• Reading 40 questions 60 minutes:• Three reading passages with a total of 2000 to

2750 words(Academic) or 2000 to 2500 (General Training).

• All answers must be entered on an answer sheet during the test.

• No extra time is allowed to transfer answers.

• Academic:• Each section contains a long text• Authentic material• Texts are taken from magazines, journals , books

and newspapers which have been written for a non-specialist audience. They deal with issues which are interesting and accessible to candidates entering undergraduate or postgraduate courses or seeking professional registration.

• Al least one text contains detailed logical argument .

• Text range from the descriptive and factual to the discursive and analytical

• Texts may contain non-verbal materials such as diagrams , graphs or illustrations.

• If texts contain technical terms , then a simple glossary is provided.

• General Training Reading• Section 1 contains 2 or3 short factual texts• Texts are taken from notices, advertisements,

official documents, booklets, newspapers, instruction manuals , company handouts, leaflets, timetables, books and magazines.(everyday life)

• The first section, ’social survival’, contains texts relevant to basic linguistic survival in English.

• The second section contains 2 short factual texts focusing on work –related issues(applying for jobs, company policies…)

• ‘Training survival ’, focuses on the training context-either training itself or welfare needs.

• This section involves a text or texts of more complex language.

• The third section ‘general reading’, involves longer, more complex texts.(general interest)

Task Types• Questions are chosen from the following types:• Multiple choice• Short answer questions• Sentence completion• Note completion• Summary completion• Labelling a diagram• Table/flow-chart completion• Matching headings• Identifying writer’s claims/views Yes/No/Not given• Identifying information True/False /Not given• Locating information• Classification• Matching information • Matching sentence ending

SKILLS ASSESSED

• Reading for gist• Reading for main ideas• Reading for detail• Understanding inferences and implying

meaning• Recognising a writer’s opinions , attitudes and

purpose• Following the development of an argument

• Efficient ways to improve reading skills.

• The Academic Reading module is a little bit different from the General Training – instead of 4 or 5 it has only 3 passages (more difficult ones). Actually, the first passage is usually the easiest and then they become more and more difficult.

Tips

•  Don’t read the whole passage. Train yourself to scan and notice only the important information. After you go over the text for the first time, you should know what each paragraph is about, what its main idea is. This way of “reading” saves you a lot of priceless time.

• Watch your time closely. Don’t divide the 60 minutes you have into 3 equal parts of 20 minutes. Why? Because the last passage is the hardest and you are going to need more than 20 minutes to do it. So I suggest 15 – 20 – 25, but feel free to look for any other timing that works for you.

• Don’t forget to copy your answers to the Answer Sheet. You can write them in the question booklet as you read the passage, but you get your score based on what is written in the Answer Sheet.

• If you can’t find an answer to a certain question – mark it with a big fat ??? so you can easily see it later and move on to the next one, don’t get stuck. Later you can get back, find all the question marks and try answering those questions again if you have time left.

• Count the words in your answer. If the instructions say “answer in 3 words” – you need to answer in EXACTLY 3 WORDS, when even an “a” and a “the” count as a word!

• When you practice, read your passage, answer the questions, compare your answers to the Answer Sheet and pay special attention to the wrong answers. You need to understand WHY you made those mistakes and remember them, so you won’t make them again.

“How to begin

• Before turning to the questions, take a brief look at the text to gain a general idea of what it is about.

• Read the questions clear and more than once to be able to answer more efficiently.

• After having an idea of what the text and especially each paragraph is mainly about, it is wise to determine which questions belong to which paragraphs. You can also write a short title for each paragraph to make the classification of the questions you need to answer easier. It takes less time to search for a particular point when you know what each paragraph contains.

Dealing with difficult questions

• When facing a difficult or confusing question, the best thing to do is to leave it and turn to other sections and fill out the other blanks in your answer sheet. When you are done with the easy questions, you can go back to the difficult ones and this time, you have more time to concentrate on them and are, therefore, more relaxed and able to think clearly, without worrying about other questions as you have already done them.

Tip for TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN

Do not in any way confuse a NO with a NOT GIVEN or a FALSE with a NOT GIVEN upon reaching YES, NO, NOT GIVEN or TRUE, FALSE, NOT GIVEN questions. When a phrase is FALSE, make sure to find its exact opposite in the text. If you cannot, or if such a phrase is not mentioned, then it is NG. As for YES or TRUE phrases, you must be able to locate them as they are often clearly stated in the text, paraphrased and with words of similar meaning.

Write answers in the right places

It is quite essential to check whether you have written the answers in their right places. For instance, if you write the answer of question 12 beside question 13, then both are marked as false and just like that, you lose two points, even if both answers are correct. So check the questions and the answers every now and then.

• Don’t re-think your answersDo not dwell too much on your already-answered questions. Chances are that you would not only correct your answers but choose wrong ones

• Some texts contain an opinion which you have to recognize. Remember that sentences starting with phrases like 'While it can be argued that…' do NOT express the author's opinion, they are more often a statement of someone else's opinion.

• You might get a text with masses and masses of long, complicated words. Very often these words are key to the meaning of a sentence and therefore key to answering a question. However, equally often these words are unnecessary - they are adjectives or adverbs that provide greater description rather than play a part in meaning. If you start focusing on words you don't understand, you will run out of time. If the some words are too difficult, ignore them.

• Eleven…………………………………….lucky……………… landing…………………….Maredy………Wednesday…………………….Cessna………………………………… damaged…………survived…….injury.

• ………………………….scheduled…………….Wye….. Rambak…………………………………….director……….yesterday…………………..investigator………… safety department……already…….determine....................

• If you get a text with a lot of dates, circle them as you go along - chances are the dates are going to be important. If you circle them you can find them again easily.

