English for Exams
Cambridge English
Flyers
Three Practice Tests
for Cambridge English: Flyers (YLE Flyers)
Teacher’s Guide
HarperCollins Publishers
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First edition 2014
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Author: Anna Osborn
Cambridge English: Flyers Teacher’s Guide © HarperCollins Publishers 2014. This page is photocopiable.
Contents
Introduction 4
Guide to Cambridge English: Flyers

7 and 12.
The tests are comprised of three levels: Starters, Movers and Flyers. These tests are designed
to take learners from beginner level up to CEFR level A2. The Flyers test is roughly equivalent
to Cambridge English: Key (also known as the Key English Test or KET), but the Flyers test is
written specifically for younger children.
There’s no pass or fail in these tests – instead, every student gets a certificate with between
one and five shields in each paper to show their level of achievement.
What’s in the Flyers test?
Flyers is the third and final level of the series and is typically aimed at students aged between
9 and 12. Instructions are simple and the content of the test consists only of the words and
structures outlined in the Flyers syllabus. The official vocabulary list for Flyers is included at the
back of this guide, and the full syllabus can be found in the Cambridge English Young Learners
Handbook for Teachers.
The test has three papers:
Paper Length Number of parts Number of items
Listening approx. 25 minutes 5 25
Reading & Writing 40 minutes 7 50
Speaking 7–9 minutes 4 –
On pages 6–24, you will find further detailed information for each part of each paper, together
with teaching tips and ideas to help you to prepare your students.

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How to use this guide and the practice tests
This guide has been designed to give you a thorough introduction to the Cambridge English:
Flyers test. The guide accompanies the Collins practice tests book for Cambridge English: Flyers
and includes for each of the three practice tests:
● audio scripts for Listening
● answer keys
● scripts for Speaking (also on the CD, first without and then with student’s responses).

Time: 25 minutes
Number of questions: 25
Part Material Skills Desired outcome Number of
questions
1 Picture, names and
dialogue
Listening for names and
descriptions
Draw lines to match names
to people in a picture
5
2 Text with missing words
and dialogue
Listening for names,
spellings, numbers and
other information
Write words or numbers
in gaps
5
3 Two sets of pictures and
dialogue
Listening for detailed
information
Match pictures with
illustrated word or name
by writing letters in boxes
5
4 Three-option multiple-
choice pictures and
dialogues

This is what you hear …
Part 1. Listen and look. There is one example.
Girl: Uncle David, look at this picture of
our picnic last weekend.
Man: Wow, what a great picnic!
Girl: Can you see Michael? There he is,
next to the car.
Man: Is he the boy in green and black
striped shorts?
Girl: Yes, that’s him. He’s eating an apple.
Can you see the line? This is an example. Now
you listen and draw lines.
Tips for students
● Look carefully at the picture before you listen to the dialogue. You will need to focus on the
differences between similar people and you should try to think about what sort of language
might be used to describe them before you listen.
● Be aware that the language of this part of the task will include descriptions of people’s
clothes and physical appearance, as well as what they are doing.
● Make sure that you draw neat, straight lines so that your answers are clear.
Tips for teachers
● Make sure that students are familiar with the names listed in the Flyers vocabulary list at
the back of this guide.
● Revise the present continuous tense, which students will hear in this part of the test.
● Provide lots of practice in describing pictures of people.
° Ask students to work in pairs. Give a picture of a person to each student and ask them to
take turns to describe what the person in their picture looks like and what they are doing.
Then their partner should draw a picture of the person based on what they have heard.
Compare the drawings with the original pictures.
° Project one of the pictures from the practice tests book onto the whiteboard and ask students
to make questions about the people, focusing on what they look like and what they’re wearing

down what I say. OK, who wants to
ask me something?
Boy: I do.
Woman: What’s your question, Alex?
Boy: Where are you going to go, Miss
Peter?
Woman: I’m going to go to London, Alex.
Can you see the answer? Now you listen
and write.
Tips for students
● Look carefully at the gaps on the form or notepad before you listen to work out what sort of
information will go there.
● There will always be a word that will be spelt out – this is likely to the name of a person or
place so try to work out which gap this is before you listen so that you are prepared for it.
● There is often a number question – try to work out which gap this is before you listen so
that you are prepared when you hear it.
● Make sure you know your numbers and letters really well before you go into the test.
Tips for teachers
● Play vocabulary games (see pages 26–27) with lexical items that students might hear in this
part of the test, e.g. telephone numbers and addresses, opening and closing times, days of
the week and forms of transport (see Flyers vocabulary list at the back of this guide).
● Play spelling games, e.g. hold up flashcards and ask students to spell the word for the class as a
class activity. Focus on the double letter form where possible, e.g. S-U-N-G-L-A-double-S-E-S.
● Play number games, e.g. Bingo! (see page 27) to provide students with plenty of practice in
listening to numbers.
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Listening Part 3
There are two sets of pictures in Part 3. On the left-hand page, there are six pictures of named people,
things or places. On the right-hand page, there are eight pictures with letters but no names or words.

