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The Official FirstCertificate Guide

www.firstcertificate.net

Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 The Basics ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Logging in .................................................................................................................................. 3 Homepage ................................................................................................................................. 4 Learning and Practising ............................................................................................................. 5 Configuration ............................................................................................................................ 6 Downloads ................................................................................................................................ 7 Statistics .................................................................................................................................... 8 How to progress through the course ........................................................................................ 9 Support ........................................................................................................................................ 10

User Guide

Introduction
Hello, welcome! Im Claire and one of the creators of this programme. In the next few minutes youll learn more about me, and the First Certificate programme. Im originally from the old roman city of Bath in the South West of England and have been teaching English for more than 10 years. Teaching English is not just a job for me, its more of my passion and a way of life. I have just proofread a book that my boss has written (mostly in phrasal verbs, believe it or not) about the pre-Hispanic inhabitants of the Canary Islands. Our new online method FirstCertificate.net is intended to get your English grammar into the best possible shape for the Cambridge First Certificate Examination. First Certificate is different from other courses, because we are a team of dedicated native English speakers with more than 100 years of combined experience between us. The content of this programme has been written and rewritten over many years to assure that you can prepare yourself extensively for the First Certificate exam easily, in a short time and in the right way. First Certificate is organised in zones, each compromising of a lesson and an exercise. The objective is to get 500 points in an exercise or complete it 3 times with 0 errors. On the statistics page you will be able to see how well you have done in the exercises and know what you need to work on to prepare yourself for the exam. I recommend that you study for 20 minutes each day practising the exercises and read each lesson well to understand the topic before practising. Were now ready to go, are you? I hope youre excited! And remember, a lesson per day. Its the easy way! So, here we go !

The Basics

 User Guide

Logging in
To log in our course you just have to go on the www.firstcertificate.net website and then click on Access for Students on the top right corner:

Next a form will appear, put your username and password and then click on Log in.

 User Guide

Homepage
Once youve logged in, you will see the First Certificate homepage which is composed of: 1. The main panel, with this panel you can access to Home, Statistics Configuration, Dictionary, Downloads and Log out. 2. The Grammar part. You dispose of 4 units in this part, each unit contains 9 zones and each zone consists of a lesson and an exercise where you can practise what youve learnt. 3. The Reading part consists of an exercise mainly based on the use of Modal Verbs.

 User Guide

Learning and Practising

To start reading the lessons and practise what youve learnt, simply go on section 2 and click on the zone you want to study or practise. Next you will be asked whether you want to go to the lesson or do the exercise.

The instructions of the exercise will be shown. After reading them you can set the time per question (maximum 60 seconds), and then start practising!! If you want to practise your Reading Comprehension just click on section 3 on the homepage, read the instructions and set the time per question!

 User Guide

Configuration

Click on Configuration on section 1. The next page will appear; there youll be able to change your personal details and password. To modify them: Change all you want to change on your personal details. Click on save changes.

To change your password, just type in your current password in the Write a Password field. Write a new password in the corresponding field. Once again type in your new password and click on change password.

 User Guide

Downloads
In Downloads you will find some extra useful material that youll be given through the course, such as the User Guide youre reading, eBooks to help you improve specific pitfalls, etc.

 User Guide

Statistics

The Statistics page could be said to be one of the most important pages on the whole course as it gives you detailed statistics on your progress and evolution. Are you improving? What do you need to work on? How much work have you been doing? The below screenshot shows you exactly what a progress graph could look like, you can see how it shows what score the user has accumulated in each exercise and how they got better and/or worse.

 User Guide

How to progress through the course

First Certificate is an English course conceded to prepare the grammar part of the First Certificate exam. At the end of the course theres a review where you can revise everything youve learnt. We recommend you study these 36 units in chronological order, and moving on to the next one until youve achieved 500 points in the current unit. There are two ways to get 500 points; you will be given 500 points if you make no mistakes in 3 consecutive sets of questions (each set is composed of 20 questions); or you can just do the exercises and accumulate points as you go. Notice that depending on the accumulated points youve reached, the minimum score you have to get on each exercise will be increased, according to the following table: Remember that every time you do a set of questions, your session is saved on the statistics page. Therefore you dont need to worry about doing 3 sets with 0 errors all in one go, you can do one in the morning, another one in the afternoon and another one before you go to bed.
Your score

0-99 100-199 200-299 300-399 400-499

Minimum number of right answers in each set 10 12 14 16 18

Support

For further information about our course or questions you may have please do not hesitate and contact us via email support@firstcertificate.net