Level B2 (First)
Exercise Overview & Explanation
In Part 3 of the B2 First, you will read a text with 8 gaps. At the end of lines with a gap, there is a stem word written in CAPITAL LETTERS (e.g., CARE, NATURE). Your job is to change the form of that word (by adding prefixes or suffixes) so it fits grammatically into the sentence (e.g., changing CARE to careful, careless, or carefully).
Top Tips & Strategies
- Decide what part of speech is missing: Read the sentence and figure out if the gap requires a noun, an adjective, a verb, or an adverb.
- Watch out for negative meanings: If the context implies the opposite meaning, you will need to add a negative prefix (e.g., happy ➔ unhappy, honest ➔ dishonest).
- Check for plurals: If you figure out that the missing word is a noun, check if the sentence requires it to be plural (by adding an -s or -es).
Level C1 (Advanced)
Exercise Overview & Explanation
The C1 Advanced Word Formation task also requires you to modify 8 stem words. The main difference from B2 is the complexity of the changes; you will frequently need to make multiple modifications to a single word (e.g., adding both a prefix and a suffix, like changing COMFORT to uncomfortably).
Top Tips & Strategies
- Spot the adverbs: If the gap is at the very beginning of a sentence followed by a comma, or right before an adjective, it almost always requires an adverb ending in -ly.
- Internal stem changes: Some words change internally, not just at the end (e.g., from
LONGto length, orSTRONGto strength). - Check your spelling carefully: At C1 level, spelling mistakes (like confusing -ance with -ence or dropping a double consonant) will result in zero points for that question.