Reading Part 3: two options, five minutes left
Marta is 13 and preparing for B1 Preliminary for Schools. In a timed Reading mock she has 45 minutes for the whole paper. She spends 19 minutes on Parts 1 and 2, then starts Part 3, a 350-word article about a teenage inventor, with 26 minutes left for Parts 3–6. She reads the article twice at the same speed (8 minutes), then begins the five multiple-choice questions. On question 2, options B and C both seem possible: B repeats the phrase 'a small workshop' from paragraph 3, and C says the inventor 'tested the design many times', which is also mentioned. Marta re-reads paragraph 3 three times, then notices she has 5 minutes left. She guesses questions 4 and 5 by choosing the longest options and leaves question 3 blank because she cannot decide. Afterwards she says, 'I understood the text - I just ran out of time.'
1. Marta says she 'understood the text' but lost time. Identify the two decisions in her approach that caused the loss, and explain what she should do in the first three minutes of Part 3.
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Two decisions cost the time. First, she read the article twice at the same speed; the second read repeated the first instead of being guided by the questions. Second, when two options looked possible, she re-read the same paragraph three times without a check she could finish - she was trying to 'feel' certain rather than test evidence. In the first three minutes of Part 3 she should skim once (about 90 seconds) and jot a two-word topic beside each paragraph (e.g. 'workshop', 'first test', 'school prize'). Then read each question, underline its key idea, and go to the paragraph that matches the topic. That converts the text into a map and stops the full re-read. She should also set a per-question limit of about 90 seconds, because five questions in ten minutes is realistic.
2. For question 2, B repeats a phrase from the text and C paraphrases a detail. Which is more likely to be correct at B1, and how should Marta check rather than guess?
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At B1, the option that paraphrases the text is more often the answer; the option that repeats a phrase is often a trap for word-matching. But 'more often' is not a rule - Marta must test both. She should underline the question's key idea, for example 'why did he build the first model?', then find the sentence with the answer and read the sentence before and after. She then asks: does this option answer this question, or is it true but about something else? Option C ('tested the design many times') may be true but answer 'how he improved it', not 'why he began'. Option B may repeat 'small workshop' but describe where, not why. If both still fit, choose the one that answers the exact question word (why/how/when). Never choose by length.
3. With five minutes left and Parts 4–6 still untouched, what is the best sequence of actions? Include what to do about the blank question and the guessed answers.
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If she truly has five minutes and Parts 4–6 untouched, finishing Part 3 perfectly is the wrong goal. She should spend 20–30 seconds on question 3: eliminate one option she knows is wrong, choose between the rest, and record an answer - there is no penalty for a wrong answer, but a blank is a guaranteed zero. Then move immediately to Part 4 and do the questions she can answer fastest. She should not start re-reading the Part 3 article. In a mock this is a planning lesson: in the real paper she should cap Part 3 at about 12–13 minutes, because Parts 4–6 carry more questions (and more marks) than the five in Part 3. The guess is a damage-control decision, not a strategy.