NBT AQL study guide
NBT AQL · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The National Benchmark Test - Academic and Quantitative Literacy (NBT AQL) is one of the benchmark tests produced by the National Benchmark Test Project, whose website and contact channels ([email protected], 021 650 3523) are hosted at the University of Cape Town. It is aimed at prospective students who are applying to South African universities, and the project's own navigation places the tests in two contexts: institutions use them for placement testing, and educators are shown how the NBTs relate to the NSC. The AQL covers two domains - Academic Literacy and Quantitative Literacy - and is delivered in multiple-choice format. Academic Literacy questions work on extended prose: main idea, inference, author attitude, vocabulary in context and the logic of an argument. Topics on this exam: Academic Literacy and Quantitative Literacy. The NBT AQL study guide has 2 sections and about 698 words.
01Academic Literacy: Reading Arguments With Precision
Academic Literacy measures whether you can read dense academic prose and reason with it. The core skills are: finding the main idea and the author's purpose; separating a claim from the evidence offered for it; tracking an argument through its connectives ("however", "therefore", "although", "provided that"); inferring what is implied rather than stated; judging tone, register and audience; and deducing the meaning of unfamiliar words from context. You must also notice what a text assumes the reader already accepts, since unstated assumptions are where arguments are weakest. True but irrelevant: options that are factually correct yet not supported by the passage.
352 words, about 2 min02Quantitative Literacy: Rates, Percentages and Data Sense
Quantitative Literacy checks whether you can use numbers in context rather than manipulate symbols. Expect percentages and percentage change, ratio and proportion, rates per unit, scaling and unit conversion, reading tables and graphs accurately, averages (mean, median, mode), elementary probability, and simple financial reasoning such as interest and discounts. The emphasis is on interpreting a real situation and choosing the right operation, not on lengthy algebra. Percent of versus percent change: "20% of 300" is 60; "increased by 20%" from 300 gives 360.
346 words, about 2 min