Reading

© The British Council 2012. All rights reserved.

Information about the test

1 © The British Council 2012. All rights reserved.

The reading test

The basics

The reading test has 40 questions to answer in total. All questions are equally important: you get one mark for each correct answer. The test lasts for 60 minutes. This includes time to copy your answers onto the answer sheet. No additional time is given to transfer your answers at the end of 60 minutes. The content of the test will depend on whether you are taking the Academic or General Training modules. Academic module overview This module contains three reading texts. Texts come from magazines, journals, books and newspapers and are written for a general or non-specialist audience. Texts may include diagrams, graphs and illustrations. General Training module overview This module contains three sections of progressively more difficult content.

What kind of tasks to expect

Expect to find a variety of task types and answer formats in both test modules. Here are examples of the main task types. You may also find short-answer questions, summary completion and table completion as well as various forms of multiple choice.

Any of the following (though not all) may appear in any section:

Sentence completion

Various kinds of matching Labelling flow-charts or other kinds of diagram

Identifying the writer’s claims or views

Identifying information

Section Focus

1 may contain two or three short texts relevant to basic linguistic survival in English, such as public notices, advertisements and timetables

2 contains two texts which focus on the workplace environment, such as job descriptions, contracts and staff development and training materials

3 one long text designed to test your ability to cope with longer, more complex passages found in newspapers, magazines, and fiction and non-fiction book extracts

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British Council 2

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to a text in

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British Council 2

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her kinds of

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WO WORDS

7–9 on your

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following st

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TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN

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British Council 2

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ms or views

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British Council 2

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to a text in

paragraphs

contains the

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the test des

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6 © The British Council 2012. All rights reserved.

How to approach the different task types

Make sure that your answers keep to the word limit stated in the test paper. For example, if you are asked for “NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS”, then do not write more.

With multiple choice questions, try and use common sense to eliminate some of the answer options.

When matching headings to paragraphs, read the headings first. Then read the first and

last sentence of each paragraph. This is often enough to match headings correctly.

When gap-filling, read the gapped text carefully and think about both the meaning and grammar of suitable words to fill the gaps. Note down your ideas in the gap on the question paper so that when you read the text you are then reading to check your ideas.

Never leave a gap blank. You do not lose marks for incorrect answers.

In the test…

Do not forget that you must write your answers directly on your answer sheet. You will not be given extra time to do this at the end of the 60-minute reading test.

Remember that your written answers need to be grammatically accurate and spelled correctly. You will lose marks for incorrect spelling.

Think about skipping difficult questions and coming back to them later. If you do this, make sure you highlight the questions you skip so that you can find them again.

Good luck in your reading test!