Reading and Use of English

The reading and use of English paper requires candidates to understand text from various sources, such as non-fiction books, newspapers, magazines or articles. It tests the candidates ability to not only understand vocabulary, but also to understand different grammatical structures.

Candidates will have one hour and fifteen minutes to complete the paper. During that time, there are seven different parts consisting of fifty two questions that will need to completed, and in total the candidate can expect to read around two thousand five hundred words from different texts.

The different parts of the reading and use of English paper are as follows:

• Part 1 – Multiple choice cloze
• Part 2 – Open cloze
• Part 3 – Word formation
• Part 4 – Keyword Transformation
• Part 5 – Multiple Choice
• Part 6 – Gapped text
• Part 7 – Multiple matching

General Preparation for the Reading and Use of English Paper

In order to prepare fully for this paper candidates should practice reading a variety of different texts in English from sources such as books, magazines, newspaper and online articles about different topics. Doing this will help improve vocabulary and will also allow the candidate to become much more familiar with the different grammatical structures used in English.

When preparing for the exam candidates should write down any words or phrases that they don’t know. They should first try and guess the meaning of by the context of the sentence or the paragraph that it’s contained in and then check using a dictionary. It is important to get used to guessing the meaning words or phrases from the context as dictionaries are not allowed in the exam.

In order help remember and learn new vocabulary those preparing for the exam should try and make a note of any words or phrases that they don’t know in a folder or a notebook where they can include the word or phrase, a definition, an example and if needed, a translation in their native language,

One of the most important parts of completing the reading and use of English paper is managing time correctly. Candidates have just one hour and fifteen minutes to complete all seven parts. If they spend too long on any one part, they will not have enough time to complete the other parts in the exam. So, monitoring time is essential and is something that should be done when practicing sample papers or questions so they have a clear idea of how long it is taking them to do the different parts of the exam.

Correct spelling and clear handwriting are also essential for this paper. Candidates should be aware that if any words are spelt incorrectly they will not receive marks, or if their handwriting is not readable they will also not receive any marks.

Practicing with sample papers or different exam style questions will help candidates get used to the exam format for this paper as well as helping them improve their overall vocabulary and grammar, which will not only give candidates benefits in the reading and use of English paper, but also in the other papers in the B2 first exam,