Module 10 · Mock Exam 3 & Final CPE Simulation · Lesson 38
After the Mock Closing the Gaps
Genuine lesson: targeted reformulation and register polish
Warm-up · Section 1
4 minGet talking
In ONE minute: compare your Mock 1, Mock 2 and Mock 3 evidence sheets. Where is the cleanest measurable gain? Where is the persistent gap?
If you could install ONE named fix per paper for the real exam, what would it be? Use course language ('commit at 15s', not 'work on it').
In the last week before an exam, candidates are tempted to LEARN NEW THINGS. Why is that a Band-killer — and what should you do instead?
Grammar focus · Section 2
8 minReformulation — converting a Band-3 sentence into Band-5 in ONE move
Quick rule
Reformulation is taking a sentence YOU wrote and replacing it with a sentence a Band-5 candidate would have written for the same content. It's faster than re-learning and more reliable than 'try harder'. Five canonical moves: (1) FLAT → CALIBRATED ('will' → 'is highly likely to'); (2) GENERIC → SPECIFIC ('a problem' → 'a structural issue'); (3) STATEMENT → CLEFT ('Funding caused it' → 'It was funding that caused it'); (4) ASSERTION → CONCESSION+COUNTER ('X is true' → 'X holds for most cases, though…'); (5) HEDGE-STACK → SINGLE-CLAIM ('I think maybe it could possibly' → 'On the balance of the evidence, this is likely'). One move per sentence; visible substitution; the same word count.
Examples
FLAT → CALIBRATED: 'This will be a problem.' → 'This is highly likely to become a problem in the short term.'
GENERIC → SPECIFIC: 'It's an issue.' → 'It's a structural issue — funding allocation, not policy intent.'
STATEMENT → CLEFT: 'The committee made the wrong call.' → 'It was the committee's underlying assumption, not the call itself, that was wrong.'
ASSERTION → CONCESSION+COUNTER: 'Public consultation always helps.' → 'Public consultation helps in roughly four cases out of five; the exception is the substantive minority that the lag period exists to address.'
HEDGE-STACK → SINGLE-CLAIM: 'I sort of think maybe it might possibly be the case that…' → 'On the balance of the evidence, this is likely rather than certain.'
Quick check
Question 1.Best CALIBRATED reformulation of 'This will be a problem':
Question 2.Best CLEFT reformulation of 'The committee made the wrong call':
Question 3.Best CONCESSION+COUNTER reformulation of 'Public consultation always helps':
Question 4.Why does ONE move per sentence work better than rewriting wholesale?
Question 5.Which five sentences should you prioritise for reformulation?
Vocabulary · Section 3
6 minWords & phrases to own
to reformulate (a sentence)
to keep the content and word count but install one canonical move that lifts the band
e.g. Reformulating the opener with one calibration move is a 20-minute, repeatable band-shift.
Use it now
Pick ONE of your Mock-3 sentences and reformulate it now.
↻ Recycled in writing
the marker word
the single C1+ word/phrase examiners reward as evidence of register control
e.g. 'On the balance of the evidence' is a marker phrase — its presence raises the band ceiling.
Use it now
List THREE marker phrases you used in Mock 3 — and THREE you missed.
↻ Recycled in reading
the one-page protocol
the single sheet you walk into the exam with — five named fixes, one anchor sentence
e.g. My one-page protocol is on my desk. It's the only sheet I'll re-read the morning of.
Use it now
Draft your protocol header now.
↻ Recycled in exam-skills
the closer line
the final sentence of a Writing task — most heavily weighted in marker first-impression
e.g. A cleft closer ('It is the framing, not the choice, that matters') reliably lifts the band.
Use it now
Reformulate one of your Mock-3 closers using a cleft.
↻ Recycled in writing
last-week prioritisation
the discipline of doing LESS in the last week before exam day, not more
e.g. Last-week prioritisation: ONE fix per paper, drilled five times, and nothing new.
Use it now
List the ONE thing you'll STOP doing this week.
↻ Recycled in conversation
the band ceiling
the highest band you can reliably hit — set by register, not vocabulary
e.g. My band ceiling is 4.5 today; the protocol closes the half-band to 5.
Use it now
Name YOUR band ceiling honestly — and the ONE fix that lifts it.
↻ Recycled in exam-skills
Pair / group discussion
- Which of the five reformulation moves do you NATURALLY reach for, and which feels foreign?
- What's the ONE marker phrase from this course you want at your fingertips on exam day?
