Linguaskill Reading

Remember, in the Linguaskill Reading test, there are five types of questions you might come across.

Linguaskill Phrasal Verb: this is available for paid members only.

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If you want to read about these questions and some more general information about the Linguaskill exam, I recommend, checking out this page >>

The first Reading question type is…

Reading Question Type 1: Read and Select

Read and Select Format

https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/linguaskill/information-about-the-test/test-formats-and-task-types/

Read and Select Technique

In ‘Read and Select’ you will have to find an option that most closely describes the text you have. So, here is the technique that I recommend:

1. Quickly read the text to understand the overall meaning.
2. Identify all the pieces of information you have in the text. In this example there are two pieces of information connected by the word “and”.
3. Read through the options you have to choose from.
4. When analysing the options, first exclude the ones that don’t include all the pieces of information correctly.
5. After excluding the ones with incorrect information, pay closer attention to the ones with similar information. From here you can choose the option that most closely resembles the information in the text.

Linguaskill Phrasal Verb: this is available for paid members only.

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Reading Question Types 2 and 3: Gapped Sentences and Multiple-choice gap fill

Gapped Sentences Format

https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/linguaskill/information-about-the-test/test-formats-and-task-types/

Multiple-choice gap fill Format

https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/linguaskill/information-about-the-test/test-formats-and-task-types/

Gapped Sentences and Multiple-choice gap fill Technique

For both the question types above, you can use the following technique:

1. Read the entire sentence or text so you understand the overall meaning.
2. See if you can already identify the word even before you see the option.
3. After that check the options you have to choose from and you might find the option you already identified before.
4. If not, see if you can identify the type of word you need to put in the gap: noun/adjective/verb etc.
5. Do any of the options match the type of word you need?

It is a good idea to brush up on your knowledge of English word families and sentence structures before taking your exam.

Linguaskill Phrasal Verb: paid members only.

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This page has some practice exercises which should help you in the exam.

Reading Question Type 4: Open gap-fill

Open gap-fill Format

https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/linguaskill/information-about-the-test/test-formats-and-task-types/

Open gap-fill Technique

1. Read the entire text and try to fill in the gaps with the words you think should be there.
2. If you cannot think of the word right away, try to identify the type of word that could go in the gap: noun/adjective/verb etc. Again, understanding word endings and word orders in sentences will help with this part of the test.
3. You should have an overall idea of the meaning of the text from step 1, now read it again with the words you chose in the beginning to see if the text makes sense.
4. For those spaces where you did not immediately think of the missing word, but you identified the type of word you need, try to decide on a word that would make sense in the text.
5. If you don’t know what type of word fills the gap, make a guess based on the meaning of the text.

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If you would like some more Linguaskill reading practice, I have a page on my website ‘Use of English Open Cloze’ which helps students pass the Open gap-fill exercises. I created the page to help students pass other Cambridge exams, but the type of exercise is the same 🙂

Reading Question Type 5: Extended Reading

Extended Reading Format

Extended Reading Technique

You might be tempted to start by reading the whole text. However, to save time, I would not recommend it. On the other hand, I would recommend that you read one question, then read the text to find the answer.

But why Rory, why?

Simple, the questions will be presented in the same order as the text. So…

1. Read the first question, but ignore the options.
2. Start reading the text and stop when you think you know the answer to the first question.
3. Compare what you think to the options that are given to you.
4. Choose the option which is most similar to what you thought.
5. Move on to the next question and repeat the same process.

Linguaskill Extended Reading Tip: paid members only.

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Linguaskill Book

Here is my book with loads more information about the Linguaskill exam:

More Linguaskill Reading Practice

If you want to practise similar exercises to this and you have an idea of your level of English, you might want to check out these pages:

B2 Level Reading Exercises >>

C1 Level Reading Exercises >>

I don’t know my level >>

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