● Read the sentence and the question at the beginning very carefully because the dialogue
will be easier to understand if you understand the context.
● Before you listen, look at the unnamed pictures on the right-hand page and think about or note
down words to describe them. This will help you to prepare for what you are about to hear.
● Remember that the speakers will mention the two lettered items that are not used, so don’t
think that simply because you heard the word that it must be the answer to that question.
Listen carefully to what the speaker says about each item.
Tips for teachers
● Play vocabulary games (see pages 26–27) with lexical sets that students might hear in this part
of the test, e.g. places, clothes, the home (see Flyers vocabulary list at the back of this guide).
● Project two sets of pictures onto the whiteboard, one named and one lettered, e.g. a set of
named children and a set of items of lettered clothing. Then get students to write a sentence
each linking one item from each set, e.g. William bought some new shorts yesterday. Collect
in the sentences and read them aloud. Students must match the items that they hear.
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Listening Part 4
Part 4 contains five three-option multiple-choice questions with pictures. Students listen to
five connected dialogues – there is one question for each dialogue. Students tick the correct
picture. There is one example.
This is what Part 4 looks like. In the test, there
are four more questions like these and five more
extracts from the dialogue to listen to.
This is what you hear …
Part 4. Listen and look. There is one
example. Where does Katy want to go?
Girl: Dad, can I go to the beach with Sarah
today?
Man: Well, I need to go to the supermarket
and didn’t you want to go to the

This is what you hear …
Part 5. Listen and look at the picture.
There is one example.
Girl: This is a great picture. Can I colour it?
Man: Of course you can. What would you
like to colour first?
Girl: The pyramid.
Man: OK. Make it yellow.
Can you see the yellow pyramid? This is
an example. Now you listen and colour
and draw and write.
Tips for students
● Remember to have your colouring pencils ready for this part of the test.
● Remember that this test is not just colouring, but also you will have to write a simple word
and draw and colour an item.
● Don’t worry if your colouring, writing and drawing is not very good. Just make sure that it’s
clear that you’ve understood the instructions.
● This part of the test is more challenging than it looks. You need to be able to understand
language that describes slightly different items, so listen very carefully to the instructions.
Tips for teachers
● Play vocabulary games (see pages 26–27) with lexical sets that students might hear in this
part of the test, e.g. colours, prepositions, places, clothes, animals, the body and face (see
Flyers vocabulary list at the back of this guide).
● Find a colouring book which has colour versions and black and white versions of the same
pictures. Choose two pictures that contain lexical items from the Flyers syllabus. Produce
colour and black and white versions of both pictures. Get students to work in pairs. Give
Student A a colour picture and Student B the same picture in black and white. Get them to
sit back to back. Student A gives instructions to Student B to colour various items. Compare
pictures at the end. Repeat, this time giving the colour version of the other picture to
Student B. You could get students to draw their own colour and black and white pictures for

7
3 Half a dialogue with
gaps and lettered
responses in a box
Reading and filling in the
gaps in a dialogue
Write the letters of the correct
responses in the dialogue gaps
5
4 Gapped text with
missing words in a
box and three-option
multiple choice question
for story title
Reading for specific
information and gist
Select and copy the correct
word for each gap; then tick
the box next to the best
story title
6
5 Story, picture and
gapped sentences
Reading a story;
completing sentences
Complete sentences about
the story by writing one,
two, three or four words in
each gap
7