Complete each stem about yourself
- My most-used reformulation move is ______; the one I avoid is ______.…
- My marker phrase for opener is ______; for closer is ______.…
- My one-page protocol fits on ______ and contains ______.…
- What I'll STOP doing this last week is ______.…
Rank & justify
Rank by which reformulation move produces the biggest band-shift per minute of editing:
- FLAT → CALIBRATED
- GENERIC → SPECIFIC
- STATEMENT → CLEFT
- ASSERTION → CONCESSION+COUNTER
- HEDGE-STACK → SINGLE-CLAIM
Quick write (60 seconds)
Write your 25-word last-week rule starting 'In the last week, I will ___ and I will NOT ___ because ___'.
Pronunciation · Section 4
3 minThe closer-line cadence — sounding finished, not trailing
Closer lines are the most-marked sentence in a Writing or Speaking task. They should LAND — not trail. The cadence is: slight pause before the closer, even stress through the main clause, falling intonation on the final syllable. In writing, the equivalent is short rhythm + cleft structure + final-position emphasis. Drill the cadence aloud — even silently — until the closer always lands.
- PAUSE ↘ it IS the FRAMING ↘ not the CHOICE ↘ that MATTers ↘.
- PAUSE ↘ on the BALance of the EVidence ↘ this is LIKEly RAther than CERtain ↘.
- PAUSE ↘ not ONLY does this HOLD ↘ but it HOLDS more STRONGly with TIME ↘.
- PAUSE ↘ what the CASES SHOW ↘ is a PATTern ↘ not a COINcidence ↘.
Reading · Section 5
8 minSame paragraph at Band 3, Band 4 and Band 5 — name the moves
Pre-reading · prompt: 'Does public consultation make city redesign better or slower?'
Same paragraph at Band 3, Band 4 and Band 5 — name the moves
Notice that the BAND 3 → BAND 4 shift is mostly calibration + specific lexis. The BAND 4 → BAND 5 shift is mostly cleft + concession+counter + closer cadence. Repeatable moves.
Same candidate · same prompt · three versions — Band 3 / 4 / 5 · Reformulation exemplar
BAND 3: 'Public consultation in city redesign is a good thing in most cases. It makes the redesign better and the public happier. But sometimes it is slow and it costs money. So it depends on the situation. In my opinion the good outweighs the bad.'
BAND 4 (after FLAT → CALIBRATED and GENERIC → SPECIFIC reformulations): 'On the balance of recent European cases, public consultation in city redesign is highly likely to improve outcomes — both the technical design and public satisfaction with it. The costs, however, are real: consultation reliably extends timelines by twelve to eighteen months. On balance, the gain is likely to outweigh the delay.'
BAND 5 (after STATEMENT → CLEFT, ASSERTION → CONCESSION+COUNTER, closer cadence): 'On the balance of recent European cases, public consultation in city redesign is highly likely to improve outcomes — and not only the technical design, but public satisfaction with the resulting space. The costs are real: consultation reliably extends timelines by twelve to eighteen months, and roughly one in five projects sees its initial scope re-negotiated. What the cases show, however, is a pattern — not a coincidence. It is the consultation, not the design itself, that produces the durable adaptation; remove it and the project loses the eighteen-month lag in which adaptation happens.'
Question 1.Which reformulation move turned 'a good thing' → 'highly likely to improve outcomes'?
Question 2.Which move turned 'It makes the redesign better' → 'and not only the technical design, but public satisfaction with the resulting space'?
Question 3.Which move produced the closer 'It is the consultation, not the design itself, that produces the durable adaptation'?
Question 4.Which BAND 5 move added 'roughly one in five projects sees its initial scope re-negotiated'?
Question 5.The BAND 3 → BAND 4 shift was mostly:
Listening · Section 6
8 minListening P4 spiral — five speakers on what changed in the last week before the exam
Notes
Pre-listen brief — five recent CPE candidates on last-week prep
- ▸Listen for: STOP-doing and DOUBLE-DOWN-on per speaker.
- ▸Notice: each speaker has a marker phrase from this course.
- ▸Decide: which speaker's last week looks most like yours should.
Listening audio
Tap play to listen. Scrub the bar or use ± 5 s to jump.
Show transcript
Speaker 1 (Italian, m, recent Band-5 candidate):What I stopped doing was learning new vocabulary. The week before, I had this temptation to cram one more phrasal verb list — and on the balance of the evidence I had, it was making me LESS confident, not more. What I doubled down on was reformulating my own Mock-3 sentences. Five sentences per task, one move per sentence. Twenty minutes of work, half a band visible on the next draft.
Speaker 2 (Polish, f, exam coach):My students' biggest last-week win is what I'd call register polish — the marker phrases. We pick three for opener, three for closer, three for the calibrated recommendation. Nine phrases at the fingertips. It's a tiny intervention and it's the difference between a Band-4 candidate who SOUNDS Band-4 and a Band-4 candidate who SOUNDS Band-5 — which the examiner registers in the first ten seconds.
