Foreign Language: Comprehension and Controlled Production
What is assessed
The foreign language section tests listening and reading comprehension, grammatical accuracy, vocabulary range, and short written production. At the extended level you should handle authentic texts on culture, science, and social issues, infer meaning from context, and recognise register and tone.
Reading strategy
Skim the questions before the text so you know what to look for, then read for gist before reading for detail. Distractors typically repeat words from the passage while reversing the meaning, or state something true but not asked. Watch for hedging language - tends to, is likely to - which signals a cautious claim rather than a certainty.
Grammar traps
Typical items test tense choice, conditional forms, prepositions that do not translate literally from Polish, and countable versus uncountable nouns. False friends are a recurring hazard: a word that resembles a Polish word but means something different. Phrasal verbs and collocations reward memorisation in context rather than in isolation.
Writing
Keep sentences short and correct. Structure a short text as statement, support, conclusion. Use linking devices - however, therefore, in addition - to show cohesion, and check subject-verb agreement and article use last.
Worked example
A question asks what the author suggests about a policy. The passage says the policy may reduce costs. An option claiming it will reduce costs is wrong because it upgrades possibility to certainty. Match the modal strength of the option to the modal strength of the text; that single check resolves many items.