Cambridge B2 First Foundations Course
A free 5-lesson Cambridge B2 First course covering grammar, vocabulary, Reading and Use of English, reading skills and exam strategy with 80 linked practice questions.
What you will learn
- Use B2 grammar structures such as conditionals, modals, passive and reported speech.
- Expand vocabulary with collocations, phrasal verbs and word families.
- Master Reading and Use of English tasks from Parts 1 to 4.
- Apply reading skills for gist, detail, inference and text cohesion.
- Build a timed exam plan with answer checking and error review.
Before you start
- Upper-intermediate English around B1+ or B2 level.
- Basic understanding of common tenses and sentence structure.
- Regular reading habit in English.
- Willingness to review mistakes and build vocabulary daily.
Lesson 1 B2 Grammar Essentials
Cambridge B2 First tests grammar through authentic reading and use of English tasks. Focus on the structures that appear again and again: tenses, modals, conditionals, passive voice, reported speech and inversion.
- Use narrative tenses and future forms accurately.
- Apply modal verbs for obligation, possibility and prohibition.
- Form first, second and third conditionals.
- Use passive and reported speech with correct tense shifts.
Transformation drill: for reported speech, move the tense back one step: present simple becomes past simple, will becomes would. For the passive, move the object to subject position, add the correct form of be, and use the past participle.
Conditionals follow a clear pattern: zero for facts, first for likely future, second for unreal present, third for unreal past. When a sentence mixes ideas, decide which time each clause refers to before choosing the form.
Example
Change "The team finished the report" to the passive: "The report was finished by the team."
Worked example: Rewrite in the passive: "The team finished the report."
Move "the report" to the front, use "was" (past of be) plus the past participle: "The report was finished by the team."
If the agent is obvious or unknown, you can omit "by the team".
Lesson 2 Vocabulary and Word Formation
B2 First rewards vocabulary that works in context. Learn collocations, phrasal verbs and word families, and practise changing base words with prefixes and suffixes.
- Record words with common collocations, not in isolation.
- Learn high-frequency phrasal verbs by topic.
- Build noun, verb, adjective and adverb forms from one root.
- Check spelling carefully in word formation tasks.
Word family method: for each root, list all four forms and test yourself in a sentence. For decide: decision (noun), decisive (adjective), decisively (adverb). Add common opposites: appear/disappear, agree/disagree, responsible/irresponsible.
In Part 3, read the sentence to decide which form is needed before checking spelling. A word that looks right but has the wrong suffix is still wrong, so check the sentence role: subject, verb, adjective, or adverb.
Example
The noun form of "decide" is "decision"; the negative of "expected" is "unexpected".
Worked example: "The government wants to improve ___ at night." Use the word SAFE.
The blank follows the verb "improve", so it needs a noun: safety.
Check spelling and sentence role: "improve safety" is a natural collocation.
Lesson 3 Reading and Use of English Tasks
The Reading and Use of English paper has seven parts. Parts 1 to 4 test grammar, vocabulary and meaning in context, so learn what each task wants before practising.
- Part 1: choose the best word for a multiple-choice cloze.
- Part 2: write a suitable word in an open cloze.
- Part 3: form a related word from a base word.
- Part 4: rewrite sentences using a given key word.
Task order: read the text once before answering so the topic is clear, then complete each gap with the surrounding words as your main clue. In Part 4, keep the given keyword exactly as printed and change the rest of the sentence without changing the meaning.
For open cloze, test each answer by reading the whole sentence aloud. Function words such as articles, prepositions, and pronouns are common answers; vocabulary words are rarer.
Example
Part 3: "The government wants to improve ___ at night." Use the word SAFE. The answer is safety.
Worked example: Part 4: "I last saw my cousin two years ago." Start with "It is..." using "since".
Answer: "It is two years since I last saw my cousin."
The keyword "since" is kept, and the meaning stays the same.
Lesson 4 Reading Skills for B2
Parts 5, 6 and 7 test different reading skills. Practise skimming for the main idea, scanning for specific information, reading closely for opinion and using cohesion to restore a gapped text.
- Skim a Part 5 text before reading the questions.
- Scan Part 7 texts to match people to opinions.
- Look for paraphrase and writer attitude in Part 5.
- Check links before and after each gap in Part 6.
Skim then scan: for Part 5, read the title and first sentence of each paragraph to get the structure, then answer questions in order. For Part 7, underline the key requirements of each person, then scan the texts for matching words and their paraphrases.
In Part 6, mark pronouns in the candidate sentences: they, it, this, and their. A sentence that repeats a noun or idea from the previous paragraph and introduces the next topic is usually the correct gap.
Example
Before choosing a sentence for a Part 6 gap, check that it links back to the previous paragraph and forward to the next one.
Worked example: A Part 6 gap comes after "Tourism creates jobs..." and before "Local workers also benefit."
Choose a sentence that mentions jobs and also mentions local workers, such as "These jobs are often filled by people from the area."
The sentence links the previous idea and the next paragraph.
Lesson 5 B2 First Exam Strategy
The Reading and Use of English paper lasts 75 minutes. Use a realistic time plan, transfer answers carefully and keep an error log so repeated mistakes become study targets.
- Spend about 15 minutes on Part 5 and 10 minutes on Parts 6 and 7.
- Finish each part before moving on to the next.
- Use pencil on the answer sheet and check transferred answers.
- Review your error log before the exam.
75-minute plan: spend 40 minutes on Parts 1-4, 30 minutes on Parts 5-7, and keep 5 minutes to transfer and check. If a Part 5 question is hard, move on and return after finishing Part 7.
After each practice paper, count mistakes by paper part. If most errors are in Part 3 word formation, do daily word-family drills; if they are in Part 6, practise cohesion markers and pronouns. Review your error log before exam day.
Example
A realistic plan for the 75-minute paper is: Parts 1-4 in 40 minutes, Parts 5-7 in 30 minutes, and 5 minutes for checking and transferring answers.
Worked example: You finish Part 4 with 35 minutes left.
Use 25 minutes for Parts 5-7, leaving 10 minutes to check. Adjust your pace only after a full practice paper, not mid-exam.
Tracking time this way prevents a rushed final part.