1. Manage your time
- You have 60 minutes to answer 40 questions. That means 90 seconds per question, excluding reading time! That’s not much, so you must learn to manage your time effectively. Do not waste time on questions you don’t see the answer to. Skip them, move on and, if you have time, you can come back to them later.
2. Decide the best order of operations
- Some candidates find it better to read the questions before the text; others prefer to read the passage first, then look at the questions. Try both ways and see which suits you best.
3. Know where to look for answers
- Questions are usually in the same order as the answers in the text. This means the answer to question 1 will be earlier in the text than the answer to question 2. Bear this in mind as you look for answers. If you think you see the answer to question 7 before the answer to question 3, you are probably wrong. Make sure you double-check it.
4. Don’t panic when things get hard
- The reading passages generally go from easier to harder and so do the questions. So don’t panic if you find the later texts and questions more difficult — they are supposed to be!
5. Make every mark count
- Following on from tip 4, do the earlier questions first to get easy marks and gain confidence. Don’t forget that each correct answer gets you one mark. It doesn’t matter if it is an ‘easy’ answer or a more ‘difficult’ answer.
