Working as a language teacher, you have to be quick on the uptake, especially if hired by a language school. You might be given a new course book, an adult student who's come to learn English for special purposes, or an exam preparation class when you know very little about the exam. Some teachers specialise in a narrower field. When you are a Jack-of-all-trades, you have nothing but learn super fast and get ready to deliver professional classes. Is it good or bad - that's another question.

When I was given my first CAE student, I had just taken the exam myself, and that was a huge benefit. However, I know teachers who have to prepare students for it without actually taking the exam. If you don't have time for examining every CAE book and website in detail and your first CAE class is, like, in a week, have a glance at these resources. They are what I call a CAE survival kit.

I can't say that I have an all-time favourite book for Advanced exam preparation. Sometimes you have to combine several of them. If you need something to structure the preparation course, try some of these:

Gold Advanced by A. Thomas, L. Edwards, and S. Burgess

Language and skills development, advice on how to deal with exam tasks, communicative speaking activities - all the thing you expect from this kind of coursebook. One thing to mention: English teachers, preparing for CAE themselves, find this book quite easy. So, if your student is a language teacher, add some challenge.

Ready for Advanced by A. French and R. Norris

14 units on general topics, focus on collocations, word formation and vocabulary development, all exam papers covered, advice on exam strategies included.

For extra grammar and vocabulary practice I personally often use the following:

Collocations in Use Advanced by F. O'Dell and M. McCarthy

Add some topical collocations to the units of the coursebook you’ve chosen. That is a good way of enriching vocabulary and practising new words straightaway.

Language Practice for Advanced by M. Vince

Grammar, vocab, punctuation, spelling, inversions, emphasis and what not. Good for self-study and extra homework practice.

Grammar and Vocabulary for Cambridge Advanced and Proficiency by G. Wellman

Grammar explanation with integrated coverage of vocab. Exercises are varied and quite challenging at times.

We can’t do without practice tests, can we? Of course, there is plenty of material of this kind online, but if you opt for the book format, two books below are just what you need:

CAE Testbuilder by A. French

4 practice tests, guidance pages, thorough explanation of the answers. Can be used in class as well as at home.

Cambridge English Advanced trainer

6 practice tests with tips and training pages. All the answers are explained in details, so it can be used for self-preparation too.

Also, check out these online resources:

@ann_b_english Instagram blog. If you can read Russian, you'll find here lots of useful info about CAE prep. Do read the posts about writing, they will give you a clearer idea of what to expect at the exam and how the writings are graded.

www.esl-lounge.com In Student section of the website you’ll find some online practice of Reading and Use of English papers, as well as some writing tasks to do.

www.caeexamtips.com A website run by an English teacher (surprise-surprise). Loads of tips on all the parts of the exam, writing guides with sample grading, common mistakes and educational videos. Don’t miss it!

This kit turned out to be a bit lengthy, but I’m sure you have something to add. What are your favourites?