Past Papers 

Reading advice

The paper is in a certain order for a reason. Do not deviate from this order. You should do this part in 50 minutes - do it first.
This is the best way to do the reading:

1. Don't panic! It's a long passage, but you can do it. Read the introduction to the passage first, then the questions. The questions guide you through the passage, give an idea of what each paragraph is about and give you vital clues as to where the answers lie.

2. Now read the passage through once and try to get the gist of it. At this point do not open the dictionary. You need to use your knowledge to work it out. It's OK if at this point you have a little bit of some of the answers but not the full answer.

3. Now read the questions a second time and see if you have gleaned some information which fits any of them. It's still OK if you haven't got a lot at this stage.

4. Read the passage a second time, and this time mark off or highlight where you think the answer to each question begins and ends. It's important that you find exactly where 1a ends and 1b begins so that you don't overlap information and thereby lose points. By now you should be getting a better understanding of the passage. You are still not permitted to open your dictionary!

5. Read the questions a third time to check you fully understand what exactly you are being asked in each one. Look carefully at the question words, and see how many points are asked for.

6. Now read the passage a third time and double check you have marked off your text in the right places. You will soon know that you haven't marked it off properly if it's still not making any sense at this point. Still no dictionary!

This whole process should take about 20 minutes of your time. Remember it's called Reading - that's what you need to do! You now have about 20 minutes to answer the questions.

When answering the questions:

1. You have now marked off smaller chunks of text which are much easier to work with than trying to work with the whole passage at once. Do the questions one at a time, and do them in order as far as possible.

2. b As you read each chunk, underline any words which are really fazing you. Only open the dictionary if:

   1. You cannot work out the meaning of the word from your current knowledge or from it looking like its possible meaning in English (beware "false friends").

   2. You cannot work out the answer without knowing the word.

3. Remember that the main body of the dictionary will not give you individual verb parts - the dictionary expects you to know your verbs! All dictionaries have a verb list at the back, but you must know what you're looking for or you will get hopelessly lost.

4. If you're really stumped on a question, leave it and come back to it if there's any time left at the end. Keep your eye on the time, as you will fail if you don't do the other parts of this paper.

5. Make sure you give as many details in your answer as there are points required. When the questions says something like 'State any two things.', it means there could be more than two: choose the two you are most sure of.

6. You can cut down answering time by not writing out the question again. For example, "Why did John feel anxious at that time?" - don't write "John was feeling anxious because…" - just write the answer, e.g. "He had a maths test the following day". It makes sense!

7. An important tip - there are never any comprehension questions on the translation. However, read it as part of the passage as it will help you with the overall purpose question.

8. Make sure your English makes sense - if you don't understand what you've written, how is the marker supposed to? Also never use 'text language' - in Modern Languages this will be severely penalised.

You should be finished the first questions in 40 minutes approximately. You now have 20 minutes to do the translation and the overall purpose question. You can do these in any order, but remember the translation is worth ten marks and the overall purpose question two.
When answering the overall purpose question, remember to give the overall answer first, then write your evidence, referring to the text but giving the evidence in English! Two or three bits of evidence are enough!