Reading
B1 Preliminary Reading is a 45-minute paper of six parts and 32 questions, worth 25% of the total score. It tests whether you can understand short real-world texts, locate specific information in longer ones, follow how a text is built, and control the grammar and vocabulary that hold sentences together. Every question is worth one mark and there is no negative marking, so a blank answer can only lose you a point.
The six parts
- Part 1 (5 questions): five short texts - signs, notes, messages - each with three options. Tests practical meaning, including what is implied rather than stated.
- Part 2 (5 questions): match five people's needs to eight short descriptions; three descriptions are extra.
- Part 3 (5 questions): a longer text with four-option multiple choice on detail, main idea, purpose and attitude.
- Part 4 (5 questions): five sentences removed from a text; choose from eight. Tests cohesion - how sentences link.
- Part 5 (6 questions): four-option cloze on vocabulary, collocation, phrasal verbs and grammar.
- Part 6 (6 questions): open cloze, exactly one word per gap, usually a grammar word (preposition, article, auxiliary, pronoun, conjunction).
Worked example (Part 1)
A library notice reads: "Reference books may not be taken out of the library." Question: What does the notice mean? A You can borrow reference books. B You have to use reference books inside. C Reference books are not available. Answer B. "May not be taken out" forbids removal, so the books stay inside the building. Option A is the natural opposite of the notice, built from the same topic vocabulary (borrow / library) rather than its meaning - a classic distractor. Option C is wrong because the books clearly exist; only their location is restricted.
Traps that cost marks
- Part 2: matching on a single shared word. All three extra descriptions share vocabulary with somebody's need; only one fits the whole need.
- Part 3: choosing an option that is true but does not answer the question, for example a real detail when the question asks about the writer's opinion.
- Part 4: picking a sentence because it repeats a word, without checking the pronoun and linking word that follow the gap.
- Part 6: writing two words, or a contraction. "Don't" is two words and scores zero; write "do not" only if two separate gaps demand it.
- Answer sheet errors: answers must be transferred in the shape the paper requires; a correct idea written illegibly or in the wrong box scores nothing.