The Reading section gives students 45 minutes for 17 multiple-choice questions. Three of those questions have several parts, so there are 38 answers in total. The Department says the texts are drawn from non-fiction, fiction and poetry, and can include magazine articles, reports and sections of novels.
Two common reasons students lose marks in Reading are reading every passage in full before looking at the questions, which burns time on content that isn't tested, and answering from memory instead of returning to the text. Both can be fixed with a deliberate approach.
Question Styles to Practise
Note: The Department does not publish a breakdown of Reading question types, so the styles below are practice categories, not an official list.
1. Vocabulary in Context
These questions give you an underlined word or phrase and ask what it means in this context. The most common trap is choosing the word's most common meaning rather than what it means given the surrounding sentences.
Strategy: Cover the options, re-read the sentence, and decide what meaning fits before looking at the choices. Then find the option closest to your pre-formed answer. If two options seem equally valid, the one that connects to the theme of the paragraph is the better bet.
2. Inferential Comprehension
These ask you to go beyond what is stated: "What does the author's description of the classroom suggest about the teacher?" or "Why does the narrator feel ambivalent at the end of the story?"
Students often miss these because they choose an answer that is too literal (not inferred) or too speculative (not supported by the text).
Strategy: The correct answer must be inferable from specific evidence in the text. When you select an answer, ask: "Where in the passage does it say — or strongly imply — this?" If you cannot point to a specific line or phrase, the answer is likely wrong. Eliminate options that require assumptions the text does not support.
3. Author's Purpose and Technique
These questions ask why an author made a specific choice: "Why does the author use the phrase 'a wall of silence' rather than 'no response'?" or "What is the purpose of the final paragraph?"
Strategy: Focus on effect, not just description. The correct answer will not just name the technique ("it is a metaphor") — it will explain what the technique achieves. Look for options that describe the effect on the reader (creates tension, highlights the contrast, emphasises the character's isolation).
4. Text Structure and Organisation
These questions ask about how the passage is constructed: "How does the second paragraph relate to the first?" or "How does the author build their argument across the passage?"
Strategy: Before looking at options, identify the move the passage makes at the relevant point. Is it introducing a counter-argument? Providing evidence? Qualifying an earlier claim? Match that function to the answer options.
Multi-Part Questions
Three of the 17 questions have several parts, which is how 17 questions produce 38 answers. The Department notes that questions asking for multiple responses are worth more than one mark, so they deserve a fair share of your time. Its page does not say how they are laid out on screen; the online practice tests show them.
A useful habit with any multi-part question is to read all the parts first, then find the evidence for each in the text, rather than hunting for everything at once.
Time Management
With 17 questions and 38 answers in 45 minutes, the average is about 70 seconds per answer. The questions will not all take the same time, and multi-part questions will take longer than single-answer ones.
An approach that works:
- Triage as you go. Answer the questions you can answer quickly first within each passage group, and come back to the slower ones.
- Avoid re-reading whole passages. Skim for structure on the first read, then answer questions by scanning for the relevant section. Full re-reads are how students run out of time.
- Don't get stuck. If a question has used two minutes without a clear answer, eliminate the weakest options, choose the best of what is left, and move on. Answer every question — a blank cannot earn a mark.
The Reading Improvement Playbook
Reading comprehension develops slowly, and it lasts. Students who read broadly across genres, text types and difficulty levels will do better on any comprehension test, not just this one.
For targeted improvement:
- Practise the question styles deliberately. After each practice session, sort your wrong answers by style (inference, vocabulary, author's purpose, structure). Most students have one or two styles they consistently miss — that is where to focus.
- Read newspaper opinion pieces and essays. They expose you to the persuasive structures and author's-purpose patterns that comprehension questions draw on.
- Practise under time pressure from the start. Open-ended reading is a different skill from timed comprehension. The two need to be practised separately.
Reading is a section where strong readers can pick up marks quickly, and where students with plenty of content knowledge but little reading practice can lose marks they should be winning. The difference is often deliberate, timed practice rather than ability.