What Topics and Vocabulary You Need to Improve for the Cambridge Advanced Exam

If you want to pass the Cambridge CAE/Advanced exam, having a good knowledge, understanding and use of advanced grammatical concepts in English is important. However, more important still is vocabulary. To do well in the exam, not only will you have to know and use more advanced words and phrases, but you will also need to have a good knowledge of a lot of different topics (and the vocabulary used in them).

To see what grammatical concepts you need to improve for the Advanced exam, do our "Grammar quiz for the CAE exam".

Unlike the First Certificate exam, you will find exercises and text used in the CAE exam on topics (e.g. fashion, art, science etc...) which you probably have little knowledge or interest in. And it is this big range of topics which makes the Advanced exam difficult to pass.

In order to overcome this, you need to improve your knowledge of the topics which you are likely to find used. The reason for this is that the more you know on a topic you find used in the exam, the easier you will find it to do.

To help you know what you need to focus on improving your knowledge of (because firstly you'll already know a lot on some of the topics used and secondly because some topics are used more frequently in the exam than others), simply complete the below quiz on your knowledge of certain topics. At the end of the quiz, Click on the "Check Answers" button at the bottom of the quiz to find out which topics you need to focus on improving.


Topic Quiz

Choose the correct knowledge level you have for the topic area you are asked about from the selection box for each of the 31 questions.


1.How much do you know about fashion?

2.How much do you know about literature?

3.How much do you know about the environment?

4.How much do you know about films/movies?

5.How much do you know about art and paintings?

6.How much do you know about architecture?

7.How much do you know about design?

8.How much do you know about dance & theatre?

9.How much do you know about the world of work?

10.How much do you know about economics?

11.How much do you know about careers/jobs?

12.How much do you know about business?

13.How much do you know about psychology?

14.How much do you know about health/medicine?

15.How much do you know about animals?

16.How much do you know about plants?

17.How much do you know about physical geography?

18.How much do you know about science?

19.How much do you know about astronomy?

20.How much do you know about education?

21.How much do you know about history?

22.How much do you know about archaeology?

23.How much do you know about society and social issues?

24.How much do you know about culture?

25.How much do you know about crime/law?

26.How much do you know about technology?

27.How much do you know about inventions/innovations?

28.How much do you know about sport?

29.How much do you know about tourism/travel?

30.How much do you know about food and drink?

31.How much do you know about the media?