Speaker 3 (Spanish, f, recent candidate):What I stopped was full-length mocks. Three was enough. What I doubled down on was the exam-day script — the one from Lesson 37. I drilled it in front of a mirror, weird as that sounds. The morning of the real exam, when the stakes spike, the script deployed automatically. That's what last-week drilling buys.
Speaker 4 (Scottish, m, writing tutor):I'd push back on the temptation to do MORE in the last week. The candidates who walk in confident did LESS — but what they did was named. ONE fix per paper, five fixes total, drilled five times each over five days. That's twenty-five micro-reps and it beats doing twenty different things once. The discipline of doing less is the last-week skill nobody talks about.
Speaker 5 (Irish, f, recent Band-5 candidate):Two things. Stopped: comparing myself to other candidates' mock scores — it's noise. Doubled down on: my one-page protocol, which I literally carried in my bag and read on the train. Five named fixes, my anchor sentence, my closer lines. The protocol made the morning of the exam feel like a normal lesson — and feeling like a normal lesson is what lets the script deploy and the gains hold.
Question 1.Speaker 1 STOPPED doing what — and DOUBLED DOWN on what?
Question 2.Speaker 2's 'nine phrases at the fingertips' refers to:
Question 3.Speaker 3 drilled what in front of a mirror?
Question 4.Speaker 4's central claim is:
Question 5.Speaker 5's one-page protocol contained:
Visual stimulus · Section 7
3 minThe gap-to-fix map — five gaps, five named fixes
Last-week prioritisation. ONE persistent gap per paper. ONE named fix per gap. ONE marker phrase per Writing task. Nothing more.
Notes
Gap-to-fix map — last week template
- ▸R&UoE — persistent gap (e.g. 'grip on P4 past 30s') · named fix (e.g. 'commit at 20s, no exceptions') · rep schedule.
- ▸Reading — persistent gap (e.g. 'P7 gap-fill over-deliberation') · named fix (e.g. 'anchor breath + first defensible call') · rep schedule.
- ▸Listening — persistent gap (e.g. 'cascading 2-mark loss after a freeze') · named fix (e.g. 'pencil guess + next item') · rep schedule.
- ▸Writing — persistent gap (e.g. 'flat closers') · named fix (e.g. 'cleft closer, one of three marker phrases') · rep schedule.
- ▸Speaking — persistent gap (e.g. 'sorry-sorry under interruption') · named fix (e.g. 'what I'm reaching for is + semantic field') · rep schedule.
- ▸TOTAL: 5 gaps · 5 named fixes · 5 days · 5 reps = 125 micro-reps before exam day.
Discuss in pairs
Fill in your own map BEFORE writing your protocol. Five rows, no more.
Exam skills · Section 8
3 minWrite your one-page protocol — the only sheet that walks into the exam
Strategy
- 1.Top: anchor sentence ('When the stakes feel real, I anchor and commit').
- 2.Middle: 5-row gap-to-fix map — gap → named fix → rep schedule.
- 3.Bottom-left: three marker phrases — opener, closer, calibrated recommendation.
- 4.Bottom-right: let-go list (max 3 items).
- 5.Sign and date — make it a contract with yourself.
- 6.Pin to desk for last week; carry in bag on exam day.
Example
PROTOCOL (one page, anonymised exemplar): Anchor: 'When the stakes feel real, I anchor and commit.' R&UoE — gap: grip on P4 past 30s · fix: commit at 20s · reps: 5/day × 5 days. Reading — gap: P7 over-deliberation · fix: first defensible call · reps: 5/day × 5 days. Listening — gap: cascading freeze · fix: pencil guess + next · reps: 3/day × 5 days. Writing — gap: flat closers · fix: cleft closer pattern · reps: 1 closer/day × 5 days. Speaking — gap: 'sorry-sorry' under interruption · fix: 'what I'm reaching for is…' · reps: mirror drill 3/day × 5 days. Marker phrases — opener: 'Few would dispute that…' / closer: 'It is X, not Y, that…' / calibrated rec: 'on the balance of the evidence, this is highly likely to…'. Let-go list — perfect handwriting · last 20 words of conclusion · proof-comma pass if read-aloud takes >30s. Signed & dated.
Practice · Section 9
7 minFill in the blank
Question 1.R&UoE P4 · KEYWORD: NEVER · 'I had not realised how much last week mattered.' → 'Never ____ I realised how much last week mattered.'
