Free C1 Advanced (CAE) Resources
Free guides, frameworks and study plans to help you prepare for Cambridge C1 Advanced Speaking, Writing, vocabulary and the exam itself. If you have seen both names, C1 Advanced is also known as CAE, and it is the same exam.
Everything here is free and yours to keep. Take the one you need this week. One step at a time, and you don't need all of them today.
If you take one thing from this page, take this one.
C1 Advanced (CAE) Speaking Phrase List
The phrases my students use in the Speaking test, organised by what each part of the test asks you to do. Print it out. Practise five phrases a day. Little by little you stop hunting for words in the middle of an answer, because the words are already there.
What do you need help with?
The free resources, grouped by the part of the C1 Advanced exam that is costing you marks. Start with the one that sounds like you.
Speaking
Know what to say, and say it with a structure the examiner can reward.
Writing
The phrases that hold an essay, a report or a proposal together.
Exam preparation
Plan your months, then walk in calm on the day of the exam.
Every free C1 Advanced resource, in one place.
Every guide is a PDF. Yours to keep, print and scribble on.
C1 Advanced Speaking Phrase List
The one 25,000+ students have already downloaded. The phrases you need for each part of the Speaking test, so you stop hunting for words in the middle of an answer.
Get the phrase list
C1 Speaking Framework
Do you go blank in Part 1? This is my PEGEX formula, so you always know what comes next in an answer, with 50 model answers from real exam questions.
Get the framework
C1 Advanced Writing Phrase Bank
150+ phrases for all five writing tasks, with model paragraphs from real student writing. Everything you need for a killer essay, proposal or report.
Get the phrase bank
Learn Words Like the Top 1%
You learn a word on Monday and by Friday it has gone. Stop learning single words. Start learning chunks, and watch how much longer they stay.
Get the guide
How to Start Preparing for C1 Advanced
Studying everything and nothing? Here is what to do first, what to leave until later, and how six months of C1 Advanced preparation should actually be organised.
Get the plan
Train Your Brain for C1 Advanced
You know the English. Then you walk into the room and your head empties. This one is about feeling calm and ready, so the examiner sees your real level.
Get the guideNot sure where to start?
Then begin with the plan. This is my six-month C1 Advanced study plan: what to do first, what to leave until later, and how to organise the months around the hours you really have, not the hours you wish you had.
On a busy week you do the first thing on the list. That is enough to keep moving.
Six months, one priority at a time, built for adults who work.
Free · PDF · yours to keep
Bad is normal and bad is expected
When I was learning Spanish, I barely spoke for two years. Two years. I had the grammar in my head and I was far too scared to use it, so I said almost nothing.
No new textbook fixed that. What fixed it was practising the same small things, week after week, until they came out of my mouth without me thinking about them. Your English works the same way.
So take the pressure off yourself. Pick one guide, do the next small thing, and keep moving forward. That is where the magic happens.
Issy
Each guide fixes one piece. The programme is the whole exam.
A step by step formula for every part of C1 Advanced, live classes taught by Cambridge Speaking examiners, and someone marking your work so you always know what to practise next.
I can't promise you'll pass, because nobody honest can. But you will have one of the most complete C1 systems anywhere, and around 4,000 students have learned with me so far.
See the C1 Advanced AcceleratorYour future English starts with what you do today. 💙
Any questions, write to me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.
No pass is guaranteed. Issy Education Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 17142507.
