Formal register — the rules Olympiad graders actually mark

Not «harder words». Register is the whole voice of a piece — vocabulary, grammar, tone, and how visible you are behind the sentence. Same message, three registers:

Six markers a grader scans for in the first sentence

Every Olympiad and CAE letter task is a variant of one of these eight. Each tile shows purpose, canonical opening, and canonical closing. Memorise the openings — graders reward the ones marked italic.

Signposting bank — glue for the middle paragraphs

All three answers below come from the same authoritative bank — engxam.com C1 Advanced (CAE) model answers, which use the Cambridge examiner subscales. Each letter shows the exact task prompt, the candidate's answer verbatim, and the source URL so you can open the page and check the grade yourself.

Grade 4 / 5 Application · flawed Island Adventure TV programme

Task prompt

ISLAND ADVENTURE. We are looking for 30 people to take part in an exciting new television programme. If you are chosen, you will all be taken to an island and left for six months with only basic supplies. Have you got the necessary skills to survive? Have you got the right personality to work in a team? Tell us why you want to participate and why you should be chosen. Write your letter of application.

Dear Sir/Madam I am writing in response to your announcement, recently published in an issue of the "Daily Planet". I am really interested in participating in your new television programme. To begin with, I would like to put forward some information about myself. I am 20 years old and I am currently studying the Law in the university of Athens. I have been studying both English and French since I was 12. Consequently it would be easy for me to communicate with the rest of the group. Furthermore, I have joined a climbing team since 1992 and I have taken part in many activities such as climbing up mountain Olympus twice or climbing up mountain Rodopi. Moreover, I have been in the basket-ball team of my high-school for three years where we were champions for three times in the local championships. It is obvious that my physical skills and my body strength are bound to help me to survive under difficult circumstances during my stay on a remote island. As far as my personality is concerned I do believe that I am very polite and honest with people. I have great communicational skills and this derives from the fact that I am used to be a member of different sports groups. My experience in climbing mountain Olympus has supplied me with a great amount of patience. I am always willing to offer my help and experience to less-experienced team-mates and to give any piece of advice, should it be important. I strongly believe that I am the perfect candidate for this entertaining television programme. I really indulge myself in being under difficult conditions supplied only with the basic objects. It seems to me that it is an outlet for my energy. I enclose my curriculum vitae and photographs. I would like to thank you in advance for considering my application. It would be a great pleasure for me to attend an interview and to supply you with further information, if required. I am looking forward to your prompt reply.

Examiner subscales — verbatim from source

Subscale	Grade	Commentary
Content	5	All content is relevant and the target reader is fully informed.
Communicative Achievement	4	Appropriacy of register and format — consistent. Positive effect on the target reader.
Organisation	4	The letter is a well-organised and coherent whole.
Language	3	Evidence of range of vocabulary and structure. Some errors, mostly when complex language is attempted («I am used to be a member»).

Why this letter lost the top band — read closely before drilling.

1. Missing sign-off. No «Yours faithfully» + name closes it. Losing the format bracket is a Communicative Achievement penalty.
2. «I am used to be a member» — should be «I am used to being a member» (used to + gerund). Classic Language-band error.
3. «three times in the local championships» — should be «three times we were champions». Register-neutral, but ambiguous.
4. «I really indulge myself in being…» — vocabulary reach exceeds control; collocation feels off. Graders flag this as «complex language attempted, not landed».

Source · verified online

engxam.com — «Letter · model answers & examiner comments» (C1 Advanced / CAE bank)

https://engxam.com/handbook/letter-model-answers-c1-advanced-cae/

Section «CAE Letter Example: Letter of Application · Island Adventure» · Grade: 4 (with full examiner subscales verbatim) · accessed 2 Aug 2026

Grade 5 / 5 Complaint Wrongful accusation · Michael Mathers

Task prompt

You recently had an unpleasant experience when you were shopping in a department store. One of the assistants wrongly accused you of shoplifting. Although you were able to prove that you had paid for the item in question, you received no apology. Write a letter to the manager of the shop, saying why you are angry and disappointed and asking for some kind of compensation for the way you were treated. Say that you will take further action if you do not receive an official apology.

Dear Mr Menton, I am writing about a recent incident in your shop in which I had the misfortune to be involved. The incident I refer to is when one of your staff stopped me and accused me of shoplifting in front of about 20 other people. Needless to say, this was an extremely embarrassing situation for me. Thank goodness I had kept the receipt to prove that I had paid for everything on my person at the time, but to be accused of stealing like that in front of all those people — some of whom I knew personally — was very humiliating and degrading. The shop assistant used a very accusatory tone… But the thing that angered and dismayed me most was not the accusation itself — after all, misunderstandings happen sometimes — but the accuser's failure to acknowledge his mistake or apologise to me. When I showed him the receipt, he simply walked off mumbling about how 'shady' a character I looked. Considering how much embarrassment I was caused, I do not think it was too much to have expected a simple apology either, do you? Which brings me back to why I am writing; if I cannot get an apology from this assistant, then I would like a formal one from you instead. If an official apology is not forthcoming and I am not compensated in some way — with a shopping voucher for example — then be warned that I will take further steps to ensure that I get justice. I look forward to hearing from you at the very earliest convenience. Yours sincerely, Michael Mathers

What this Grade-5 complaint gets right

Named recipient → sign-off Yours sincerely. Perfect pair. Structure: incident → what specifically angered you → what you now want → warning. Register control: strong feeling without losing formality — «Needless to say», «Thank goodness», «Considering how much embarrassment I was caused». Escalation phrase: «I will take further steps to ensure that I get justice» — direct but non-threatening. Note the passive: «I was caused», «I am not compensated» — passive is the standard register-lift in complaint letters.

Source · verified online

engxam.com — «Letter · model answers & examiner comments» (C1 Advanced / CAE bank)

https://engxam.com/handbook/letter-model-answers-c1-advanced-cae/

Section «CAE Letter Example: Letter of Complaint» · Grade: 5 · accessed 2 Aug 2026

Formal writing hides the actor. Complaint letters, official notices, and academic writing use passive to shift focus from who did it to what was done. Twelve tenses, one formula: be + past participle.

The passive-report construction (subject + be + reporting verb + to-infinitive) hides the source of a claim. Journalists, scientists and diplomats use it constantly: It is thought that… / He is believed to be…

Reporting verbs that take this construction

believe · say · think · know · claim · report · consider · rumour · allege · estimate · expect · understand

Three grammar rooms Olympiad writing constantly tests. Get the meaning gap right — graders mark it as «Language range».

Wish + past perfect — the regret construction

wish + past simple — regret about now. I wish I knew the answer.
wish + past perfect — regret about the past. I wish I had told her sooner.
wish + would + inf — annoyance / desire for change. I wish he would stop lying.

Inversion means reversing subject and auxiliary. It sounds formal and «written» — perfect for the last paragraph of a complaint or a persuasive opening. Cambridge / British Council split it into three rooms.

Construction 1 · Conditional inversion (drops the «if»)

Construction 2 · Negative-adverbial inversion

When you front any of these adverbs / adverbial phrases, inversion follows.

Construction 3 · Hardly / Scarcely / Barely + when · No sooner + than

Two events, one quickly after the other. Use past perfect in the inverted clause.

Timed, in the box below. Use the phrase bank from Section 2, at least one passive-report construction from Section 5, and at least one inversion from Section 7. Word count: 220–260 words. Time: 40 minutes.