Reading comprehension (Čtení s porozuměním)
The reading paper gives you short authentic-style Czech texts: notices on doors, opening hours, advertisements, menus, timetables, SMS and e-mail messages, simple forms and one or two short descriptive paragraphs. The tasks ask you to find the main idea, to locate one specific detail, or to match a short text to a situation ('Které oznámení platí pro studenty?'). Everything you need is inside the text - nothing depends on outside knowledge of Czech life.
Read the ending, not the dictionary
At A1 the grammar carries the meaning. Prepositions fix the case, and the case fixes the sense: do + genitive = direction (do Prahy), v/na + locative = location (v Praze, na poště), na + accusative = direction (Jdu na poštu), pro + accusative = for whom (pro tebe), bez/od/z/do + genitive, s + instrumental (s mlékem). A single ending often separates 'in the building' from 'to the building'.
High-frequency notice vocabulary
Otevřeno / Zavřeno, Vstup zakázán, Vstup volný, Pozor!, Sleva 20 %, Nutná rezervace, jen pro zákazníky, Výtah nefunguje, platba kartou, poslední vlak odjíždí. Learn these as whole chunks; they appear constantly and are never explained.
Signal words
Linking words tell you where the answer sits: ale and však introduce the exception, proto a proto introduce the consequence, protože introduces the reason, and nejdřív – pak – potom – nakonec order a sequence. Limiting words - jen, pouze, kromě - usually appear in the correct option.
Worked example
Text: 'Bazén Zelená žába. Pondělí až pátek 6.00–21.00, sobota a neděle 8.00–20.00. Děti do 6 let zdarma. Každé první pondělí v měsíci zavřeno.' Question: Kdy je bazén zavřený? Options: a) v neděli, b) každé první pondělí v měsíci, c) o svátcích. Answer b. Sunday has its own opening hours (8.00–20.00), so a is wrong; the holidays are simply not mentioned, so c is unsupported. Only the last sentence says zavřeno, and the task is testing precisely that word.
Traps that cost marks
- Choosing the option that repeats words from the text instead of the option that repeats its meaning.
- Reading zavřeno as otevřeno - check the first syllable.
- Treating 21.00 as morning; Czech timetables use the 24-hour clock.
- Ignoring a prefix that reverses meaning: nekuřácký, bez cukru, nejlevnější.
- False friends carried over from English: host = guest, police = shelf, kolej = hall of residence.