Part 7 matching: matching the topic instead of the paraphrase
A candidate is on Part 7: a text in which four people (A–D) describe taking up a new hobby, followed by ten questions. The instructions state that any of the people may be chosen more than once. Question 43 asks: Who says that taking up the hobby changed the way they spend money? Scanning quickly, she finds in section B: 'The equipment cost a fortune.' She writes B and moves on. She has eleven minutes left for the remaining nine questions, plus checking. The text runs to about 700 words across the four sections.
1. Why is B a weak answer here, and what should she be looking for instead?
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B answers a different question.
- The equipment cost a fortune is a statement about expense, not about a change in spending habits. Question 43 asks about a change, and nothing in that sentence marks one.
- Part 7 is a paraphrase test. Matching on a topic word (cost → money) produces answers that feel verified but were never asked for - the classic false positive. Note that B is very likely the correct answer to some other question ('who was surprised by how expensive it was?'), which is exactly why it feels right.
What to scan for: the grammar of change - before/now, used to, I'd never have… , these days, since then. A person who writes 'I'd never have spent £40 on a pair of shoes before; now I don't think twice' is answering question 43, using almost none of its vocabulary.
Rule: verify against the question's relationship, not its topic.
2. She has 11 minutes for nine questions and checking. Give her a method and name the main risk.
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Method: questions first, then person by person - not question by question.
- ~2 min: read all ten questions and underline the paraphrase cue in each (change, regret, other people's reactions, initial difficulty). Do not start reading the text yet.
- ~7 min: work through the text in order, A → D, and after each section ask which questions it could answer. Ten questions over four people averages 2–3 per person, so each section usually settles several questions at once and can then be discarded.
- ~1 min: return to any unanswered question and choose the best remaining candidate.
- ~1 min: check that every box is filled and legible.
Main risk: re-reading 700 words once per question - nine full passes will not fit in eleven minutes. The method above reads the long text once.
Second risk, specific to this part: eliminating a person because they have already been used. The rubric explicitly allows repeats, so 'already taken' is not evidence of anything; only the text is.