LANTITE Literacy cheat sheet

Literacy

• LANTITE Literacy is a 65-question, 120-minute multiple-choice test delivered onscreen; it is a pass/fail threshold test, not a ranked score, and results are reported as a standard score against a set cut score.

• Reading comprehension items are answered from the passage alone: the correct option must be supported by stated or directly implied text, so an option that is true in general knowledge but absent from the passage is wrong.

• Question stems signal the reading skill required: 'main purpose' or 'mainly about' targets the whole text, while 'according to the passage' and 'the writer suggests' target a located detail or inference.

• Inference items require the smallest step beyond the text: reject options that need two or more unstated assumptions, and reject extreme wording such as 'always', 'never', 'all' or 'proves' unless the passage itself uses it.

• Vocabulary-in-context items are answered by substituting each option into the sentence and testing whether the surrounding clause still makes sense; the dictionary's most common meaning is frequently the distractor.

• Text types recur across the test: persuasive opinion pieces, information reports, procedures, recounts, explanations and literary extracts, each with a characteristic structure and typical question focus (for example, purpose, audience, tone, or sequence of steps).

• Language convention items test Standard Australian English: subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, pronoun reference, apostrophes for possession versus contraction, and comma use in lists and subordinate clauses.

• Grammar and punctuation questions are best solved by reading the whole sentence, identifying the error type, then checking each option for that specific error rather than judging options by how natural they sound.

• Time discipline: 120 minutes for 65 items averages about 110 seconds per question; flag and return to long passage sets rather than stalling, because every item carries equal weight toward the threshold.