Upper Intermediate is when you already know enough English to feel comfortable abroad in everyday life. Upper Intermediate, or threshold advanced level, is the stage at which a person is almost fluent in English. He can easily support any everyday conversation, discuss the news, express his opinion about a book or a movie. At the same time, there will be almost no mistakes in speech. With this level, a person will be able to live permanently in an English-speaking country, work and study at a foreign university. To understand your level, it is worth checking each of the key English skills. You can definitely do this using a test, but not the first one you find on the Internet. It's better to let it be a school system that you trust. For example, in Mango English, you can take the test here www.mangoengl.com/test

The vocabulary at the B2 English level can be called rich. You will understand this yourself when you realize that you can talk to a familiar person about almost anything. Including on professional topics. It is understandable: in Upper Intermediate you will have about 3000-4000 words in stock, including many popular phraseological units. Your task is to make the lexicon active and replenish it further so that it is immediately fixed in speech. Here is a list of topics that will help you improve your vocabulary for the Upper Intermediate level and transition to Advanced in the future: Lifestyle and interests. Storytelling and public speaking. Future. Communication and social networks. Food culture. Mind and emotions. Talents. Journeys. Society. Mass media. Educational systems. Career. Business. Emigration. Ecology. Science.

Teachers often say that Upper Intermediate is the level at which the last gaps are closed. We agree with that. It is at the level of the B2 language that a person already knows quite a lot: all the problems with the times are left behind, and he is ready to master complex constructions. Therefore, in the course, Mango English students devote a little time to their past "tails" in order to study advanced topics afterwards. We advise you too! Below we leave a table with a list of grammatical topics that our students take at the Upper Intermediate English level. There are no points to repeat in it — choose them yourself, based on your past gaps.

Offers with certain / likely / due to
Explain the probability and causes of events
Gerund and infinitive
It is correct to use these verb forms in speech to talk about your desires, etc
. Passive voice
To build sentences in which the subject does not perform the action expressed by the predicate itself
The causative form of get/have something done
To tell that someone has done something for us or for us
Modal verbs
Express commitment, necessity, opportunity, advice, probability of an event, etc.
Subordinate clauses of purpose, oppositions and concessions
To talk about the goals, conditions and other features of the action in a complex sentence.
To make a sequence of events, express a concession, etc.
Participial turns
To tell about several actions taking place (or taking place) at the same time
Conditional sentences of a mixed type
To build sentences in which the condition and the consequence relate to different time forms
Suggestions with the construction of whether... or not
To talk about two possible scenarios
Offers with I wish / if only / would rather / it's time
To express desire or regret, to talk about the conditions for any action, etc.
Indirect speech
To convey the words of another person from a third person and without exact quotations
Listening

At the B2 level, a person is already able to easily understand English at a fluent pace. This means that many movies and TV series can already be watched without subtitles. Unfamiliar words will still come across to you, but much less often. And if they meet, then at Upper Intermediate you will still understand what is said in context. This is what Mango English students learn in the B2 level course.

-it is easy to understand speech in conversations on non-professional topics, sometimes even with different accents;
-distinguish between many turns in the lyrics of foreign songs;
-watch movies, videos of bloggers on YouTube and listen to podcasts, but so far on not very difficult topics.

If at the intermediate level you could read fiction and articles with a dictionary in your other hand, then at the Upper Intermediate everything will change. You will no longer need to search for adapted texts or wade through unfamiliar words. Now you will begin to understand almost everything you have read, distinguish the facts and briefly retell the text. And the new vocabulary will make up from 5 to 10% of the work. Advice on how to upgrade the skill further: increase the complexity of what you read. Create a challenge for yourself, and then you can conquer the Advanced level.

understand artistic and semi-scientific texts;
Adapted materials are easy to read;
use foreign sources in the professional field.

At the B2 English level, it is important to hone what you started learning at Intermediate (B1). If you have managed to get acquainted with official and unofficial texts, it's time to learn how to write and analyze them. Do not forget about essays on various topics: learn to write a lot, long and varied. And if this practice has become boring, practice writing business letters and appeals. For example, to the mayor's office of your city, if you lived abroad.

Over time, you will develop the writing skill so that you can write: complex working texts: reports, applications, appeals and other documents; detailed articles on topics familiar to you; reviews and reviews of foreign films, TV series and books.

Also, with the Upper Intermediate English level, it will be easy for you to start your own blog for a foreign audience.

With Upper Intermediate, a person is almost free to communicate. He rarely encounters difficult topics for him: at this level, Mango English students can support any conversation and rarely get lost in answering questions.

To consolidate and improve the result, they train on monologues and dialogues. They should be complex and test all the knowledge that you have accumulated. If you want to boost the level, choose unusual topics or events and try to express your opinion about them in detail. And also practice asking different types of questions to the interlocutor.

maintain a dialogue on any topic with one or more interlocutors;
build a coherent monologue for 3-5 minutes;
to speak in long sentences almost without the need to think about their construction;
confidently use all or almost all the studied words and constructions in oral speech, even if you did not dare to do it before.

The duration of the course depends on the knowledge that the student already has and the speed of perception of information. To master the B2 level from the previous level, 2 months are enough for some, while others need to immerse themselves in English for 4-5 months. And in this case, it is better not to rush, but to give yourself time to consolidate new material. Our course is designed to be completed within 2.5-3 months. The course is conducted with individual support from teachers from London schools (not bots). Teachers respond to your requests, give comments on the milestone and final tests within 1-2 days. The online conversation club provides an opportunity to practice the acquired knowledge in the process of communicating with our teachers.

Today, there are many ways to learn English and they are easy to find online: individual and group lessons, online chats and discussion clubs. The main thing is not to be afraid and take steps towards your dream with Mango English!