READING 2

(SUBTEST C & PRACTICE TEST)

Occupational English Test

 Objectives
 Be familiar with the guidelines for reading
sub-test C
 Learn exam strategies and techniques for sub-
test C
Complete a full reading practice test
READING SUB-TEST STRUCTURE PART C

• Part C assesses your ability to identify detailed

meaning and opinion in two texts on topics of
interest to healthcare professionals (800 words
each). For each text, you must answer eight four-
option multiple choice questions.
Section : Part C
• Task : Six short workplace extracts (one question
for each)
• Duration of Part B & C: 45 minutes
• TOTAL TIME
60 minutes
 READING ABILITY ASSESSMENT
• Part C tests your ability to understand the
explicit or implied meaning as well as the
attitude or opinion presented in a longer text.
• To complete the task successfully, you will
need to identify the relationship between
ideas at sentence and paragraph level.
• Part C also tests your ability to accurately
understand lexical references and complex
phrases within the text.
READING PART C QUESTION PAPER
READING PART C SAMPLE TEXTS
INSTRUCTION
FOUR-OPTION MULTIPLE-CHOICE
 STRATEGIES
FOR READING PART C
• Underline or highlight the key words in the question or
unfinished statement.
• Match these key words to words in the passage
• Underline or highlight the key words in the options and
re-phrase the ideas in your mind.
• Read around the section of text you have marked and
see if you can find words or expressions that match the
options.
• Some word matched will occur, but check whether the
passage is stating the same or something different
from what is stated in the options.
EXAMPLE
EXPLANATION
• Option A is not the answer because Eve Van Cauter’s
words do not talk about the main causes of sleep
deprivation but what it discusses is how sleep
deprivation affects other systems in the. Option C is
not the answer as well because the research findings
were not in question but rather a supporting idea to
Cauter’s point. Option D is also not the answer since
Cauter’s statement does not even discuss the
challenges of the research. Option B is the answer
because through the statement of Cauter, the writer
is able to reiterate or reinforce the impact of sleep
deprivation and how it affects almost every system
in the body.
EXAMPLE 2
EXPLANATION
• Option A is not the answer because it is the
exact opposite of the idea expressed in the text.
Option B is also contradictory to the text.
Option D is not the best answer because studies
undertaken in the past were not “a fully
elaborated theory”. It is also not the whole
point of the text. Option C best fits the idea of
the text wherein the earlier theory is being by
confirmed and elaborated by numerous recent
studies.
ANSWER
Part C is about understanding how meaning is
developed into a line of argument or information in
longer texts.
• use inference skills to understand the attitude or
opinion of the writer at various points in the text
• You will also demonstrate your understanding of
reference (e.g. its, that, their) and lexical features in
texts and how they contribute meaning
• Reading a variety of text types as part of your
regular practice will help with this provided you
ensure there is some content which is above your
current reading level.
• In Part C you have 4 options to choose from and like
Part B you must choose the best representation of
the text contents as your answer.
GENERAL TIPS FOR READING A, B, C
• You will have one hour in total to complete all
three parts of the test. This includes the time you
need to transfer your answers to the answer
sheet for parts B and C. Part A will be taken away
after 15 minutes, so keep an eye on the clock.
• The reading sub-test is not specific to any
profession and you don’t need any specialist
knowledge to succeed in it. What’s important is
to look for the answers in the right way, because
each part requires different skills and strategies.
 Reading Part A
Part A has 20 questions based on four short
texts. The texts are the kind of thing you might
refer to when working with a patient, so there
are no research papers, academic articles or
case studies. One text will contain numbers, but
you don’t need to do any calculations to find the
right answers.
 Reading Part A
• Start with the first section, which asks you to
match statements to one of the four texts. You
will need to skim (read quickly to get a general
idea of the content of a text) and scan (look
through a text to find a key word or phrase) to
decide which text contains the relevant
information. This process will also help you
when you move on to the rest of Part A.
 Reading Part A
• The other questions in Part A are short-answer
and gap-fill questions. After the first section, you
will be familiar enough with the texts to have a
good idea of where to look for the answers.
• All of the answers to the short-answer and gap-fill
questions are taken directly from the texts, which
means you don’t have to change any verbs to
nouns or nouns to adjectives – just make sure you
copy the words accurately onto the answer sheet.
 Reading Part A
• Remember, you only have 15 minutes to
answer 20 questions, so you will need to
balance speed and accuracy. Also, the
questions in Part A get harder as you go along,
which means you should try to leave a little
longer for the last few.
 Reading Part B
• Parts B and C together take 45 minutes, and
all the questions are multiple-choice.
• Part B contains six short texts that medical
professionals might encounter in their work,
such as procedures, instructions and
guidelines.
• There is one question for each text and three
possible answers for each question.
 Reading Part B
• The most important thing to remember for Part B
is that you don’t need to understand every word
of a text to find the answer. Often the question
will be about the overall message or purpose of
the text – you’re not trying to find specific
information.
• Read the possible answers carefully, then skim
the text to see which one fits best. The language
of the answers will not be exactly the same as the
text, so you will need to focus on meaning rather
than specific words.
 Reading Part B
• Time is also important in Part B, so don’t get
frustrated and waste time on one question if
the answer doesn’t come quickly. Make a
note, move on and come back to it later.
 Reading Part C
• Part C contains two longer texts, each with
eight multiple-choice questions. This time
each question has four possible answers.
• The texts are taken from journals and
websites aimed at a general healthcare
audience, so they don’t require any specific
medical or academic knowledge to
understand them.
 Reading Part C
• Six of the questions for each text ask you to
interpret an opinion or point of view, usually from
a specific paragraph. As in Part B, you don’t need
to – and don’t have time to – read and
understand every word.
• In particular, in Part C you need to focus on what
the writer is trying to say, and what the effect of
their words is. Comparison, cause and effect,
emphasis and suggestion are some of the things
you need to recognise in order to find the
answers.
 Reading Part C
• The other two questions in each set of eight
give you a word or phrase from the text and
ask you what it means. This requires more
than just knowing the dictionary definition of
a word – you need to look at context to infer
the writer’s meaning and use your knowledge
of cohesive language to determine the
relationships between words.
PRACTICE TEST
ANSWER
 LAST AND MOST
IMPORTANT TIP...
DO NOT FORGET TO ASK
WISDOM FROM THE ONE
WHO CREATED IT. 