Tips for the Reading Test - Part 1

Test structure

The structure of Academic and General Training Reading tests is different. Academic Reading on most cases consists of 3 large texts from newspapers or magazines. In General Training there are several smaller passages that are taken from advertisements, official documents, booklets, manuals and 2 or 3 larger texts taken from books, magazines or newspapers.

Like in the Listening test, questions in the Reading test are given in groups. Instructions will tell you which group of questions belongs to which paragraph or portion of text. You may see the questions before or after the passage they belong to.


Manage your own time

As I said before, time is your greatest enemy. In the Listening test it was managed for you, but not in the Reading test. So manage it very carefully yourself.
When you receive the Reading booklet, first of all count how many passages are there. Let’s say there are 4 passages in the booklet. It means that you have 15 minutes for each passage. Write the time when you should start and when you should end working on each passage and stick to it. Use 13 minutes to actually answer the questions (write the answers on the booklet pages) and 2 to copy your answers to the Answer Sheet. If you didn’t finish a passage on time, move to the next one anyway.
And whatever you do, please do not forget about the Answering Sheet (remember the guy with the ZERO score?)

If you have some time left in the end of Reading test, make sure that you didn’t forget to answer any question, check and double check your answers. It can add you a few “easy” points if you find mistakes before the examiner does

Don’t read – scan!

It sounds absurd that you don’t need to read on a Reading test, right? Anyway, it’s true. The biggest mistake you could make is to start the test by reading the whole passage.
The best thing is to scan quickly through the text. Don't try to understand every word!
Just go over it and get the idea of what each paragraph is about. Usually you don't need to read the whole paragraph – a couple of first sentences are enough.




Make a map

The text before you is like a new strange territory, it is easy to get lost inside all these words. What you need is a map that will help you to orientate. Every paragraph in the passage has its own main idea, different from all other paragraphs. Write on the margins near the paragraph what is its topic, main idea. If writing takes too much time, underline the words in the paragraph that explain its main idea. Congratulations! You have just created a map that later will guide you through the search for answers.