your own experiences in the comments section.