Cambridge English Reading

What the Reading Score Covers

At A2 Key reading shares a paper with writing; at B1 Preliminary it is a paper of its own; from B2 First upwards it shares the Reading and Use of English paper, where it takes four of the seven or eight parts. The table shows exactly which parts count towards the Reading score at each level.

The Task Types

Where the Marks Are

From B2 First upwards the long reading parts are worth two marks a question and the short ones one. On B2 First, the six multiple-choice questions in Part 5 are worth as much as the ten multiple-matching questions in Part 7 plus two more. Time spent reading the Part 5 text properly is time well spent.

Managing the Time

Nobody is timed per part, so the clock is yours to divide. What the handbooks do tell you is how much text there is to read: about 2,200 to 2,500 words on the B2 First Reading and Use of English paper, and about 3,000 to 3,500 at C1 Advanced, inside 75 and 90 minutes respectively, with the Use of English parts to answer as well.

• Do the cloze and transformation parts first if they are quick for you, but set a hard limit — about 25 minutes on B2 First Parts 1-4 — so the two-mark reading parts are never rushed.
• Read the questions before the text in multiple matching. You are scanning for ten specific ideas, not reading for pleasure.
• On paper, transfer answers as you finish each part. There is no extra time for the answer sheet on Reading papers.

Common Mistakes

• Matching words instead of meaning. The option that repeats a word from the text is usually the distractor; the key paraphrases.
• Answering from general knowledge. Every answer must be supported by the text in front of you, even when the text says something you disagree with.
• Reading gapped texts one gap at a time. The sentence that fits a gap has to fit what comes after it too.
• Leaving blanks. There is no penalty for a wrong answer anywhere in Cambridge Reading.

How to Prepare

1. Read at your target level every day: news features and long-form magazine articles for B2 and C1, essays and literary non-fiction for C2.
2. After each practice part, find the exact words in the text that prove each answer. If you cannot point to them, you guessed.
3. Keep a list of the paraphrases that caught you out. They repeat.
4. Time complete parts, not single questions.

Complete practice parts for all five exams, with answer keys and explanations, are on the Cambridge Reading samples page. How raw marks become a score is on the Cambridge Reading scoring page.