What it tests
Reading fiction, non-fiction and poetry closely, on screen. Questions ask about meaning, tone and the writer’s purpose, not only facts from the text. Three of the 17 questions have several parts, so there are 38 answers in all.
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
It was the door, not fully closed at night,
that kept me standing longer than I meant,
a narrow line of hallway light laid down
across the boards like something half-remembered.
Beyond it, you were sleeping on your side,
one hand beneath your cheek, the blanket loose,
your face made younger by the ordinary peace
that comes when no one asks the world of you.
How easily the years disguise themselves.
The room had altered less than you had done,
and yet beneath the sharpened planes of age
there stayed the softer map I used to know.
I thought then how childhood never leaves,
but settles deeper under speech and habit,
like rain absorbed by timber in a house
that still releases weather after storms.
Outside, the dark pressed gently at the glass.
Inside, your breathing moved the quiet on,
and when I reached to close the door at last,
I left it open, and went back alone.
In the first stanza, what effect does the partly open door have on the narrator?
Worked solution
Answer: A. The line 'like something half-remembered' suggests the door and the strip of light trigger reflection and memory. A is therefore correct. B and C are not supported by the calm tone, and D contradicts the narrator’s quiet, lingering observation.
Pacing
With 45 minutes for 17 questions, a long text can take a large share of the time. A full timed mock shows where your child’s minutes go.