General information

• Part of Speech – a word that falls into the one of the following categories: verb, noun, pronoun, determiner, adjective, adverb, conjunction or interjection.

• Key word – an important word in the task, this could be a missing word you have predicted, or word you will look for in the text.

Skills before Reading/Listening

• Pre-reading – the time you have before reading the main text when you can implement test-taking skills.

• Pre-listening – the time you have before you listen when you can implement test-taking skills.

• Prediction – making an educated guess based on the context or task before reading/listening to information.

Test-taking skills

• Skimming – reading a text quickly to get a general idea of the meaning.

• Scanning – looking for specific information in a text.

• Reading for detail – reading a text in-depth to understand both the meaning and language on a sentence-level.

• Gist listening – listening to understand the general meaning rather than trying to listen for specific information.

In-Text Skills

• Detecting signposts – noticing important cohesive structures in a listening or reading that indicate a change (e.g. however, even though, despite).

• Noticing linkers – identifying cohesive structures that provide organisation to a text (e.g. firstly, in addition, until).

• Note-taking – recording information beside the text or on a piece of paper for reference at a later point.