Question 2.R&UoE P4 · KEYWORD: NOT · 'The fix only works with daily repetition.' → 'The fix works ____ only with daily repetition.'
Question 3.R&UoE P4 · KEYWORD: WHAT · 'The protocol is mainly a regulator, not a memory aid.' → '____ the protocol mainly is, is a regulator, not a memory aid.'
Question 4.R&UoE P4 · KEYWORD: ONLY · 'You can lift the band ceiling by reformulation.' → '____ by reformulation can you lift the band ceiling.'
Writing · Section 10
4 minPut it in writing
Your task
REFORMULATE THREE OF YOUR OWN MOCK-3 SENTENCES (5 min). Choose three sentences from your Mock-3 Writing plan or homework draft. For each, identify the canonical reformulation move that would lift it, and rewrite it ONCE — keeping the word count, changing the band. Submit ORIGINAL + MOVE NAME + REFORMULATED for all three.
- • Original sentence (your own).
- • Move name (one of the five canonical moves).
- • Reformulated sentence (same word count, higher band).
- • Total time: 5 minutes for all three.
Before you submit
- ☐ Three originals identified (ideally opener, closer, recommendation).
- ☐ Move named per sentence (FLAT→CAL / GENERIC→SPECIFIC / STATEMENT→CLEFT / ASSERTION→CONCESSION+COUNTER / HEDGE-STACK→SINGLE-CLAIM).
- ☐ Reformulation done in roughly 90 seconds per sentence.
- ☐ Same word count maintained.
- ☐ Band shift audible when read aloud.
Show model answer
REFORMULATIONS — Mock 3. 1. ORIGINAL (opener): 'Public spaces are important things in any city.' MOVE: GENERIC → SPECIFIC. REFORMULATED: 'Public spaces are among the most contested civic assets in any modern city.' 2. ORIGINAL (recommendation): 'I think they should consult more.' MOVE: HEDGE-STACK → SINGLE-CLAIM (calibrated). REFORMULATED: 'On the balance of the cases reviewed, consulting at use three rather than use zero is highly likely to improve outcomes.' 3. ORIGINAL (closer): 'The decision was the wrong one.' MOVE: STATEMENT → CLEFT. REFORMULATED: 'It was the framing of the decision, not the decision itself, that ultimately proved wrong.'
Speaking · Section 11
6 minMake it a real conversation
Speaking P4 (3 min) — defend your one-page protocol. Partner challenges: 'why ONE fix per paper, not three?' / 'why STOP learning vocabulary in the last week?' / 'what makes the protocol different from a study plan?'. Defend using L37 stake-management lexis and today's last-week prioritisation language.
Partner rates the defence.
Is the protocol NAMED, ONE-PER-PAPER and DEFENDED in course language?
Named, one-per-paper, defended in course language
Walk-into-the-exam ready. The protocol is real.
Named but more than one fix per paper
Cut to one — five total reps × 5 days beats 15 reps × 5 days.
Defended in general language, not course language
Re-name fixes in course terms — 'commit at 15s' beats 'be faster'.
Aspirational rather than concrete
Add the rep schedule — 5 reps × 5 days makes the protocol a contract, not a wish.
Useful phrases
- What I'd push back on is the assumption that ______.
- On the balance of how my three mocks went, ______.
- It is the discipline of doing less, not more, that ______.
- What the protocol does is ______, where a study plan would ______.
Optional · Teacher-led
Teacher Activities
If time allows. ~13 min total
Homework · Section 12
Take-homeTake it home
Reformulate FIVE more of your own sentences from Mock 1, Mock 2 or Mock 3 — using all five canonical moves at least once. Submit original + move + reformulated for each. Aim for the same word count throughout.
Polish your one-page protocol to its final version. Sign and date. Pin visibly. Read it daily for the next 5 days. Bring on exam day.
Record a 60-second defence of your protocol using the L37 exam-day script structure (inner sentence + anchor + procedural call) at least twice. Listen back: does it sound calm under stake-perception?
Take ONE Band-3 paragraph from any homework draft you've ever written and produce BOTH the Band-4 and Band-5 versions, naming the moves in CAPS as in today's Reading. Submit all three side by side.
Recap · Section 13
Wrap-upWhat you've learned
- Reformulation = same content, one canonical move, higher band. Five moves do roughly 80% of the work.
- The one-page protocol is BOTH memory aid AND regulator — signed, dated, pinned, carried.
- Last-week prioritisation: ONE named fix per paper × 5 days × 5 reps = 125 micro-reps. Do LESS, named.
- Marker phrases at the fingertips — three for opener, three for closer, three for calibrated recommendation.
- STOP learning new things this week. DOUBLE DOWN on what you already have.