options.
● Start with the words you are most confident about and cross them out from the list as you
use them.
● Remember that you’ll see both singular and plural nouns and you must copy the words
exactly as they appear when you write them or you will lose marks.
Tips for teachers
● Play vocabulary games (see pages 26–27) with the lexical sets that students might hear in
this part of the test, e.g. clothes, food, the home, places, animals, sports and jobs (see Flyers
vocabulary list at the back of this guide). Start by keeping the words in their lexical sets,
then mix the words up so that students get used to dealing with them together, as they will
have to in this part of the test.
● Present lists of target nouns to students and ask them to write their own definitions of
them. Then get them to swap with a partner and match the words to definitions.
● If appropriate in your classroom, give half the students the target nouns and half the
students the target definitions, then encourage them to circulate and pair up correctly.
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Reading & Writing Part 2
Students look at a picture and read seven sentences about it. Some of the sentences are true
and some are false. Students write yes or no next to sentences. There are two examples.
This is what Part 2 looks like. In the test, there are five more sentences.
Tips for students
● Remember to read the sentence all the way to the end because it must all be true, e.g. in
question 1 above, ask yourself, ‘Is the boy wearing blue and white shorts?’ and ‘Is he playing
with a toy helicopter?’ For the sentence to be true, you must answer ‘yes’ to all questions.
Tips for teachers
● Play vocabulary games (see pages 26–27) with the lexical sets that students might hear in
this part of the test, e.g. clothes, colours, weather, the world around us and places (see Flyers
vocabulary list at the back of this guide).
● Provide extra practice in prepositions and action verbs from the Flyers syllabus.

Are you ? Yes, I am. / No, I’m not.
Do you ? Yes, I do / No, I don’t.
Have you ? Yes, I have / No, I haven’t
Will you ? Yes, I will. / No, I won’t.
● Provide plenty of practice in responses to statements as well as questions, e.g. Thank you or Good idea.
● Cut up dialogues into statements and responses. Either get students to work in pairs to put
them in the right order. Or, if appropriate in your classroom, give one statement or response
to each student and get them to circulate until they find their match.
● When students get more confident, you could get them to write their own jumbled
dialogues in pairs, which they then swap with another pair.
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Reading & Writing Part 4
Students read a text with five gaps in it and read ten words in a box. They choose the best words
to go in each gap and write them in. The gapped words are nouns, adjectives, verbs (present and
past) and adverbs. Students must use correct spelling. In the last question in this part, students
must choose the best title for the story from a choice of three. There is one example.
This is what Part 4 looks like. In the test, the text is longer and there are three more gaps.
Tips for students
● Read the whole text through first to get a general idea of what it means before trying to fill
in any of the gaps.
● Remember that the missing words are testing your grammar and vocabulary so look
carefully at the words around each gap and try to work out what sort of word you would
expect to see there, e.g. in question 1 above, the gap comes after some and before a noun so
you know it must be an adjective.
● For the last question, remember that the title must be the best summary of the whole story
and not just part of it.
Tips for teachers
● Make sure that your students are confident when it comes to identifying the different parts
of language: noun, adjective, verb and adverb.

gapped sentences for each other.
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Reading & Writing Part 6
Students read a factual text containing ten gaps. They have a choice of three words to
fill each gap. They choose the correct words and copy them into the gaps. These words
have a grammatical focus and include prepositions, pronouns, adverbs and verbs. There is
one example.
This is what Part 6 looks like. In the test, there is a longer text and eight more gaps to fill.
Tips for students
● Read the text all the way through before you start filling the gaps.
● Try to work out what sort of word would fill the gap before you look at the options.
● If you get stuck, look at all the options and try to work out the difference between them. For
example, if the options are reach, reaching and reached, think about when you would use each
form of the verb. Look at the words either side of the gap and think about the grammar rules.
● Don’t forget that the options are there! Some students make the mistake of filling the gaps
with their own ideas, which is not what you’re being asked to do in this part of the task.
Tips for teachers
● Make sure that students are familiar with parts of language: preposition, pronoun, adverb
and verb. Give the students a gapped text and get them to identify what sort of word would
go in each gap. Then get them to shout out suggestions.
● Practise focusing on verbs.
° Revise the present simple, present perfect and present continuous and the different forms
required for each. Highlight the difference between the base form, the -ing form and the
-ed form of the verbs that students might see here.
° Revise the irregular past simple forms of the verbs from the Flyers syllabus.
° Revise auxiliary verbs and modal verbs that students might have to distinguish between
here, e.g. have, must, can, should.
● Focus on prepositions: give instructions for children to put classroom objects in, on, behind,
in front of, under their desks.

