Reading

Reading

1. Time management

   • The order in which these questions appear often changes. For example, I might get fill in the blanks as your second question or your last question
   • Time 32-42

2. Multiple choice, chose single answer, part 1

   • Step 1: Read the question first - Don't look at the options now
   • Step 2 - Quickly skim the text to get the main idea to know what's the passage mainly about.
   • Step 3 - Find key words in the question. These are words which carry important meaning in the question
   • Step 4 - Find the key word, I have found my answer, read that part of the text.
   • Step 5 - Now look at the options - Mark the correct answer
   • Step 6- Remember the answer option is a PARAPHRASE of the sentence in which the keywords are (very important)

3. Multiple choice, chose single answer, part 2

   • Some question in this part usually asks me about THE MAIN IDEA of the passage
   • Step 1 - Read the question. Usually, it's like, what is the main purpose of the passage or what is the main idea of the passage or which of the following completely or accurately describes the passage or which of the following completely or accurately describes the passage.
   • Step 2 - Find the topic sentence in the paragraphs
   • Step 3 - The answer is a PARAPHRASE of the topic sentence.
   • Remember, unlike this question, a topic sentence might not be always the first sentence. Now in the answer, they have replace six billion by "given figure"
   • The estimated points in the time (12 Oct, 1999) at which the world's population reached a given figure (six billion)

4. Section 2: Multiple choice, chose multiple answers

   • Details
     • In this section, I am given a text up to 300 words.
     • I am given a question about the passage.
     • I have to choose the correct answer from a group of 5-7 answer option
   • Scoring guide
     • Negative marking in this section.
     • According to the official guide, for every right option I get 1 mark but for every wrong option I get -1. So, if a test taker select two options, one is right and one is wrong, e will score zero marks
   • Strategy
     • Step 1 - Read and understand the question
     • Step 2 - Read the options
     • Step 3 - Find the keywords in the options, and find the section of the text which contains these keywords or SYNONYMS of keywords
     • Step 4 - Check if the option is wrong or right, mostly the wrong option has OPPOSING information of what is given in the passage. Don't choose an option simply because it has words from the text, often these opitons are wrong.
     • Step 5 - Most of the times only two are correct, but can be more...so make sure I check every option.

5. Section 3: Reorder paragraphs

   • Details
     • In this section, I am given several sentences of a paragraph in random order.
     • I have to arrange these sentences in the correct order to form a paragraph.
     • These sentences are given in a text box
   • Scoring Guide
     • For each pair of correct adjacent sentence, I score 1 mark.
     • The minimum score is zero
     • So, I will still score partial marks, if I place two sentences in correct order.
   • Strategy
     • The first step is to find the topic sentence or the first sentence of the paragraph
       • Knowledge
         • Proper Noun: Name of a particular thing, place or person is proper noun. For example, Sydney, Apple laptop and Brad Pitt.
         • Common Noun: Name of a common thing, place or person is common noun. For example: city, laptop and actor.
         • Pronound: These are words which refers back to a noun, for example: he, she, it, they, that, these, this, those
       • How?
         • 1 A topic sentence should introduce sth or some idea
         • 2 It should have proper nouns only
         • 3 It should have no "the" "this" "that" etc. followed by common noun. For example: the city, this place, that thing
         • 4 No pronouns
     • Finding the second sentence and so on
       • The first sentence will have a proper noun. So the next sentence will have a common noun with a pronoun, in other words, a reference to the proper noun
       • Remember to check the flow of ideas in the paragraph as well.

6. Fill in the blanks

   • Details
     • In this section, I am given a text with missing words, I am given several options below the text
     • I have to drag the correct answer to the blank
     • There are more options than the blanks, so I will not use all the options provided.
     • I have to predict the words by using contextual and grammatical cues
     • I am given 4-5 of this type of the task
   • Strategy
     • Step 1 - Read the whole paragraph and understand the meaning of the text. Remember this passage test me to guess the meaning of the unknown words. I can only do this if you understand the overall text.
     • Step 2 - Now drag the blanks which are easy or the one I am sure of, I am left with fewer options to choose from
     • Step 3 - If one word in the text collocates wit an option in the blank, that's my right answer.
     • Step 4 - Decide on grammar and tense. For example, if a blank can be filled by a word in present tense, eliminate the one which are in past and future.
     • Finally, I don't have to follow these steps in order except step 1

7. Fill in the blanks, reading and writing.

   • Details
     • In the test, I am given 4-5 of this task
     • I am given a text on the screen with blanks
     • I select the blank from a drop-down list of several response options
     • This task contributes to my reading and writing score
     • This task tests your overall understanding of a text.
     • I have to decide the correct blank by the correct tone of the context a word appears in (Clare Walsh, 2012). Each text given is up to 300 words and each text has up to six blanks
     • The tone of the text maybe formal or informal. If I am given a formal text, I should select an option from the blanks which is formal.
     • If I have mastered reading fill in the blanks in the previous section. This one is much easier, as I select one from a drop-down list.
   • Strategy
     • Step 1 - Skim the text quickly to get an overall idea of the passage. Remember time management is crucial in reading section.
     • Step 2 - For each blank read the WHOLE sentence and understand it. Don't try to answer the blank by reading half of the sentence.
     • I can answer the missing blank by grammatical cues, vocabulary and collocations. Remember, if I have good vocabulary, I can answer most of the blanks easily.
     • Eliminate options which are clearly wrong.
     • Never leave a blank. If I don't know the answer just guess it. I can still be right. Remember, there is no negative marking in this section.