This goes back years but is something I’ve only just noticed as a general trend. With my exam classes a textbook is just a pain in the arse that stops us doing all the useful things we could do with my exam worksheets and interesting variations on exam practice, and I’d much rather they had a book of practice exams and a self-study book like Michael Vince’s fab FCE Language Language Practice than a textbook and a workbook.

Most of the FCE classes I’ve had over the last 12 years, however, have no special need to pass the FCE exam. With such students, a textbook helps with the main aim of taking exams, which is to push them over the Intermediate plateau and even up their various skills.

Strange but true!