What it tests
Reading fiction and non-fiction, including poetry, magazine articles and reports, on screen. Questions ask about meaning, tone and the writer’s purpose. Three of the 14 questions have several parts.
Question types you’ll practise
One text, one question
A question about a single extract or poem.
Several parts
One question with a set of answers to choose, such as gaps in a passage.
Poetry
Images, tone and what a line suggests.
Comparing texts
Matching statements to the short texts they best fit.
A sample question
Poem
The birdbath holds a little sky,
A round and silver seat;
A walnut shell has drifted in
And rocks on tiny feet.
It does not sink; it turns instead,
A stubborn, polished boat,
With one pale seam of milk-white grain
Running along its throat.
The magpies come with tilted heads,
As if they know its name;
They hop the rim, then step away
As though it were a flame.
A blackbird drinks, then startles back,
Its beak a shining bead;
The shell gives back the feathered face
And keeps what it has seen.
By noon, the water carries silt,
A faintly pebbled gloss;
The shell grows heavier with light
And slower in its course.
By afternoon, a bee arrives,
Mistaken for a flower,
And circles once above the rim
Like thought at the wrong hour.
When evening cools the garden beds,
The shell still turns and turns;
It looks less like a nut now
Than something that has learned.
It has no root, no wing, no feet,
Yet drifts where currents lean;
So small a thing can hold the day
Without being seen.
And I, who meant to tip it out,
Leave it there instead;
For what can a handsful of water know
That a quiet shell has said?
The birdbath holds a little sky,
And dusk is not required;
The shell keeps circling in its bowl,
As if the world were wider.
What mood is created by the final two stanzas?
Worked solution
Answer: C. The ending feels calm, thoughtful, and a little mysterious: the shell seems to have 'learned', and the speaker leaves it there after a moment of reflection. The final lines broaden the scene into a gentle idea about the world being larger than it seems. A is wrong because there is no urgency or danger. B is wrong because the tone is not comic. D is wrong because the poem ends with wonder, not despair.
Pacing
With 40 minutes for 14 questions, a long text can take a large share of the time. A full timed mock shows where your child’s minutes go.