Part Material Skills Desired outcome
1 Two similar pictures (one for
examiner and one for student)
Understanding sentences and
explaining differences
Identify and describe six
differences between the two
pictures after hearing the
examiner describing their
picture
2 One set of facts and one set
of question cues (each for
examiner and student)
Answering questions with
short answers; making
questions to find out
information
Answer and then ask
questions about two people,
objects or situations
3 Five sequence pictures that
tell a story
Understanding the beginning
of a story and telling the rest
of it from picture prompts
Describe each picture in turn
4 Open-ended questions Understanding and responding
to personal questions
Answer personal questions
General tips for students

my picture. You tell me how your picture is different. In my picture, there is one big purple tent.
Tips for students
● Remember to say Hello and tell the examiner your name when asked.
● Listen carefully to what the examiner says and find the part of your picture that they are
describing.
● When you describe the picture, start your sentences in the same way as the examiner does,
e.g. in the picture above, the examiner says In my picture, there is one big purple tent. You
reply In my picture, there is one big purple tent and one small blue tent.
Tips for students
● Play vocabulary games (see pages 26–27) with the lexical sets that students might hear in
this part of the test, e.g. numbers, colours, positions, appearance, activity, shape and relative
size (see Flyers vocabulary list at the back of this guide).
● Describe a picture to students and ask them to draw what they hear, but don’t be too
precise about exact positional or colour details. Then get students to compare what they’ve
drawn with the original picture and describe the differences.
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Speaking Part 2
The examiner and the student take turns to ask and answer questions. The examiner gives the
student two similar picture cards – one has a set of facts and one has a set of question cues.
First, the examiner asks the student questions about the candidate’s picture card and the student
answers using the information on the card. Then the student asks the examiner questions about
the examiner’s picture card and the examiner answers using the information on the card.
This is what Part 2 looks like.
The examiner might start by saying:
Helen and Harry like going to restaurants. I don’t know anything about Harry’s favourite restaurant, but you
do. So I’m going to ask you some questions. What’s the name of Harry’s favourite restaurant?
Tips for students
● Listen carefully to the questions that the examiner asks you because you will have to ask
them the same questions when it’s your turn.

give a continuous narrative of the story, but are being tested on describing each picture in turn.
This is what Part 3 looks like.
The examiner might start by saying:
These pictures tell a story. It’s called “Mum and Richard’s interesting picnic”. Just look at the pictures first. It’s a sunny
day today, so Mum and Richard are getting ready for a picnic. Richard is helping Mum. Now you tell the story.
Tips for students
● Look at all the pictures before you start to speak, but don’t worry if you don’t quite
understand the full sequence – you are not expected to tell a full story, but simply to
describe each picture in turn.
● Use the adjectives that you have learnt in class to describe the things you can see in the
picture, e.g. talk about what colour things are, what they look like, what clothes people have
on, where things are.
● Use the pre sent continuous to talk about what people are doing in the pictures.
Tips for teachers
● Provide plenty of practice in the structures that students may need to use in this part:
° there is / there are
° present tense of the verbs be and have (got)
° present continuous of action verbs, e.g. come, go, buy , put on, carry, open, laugh
° present perfect and going to.
● Play vocabulary games (see pages 26–27) with the lexical sets that students might hear in
this part of the test, e,g, feelings, numbers, colours, positions, appearance, activity, shape and
relative size (see Flyers vocabulary list at the back of this guide).
● Prepare a set of five pictures that tell a story using the words from the Flyers syllabus. Cut
them up and give a set of pictures to each pair of students. Ask them to put them in the
right order and then describe what’s happening in each picture. You could ask students to
draw their own picture stories for this activity, too.
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Speaking Part 4
The examiner asks the student some personal questions about topics such as their school,

● Bring pencils, a rubber and a pencil students with you. Write answers in pencil so that you
can easily correct any mistakes.
● Bring coloured crayons or pencils in the full range of colours you will need for the colouring
exercise (black, blue, brown, green, orange, purple, red, white, yellow).
● Arrive in plenty of time for the test.
During the test
● Don’t be nervous. This test is designed to help you to show what you do know and not what
you don’t.
● Read all the instructions carefully, so that you know exactly what to do.
● Look at the pictures and the details in them carefully because these can sometimes help you
to understand the questions better.
● Read all questions all the way through before you answer them.
● Try to use the correct spelling – this is essential in the Reading & Writing paper, but not so
important in the Listening paper unless a word is spelt out on the recording.
● Don’t leave any blank spaces – if you don’t know the answer, have a guess.
● Remember the timing of the practice tests you’ve done in class – don’t work too quickly or
too slowly.
● Remember to check the back pages of the test so you don’t leave out any parts.
● Check your answers carefully when you’ve finished.