• If a reading text is very specific in topic (e.g. the development of the computer chip), don't think to yourself that you don't know anything about that topic and therefore can't answer the questions - the more specific the topic, the more factual and straightforward it will to allow everyone to have a chance at answering the questions.

• Make the most of your Reading test:• look out for the title, headings and any special features

such as capital letters, underlining, italics, figures, graphs and tables

• make sure that you understand the questions and follow instructions carefully

• pay attention to timing; do not spend too long on one passage or question

• do not try and read every word; remember, you are reading for a purpose

• if you do not know the answer to a question, attempt it but do not waste time; move quickly onto the next one

• do not panic if you do not know anything about the subject of the text; all the answers can be found in the text

• the word(s) you use must be taken from the Reading text; you must not change the form of the word(s) in the text

• do not worry if there is a word that you do not understand – you may not need to use it

• check your spelling• be careful to use singular and plural correctly

• focus precisely on what you are asked to do in ‘completion’ type questions

• if the question asks you to complete the note ‘in the…’ and the correct answer is ‘evening’, just use ‘evening’ as your answer; note that ‘in the evening’ would be incorrect

• pay attention to the word limit; for example, if you are asked to complete a sentence using no more than two words, if the correct answer is ‘silk shirt’, the answer ‘shirt made of silk’ would be incorrect

• attempt all questions; there are no penalties for incorrect answers, so you have nothing to lose

• check your answers

How We Read

• Although you spend a good part of your day reading, have you ever thought about how you read?

• How do your eyes make sense of the shapes of the letters, and then put those letters together to form a sentence that you can understand?

• When you actually think about it, reading is quite a complex skill. Previously, scientists believed that when you read, both of your eyes focused on a particular letter in a word. Recent research shows this isn't the case.

• Scientists now believe that each of your eyes lock onto a different letter at the same time, usually two characters apart. Your brain then fuses these images together to form a word. This happens almost instantaneously, as we zip through pages and pages of text!

Advantages of Speed Reading

• Many people read at an average rate of 250 words per minute. This means that an average page in a book or document would take you 1-2 minutes to read.

• However, imagine if you could double your rate to 500 words per minute. You could zip through all of this content in half the time. You could then spend the time saved on other tasks, or take a few extra minutes to relax and de-stress.

• Another important advantage of speed reading is that you can better comprehend the overall structure of an argument. This leads to a "bigger picture" understanding, which can greatly benefit your work and career.

Breaking Poor Reading Habits

• If you're like most people, then you probably have one or more reading habits that slow you down. Becoming a better reader means overcoming these bad habits, so that you can clear the way for new, effective ways of reading.

Sub-Vocalization

• Sub-vocalization is the habit of pronouncing each word in your head as you read it. Most people do this to some extent or another.

• When you sub-vocalize, you "hear" the word being spoken in your mind. This takes much more time than is necessary, because you can understand a word more quickly than you can say it.

• To turn off the voice in your head, you have to first acknowledge that it's there, and then you have to practice "not speaking." When you sit down to read, tell yourself that you will not sub-vocalize. You need to practice this until this bad habit is erased. Reading blocks of words also helps, as it's harder to vocalize a block of words.

• Eliminating sub-vocalization alone can increase your reading speed by an astounding amount.

Reading Word-by-Word

• Not only is it slow to read word-by-word, but when you concentrate on separate words, you often miss the overall concept of what's being said. People who read each word as a distinct unit can understand less than those who read faster by "chunking" words together in blocks. (Think about how your eyes are moving as you read this article. Are you actually reading each word, or are you reading blocks of two, or three, or five words?)

• Practice expanding the number of words that you read at a time. You may also find that you can increase the number of words you read in a single fixation by holding the text a little further from your eyes. The more words you can read in each block, the faster you'll read!

Inefficient Eye Motion

• Slow readers tend to focus on each word, and work their way across each line. The eye can actually span about 1.5 inches at a time, which, for an average page, encompasses four or five words. Related to this is the fact that most readers don't use their peripheral vision to see words at the ends of each line.

• To overcome this, "soften" your gaze when you read – by relaxing your face and expanding your gaze, you'll begin to see blocks of words instead of seeing each word as distinct unit. As you get good at this, your eyes will skip faster and faster across the page.

• When you get close to the end of the line, let your peripheral vision take over to see the last set of words. This way you can quickly scan across and down to the next line.

Regression

• Regression is the unnecessary re-reading of material.• Sometimes people get into the habit of skipping back to

words they have just read, while, other times, they may jump back a few sentences, just to make sure that they read something right. When you regress like this, you lose the flow and structure of the text, and your overall understanding of the subject can decrease.

• Be very conscious of regression, and don't allow yourself to re-read material unless you absolutely have to.

• To reduce the number of times your eyes skip back, run a pointer along the line as you read. This could be a finger, or a pen or pencil. Your eyes will follow the tip of your pointer, helping you avoid skipping back. The speed at which you read using this method will largely depend on the speed at which you move the pointer.

• To determine your current reading speed, take a book and count the number of words in 5 lines. Divide this number of words by 5, and you have your average number of words-per-line.

• Example: 62 words/5 lines = 12.4, which you round to 12 words-per-line.

• Next, count the number of text lines on 5 pages and divide by 5 to arrive at the average number of lines per page. Multiply this by average number of words-per-line, and you have your average number of words per page.

• Example: 154 lines/5 pages = 30.8, rounded to 31 lines per page x 12 words-per-line = 372 words per page

• Mark your first line and read with a timer for 1 minute exactly-do not read faster than normal, and read for comprehension. After exactly one minute, multiply the number of lines by your average words-per-line to determine your current words-per-minute (wpm) rate.