LESSON THREE: READING

• Middelbare school

FCE Reading revision

FCE Reading Exam

MANAGE YOUR TIME ON THE FCE READING PAPER

Bad reading techniques are one of the main reasons for running out of time on the FCE Reading Paper. Not only do you have to read about 2,200 words, you will also need to answer in total 52 questions in the space of one hour and fifteen minutes.

There is no doubt that this part of the FCE exam paper is a lot of time pressure. You only get 75 minutes to complete seven tasks. Without the right strategy you might not even be able to look at all the different parts

Skimming

You use this technique when you want to roughly know what a text is about. Move your eyes rapidly across the text so that you get the general meaning of the text without any of the details.

Effective skimming can be difficult if you are not familiar with the vocabulary as the eye tends to stop when it comes across an unfamiliar word. The trick is for you to train yourself to avoid this problem.

1

Scanning

You use this technique when you need to find answers to specific questions. The answers you will be looking for are often short and factual and may be numbers or names.

The most effective way to scan a text is to first read the question and then let your eye run over the text until you find the relevant section. To find the answer, concentrate on this section only. This technique allows you to answer the questions without having to read the whole text. Something that will save you time on the FCE exam.

2

About Part 1 - “multiple-choice cloze” 

 In the FCE Reading Paper, Part 1, you can be tested on vocabulary, idioms, collocations, shades of meaning, phrasal verbs, fixed phrases, etc. 

Part 1 has a short text with 8 multiple-choice questions. Each question has four choices: A, B, C, or D. 

This part of the test is quick. If you know the answer, that’s great! If not, take a guess and move on to the next part of the exam.

 

How to Do Part 1 of FCE Reading and Use of English 

1. Read the title and text QUICKLY. Ignore the gaps and options. Read fast to get the MAIN IDEA of the text

2. Look at question 1. Look carefully before and after the gap. Circle or highlight any words that could be parts of phrasal verbs, collocations, idioms, etc. 

How to Do Part 1 of FCE Reading and Use of English 

2. Look at question 1. Look carefully before and after the gap. Circle or highlight any words that could be parts of phrasal verbs, collocations, idioms, etc. 

3. Look at the options for question 1. If you don’t know the answer, cross out any answers that you think are wrong. If you need to, take a guess.

4. Move on to question 2 and repeat the process.

Highlight or circle words before or after the gap like prepositions, verbs, and nouns. These will help you identify phrasal verbs, collocations, and idioms.

Don't Spend too long on Part 1 of the test. If you don't know the answer, just guess and move on to the next part. 

Don't leave the answer sheet blank for any question. If you don't know the correct answer you should always make a guess.

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What you have to do in Part 5

Multiple choice. You read a text with around 650-700 words and answer six multiple-choice questions. The focus in this task is on many different reading skills like gist, detailed reading, the opinion or attitude of the author, etc.

 This part is important because you get 2 marks for each correct answer.

Always six questions with four possible answers A-D. The first and the last question are often more general and ask about the author’s attitude or opinion while the other four are more specific. 

Exam tips

1. Read the text quickly
2. Analyse the questions (not the answers)
3. Try to answer the questions (without options A-D)
4. Compare your answers with options A-D
5. Check the text again if you have to

Read the text quickly

It is a good idea to read the whole text before jumping directly into answering the questions. The text is quite long, so you have to read pretty quickly. Otherwise, you won't have enough time left for the other tasks.

By reading the text once you learn about the topic and general idea of the text. You already know what is happening without looking for specific information and this general understanding can help you complete the task and ,especially, with the first and the last question.

2. Analyse the questions (not the answers)

Now it is time to look at the questions. Read them very carefully and underline important words. Do not look at the answers, yet. Cambridge tries to confuse you,  so make sure that you know exactly what you have to look for in the text.

3. Try to answer the questions (without options A-D)

Now we test our own comprehension skills without any help (nor confusing wrong options). 

Try and find the answer yourself (REMEMBER TO ONLY LOOK IN THE PART OF THE TEXT THAT THE QUESTION REFERS TO!)

4. Compare your answers with options A-D

Please be careful to check that the WHOLE sentence matches the information in the text and not just the part in the answer so read both parts together and double check before making a decision.

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Exam tips

In Reading & Use of English Part 5 you get 2 marks for each correct answer so it makes sense to spend a little bit more time on this task. If you get full marks in parts 5 and 6, you have already passed the reading portion of the exam so try to get it right.

About Part 6 - GAPPED TEXT

 You read a text in which six sentences are missing. You have to put one sentence in each gap. However, there are seven sentences to choose from. In this part you have to show that you can find information which connects the text with the removed sentences.

You can see the six gaps as numbered boxes. You normally find only one gap per paragraph. The missing sentences are always on the following page and look like this:

Remember that there is always one extra sentence that you don’t need to use, which makes the task a little bit more difficult. 

Later in the lesson, I’m going to give you a few tips on how to work out the unnecessary one.

For Reading & Use of English Part 6 have a look at the steps below:

1. Read the text quickly ignoring the gaps
2. Analyse the sentences
3. Analyse what is before and after the gaps and find a match - 
4. Read the text again

1. Read the text quickly ignoring the gaps

Read the paragraph and make a short note, then move on to the next paragraph. This strategy can help you a lot once you try to put the sentences in the gaps.

2. Analyse the sentences

Part 6 asks you to find the connections between the text and the sentences so you need to look for connecting words or ideas. Things like time periods, contrast, reason & result, examples, repetition, verb tenses, pronouns, determiners, etc. It can really be a wide variety of signal words or phrases that tell you which sentence to put in which gap.

3. Analyse what is before and after the gaps and find a match

The next step is to find a home for our sentence in one of the gaps. To do this we have to check if there is something around one of the gaps to connect the paragraph to our sentence.

4. Read the text again

Please don’t skip this step.

I often see students who are confident and finish the task quite quickly, but then they find mistakes because reading the sentences again in context reveals to them that their first thought wasn’t correct. Take the 1-2 minutes to check your answers one more time and then move on to the next part.

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Reading & Use of English Part 7

Multiple matching. You get a text which is broken up into 4-6 parts and ten questions. Your task is to match each question to the part that gives you the answer to the question. The focus is on reading for detailed information.

Part 7

1. Analyse the questions

DON'T jump straight into reading the text and matching the paragraphs to the questions. Instead, the first thing you want to do is look at the questions. Read them carefully and underline the key words that tell you what exactly to look for. Be aware that there will be similar information in the different paragraphs of the text so you have to get it 100% right, not just 80%

2. Go through the text paragraph by paragraph

DON'T waste of time in Part 7 by trying to find the answers question by question. 

What you really want to do is to go paragraph by paragraph. That means you read the first paragraph and check which of the questions are definitely answered there before you move on to the next one and repeat it. 

Finally ... Preferred order

Not all answers are equal

1 mark: Parts 1, 2, 3 and 7

2 marks: Parts 4, 5 and 6

Get your marks in first

A very popular strategy is to focus on the parts with 2 marks for a correct answer first before moving on to the rest.  Maybe try doing the exam in this order: 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 1, 7

Good luck !