Boost your score in Reading | Online OET

It’s really important in Reading Part B that you read the questions carefully. There are a number of different types of question you may come across in the test paper. Understanding the question correctly is the most important strategy you have for selecting the correct answer.

Here are a few of the different types of questions and some suggestions about answering them:

• Sentence completion. Some questions will give you the start of a statement and 4 different ways of completing it. When choosing your answer, it is essential that you read the start and end of the sentence together. Sometimes, one of the answer options may be in the text but not related to the start of the statement used in the question.
• True or false. Some questions will ask you to pick out which of the statements is true or false. This means that the other statements will be the opposite i.e. if the question asks you which statement is true, the other 3 statements must be false. Read the question carefully. Some students miss the word ‘true’ or ‘false’ in the question which leads them to choose the wrong answer.
• Vocabulary definition. Some questions will ask you to choose the best match for a word or phrase within the text. The key word or phrase will be underlined in the text so it is important to read it within the context of the sentence and the neighbouring sentences. This will help you to understand the meaning. It’s good to think about whether the sentence is positive or negative as this can help you to choose which of the answer options are correct using your knowledge of the positivity or negativity of each option.
  

  The answers can be found in the texts

  For all the different question types, you should be able to justify your chosen answer using information you find in the text. It’s a good habit to get into, while you are preparing for the test, to be able to explain to yourself why an answer is right or wrong. When marking your answers using the key, don’t just accept the answer the key says is correct. Look at the other options and find information in the text to prove it was incorrect.