Exam Technique

Cloze Exams
1. Pay special attention to the heading
• Does it give you any clues?

2. Read the entire passage through saying ‘blank’ or

‘space’ in your mind every time you see a word
missing.
• This is to give you an overall idea of what the passage is
about.
• Ask yourself:
• What is this about?
• Who is involved?
• Where is this set?
• When in time is this set?
• Why has this passage been written?
 Cloze Exams
3. Complete the passage in pencil
selecting the best word that fits in each space.

4. Check that you have put a word in every

available space.

5. Read back through the passage, making sure

absolutely everything should now make sense!
• You may need to read through at least two more
times to ensure you have everything right!
• Remember the completed cloze passage is
meant to make sense.
Reading Comprehension Exams
1. The purpose of a Reading Comprehension
exam is for the marker to see how well you
understand a text.

2. There are two main types of questions in a

Reading Comprehension Test:
• Questions that ask you to find the answer from
the text
o In other words, ‘be a word detective.’
• Questions that ask you to give your opinion,
come to a conclusion, or display your general
knowledge on a topic or subject.
o This is why it is always important to continue reading
in your spare time to build your personal knowledge
bank!
Reading Comprehension Exams

To complete a Reading Comprehension Test:

• Pay special attention to the title – what does it tell you?

• Skim read the document to get a general idea of what
the test is about.
• Read the text again in more detail.
– Circle any words you don’t understand – remember, some
of the questions may relate to this part of the text!
• Read the sentences around these words to try and
predict the meaning of these words.
Reading Comprehension Exams

OK, you have finished reading the text for now.

• Read through all of the questions.

– Think about which ones will be easiest to answer and
complete these first.
• Go back and read the text again to help answer the
more difficult questions.
• Check all of your answers, remember, you may need
to read the text 5-6 times in total to make sure you
really have answered the questions properly.
– And the further you advance, the bigger the
chance that you will get ‘trick questions!’
Reading Comprehension Exams

Finally:

• Punctuation, sentence structure and

grammar are all important in a
Reading Comprehension Test. At
the very least use capital letters,
full sentences, and full stops.