Our top Literacy Test tips

The focus of this page is Literacy development, including our Our top Literacy Test tips.

The best literacy test tips

Below we cover literacy test practice and learning to read.

Literacy development and Learning to Read

Reading is such a fundamental starting block for any learning. It is the main channel for learning in most schools or educational settings and a necessity for future academic achievement in mainstream education.

Children are however not always ready for the world of reading by the time they go to school. The reason for this is as important as the solution. Some of these reasons or causes for why they may not be susceptible to the world of reading are exactly what you need to identify in order to find the best solutions.

A younger sibling might feel intimidated by the reading ability of the older. Best solutions would include reading separately with the younger sibling to build their confidence.

Literacy development advice and free literacy test practice

Advice about Learning to Read

A child may not be developmentally ready for reading. Ways to help with this is to

    • Make sure your child knows their sounds. This can be tricky as English is not a phonetical language. Find games, whether on screen or paper to help them learn the rules. Teach Your Monster To Read has been a favourite for us.
    • Start off with pictures, discussing the story told by these and developing a curiosity for the story and expressing themselves in language.
    • Follow your child’s reading with your finger to give them a point to focus on.
    • Find stories that interest them. Whether they are into dinosaurs or princesses. Topics that interest them is the key.

Always remember not to put pressure on your child to start reading. We all do things in our own time, but a negative feeling towards reading can last a lifetime. Instead, focus on creating a love for readingby reading them stories from a young age.

When they are ready they will want to carry on finding the stories they love. Children will more readily follow what you do, so also make sure to show them that you make time to read your own books.

Literacy development advice and free literacy test practice

Free Literacy Skills Test Practice

Firstly, LITERACY Practice Test Type 1 Questions

Secondly, LITERACY Practice Test Type 2 Questions.

Thirdly, LITERACY Practice Test Type 3 Questions.

Fourthly, LITERACY Practice Test Type 4 Questions.

Key Literacy Practice Test Tips

  • You need to be very careful when interpreting the meaning of complex words. Particularly when you are being asked to make a judgement on the basis of a shade of meaning.
  • Look out for any words that imply something definitive, such as “always”, “never”, “all”. Do not confuse these with similar words or phrases that do not imply the same strength, for exmaple “almost always, most of the time, invariably” and “often”.
  • These are a precursor to the wide range of formats covered in the subsequent LNAT practice testing section. You would be advised to complete all these practice sections!

Literacy development advice and free literacy test practice

Verbal Reasoning Tests Summary

  • Everyone uses verbal reasoning skills in both written and spoken communication.
  • Verbal reasoning tests are a fair and objective way to assess large numbers of candidates. They are used because they predict future performance at work.
  • There are many different types of verbal reasoning test on the market, at varying levels of difficulty.
  • The best way to prepare for a verbal reasoning test is to practice with questions that mirror your actual test format.
  • If you don’t already know exactly what type of verbal reasoning test you will be taking, you should find out as your first step. That way you will know what type of questions you need to practice.
  • It may be the last thing you want to do after taking the actual test, but on your test day you should also reflect on what – if any – questions you struggled with. This will help you target improvement areas if you face another verbal reasoning test.
  • You won’t be asked to repeat back information exactly the same way as you read it in the passage. Understanding what is being asked is just one of the ways that your verbal reasoning is being assessed.

 

Grammar Test practice tips

  • Good grammar requires consistency. So check that the tenses, the pronouns, the case, and the person are consistent throughout the set of statements.
  • Listen out for examples of incorrect grammar in your everyday life – they shouldn’t be hard to find! Think about what is wrong – and what the correct phrasing should be.
  • It might appear to contradict previously given advice, but I think it’s key to take your time with the grammar test. Carefully read and interpret the sentences – many of the options will be similar, and you need to pay close attention to detail in order to spot the errors.

Literacy development advice and free literacy test practice

Punctuation practice tips

  • Do an initial run-through of the text picking up the easiest punctuation errors. Then do a more careful sweep. Do a final check – time permitting – to ensure that you haven’t missed anything out.
  • It’s impossible to predict where the errors will appear, but it is likely that the errors will be spread out across the entire passage. This means that most sentences will contain at least one error.
  • Remember that punctuation needs to be consistent. For example, if the passage contains a list with items separated by semi-colons except for one item separated by a comma, then you should change the comma to a semi-colon.
  • In some instances, punctuation is a matter of personal preference. For example, some people like to use dashes, other people prefer parentheses. If you are unsure look at how the rest of the passage is punctuated. Make sure that whatever corrections you make are consistent with the rest of the passage.

Spelling test practice tips

  • Remember to go back and listen to a word again if you have time and are unsure of your answer.
  • This is not a “spelling bee” where you will be asked to spell progressively harder words. Instead, the words that you are being tested on are those that many pupils regularly use incorrectly. In other words, these are exactly the mistakes that a teacher needs to recognise and correct!
  • Memorize the correct spelling of any words you misspell on the practice test.
  • Re-learn a few simple spelling rules if you have forgotten them. For example, i before e except after c. Also, to make a word ending in “y” a plural add “ies”. For example, party becomes parties (not partys!).
  •  Learning how to spell a new word is easier when you say it aloud. Can you work out how to write it based on how it sounds?

Literacy test practice

Aptitude tests are exams designed to check whether a person’s knowledge and skills are sufficient to apply to a certain institution. Such tests are typically comprehensive as they evaluate a set of skills required for a curriculum, scholarship, job, etc. Due to this, it is important to know the type of a test one needs to take and prepare for it, because it can differ from other exams of the kind.

One of the popular tests in the United Kingdom is the 11 plus for six-graders who want to enter a grammar school that assesses their verbal and nonverbal reasoning, English, and mathematics. Literacy is a particularly important skill in the test since it is what all young people will need for both their studying and future employment. Indeed, one should be able to use the language properly in any sphere of life.

Aptitude test practice for literacy tests

It’s not easy for an eleven- or twelve-year-old child to speak and write English without any grammatical mistakes, which makes 11+ rather challenging for them. However, if one practices their skills correctly, they will be likely to succeed. There are numerous literacy tips for the young people who are going to take the aptitude test, one of which is consistency. This means that a sentence should be a grammatically correct unity of its parts that correspond with each other in tense, number, etc. Additionally, it is recommended that a learner analyzes mistakes in the texts they read or speeches they hear. Hence, when a learner finds a mistake, they should try to explain and correct them to themselves, thus practicing their grammar skills.

As for spelling, it is better to focus on complicated words, in which learners make mistakes most often. There are certain rules which regulate the correct spelling of the majority of English words, Students should learn the most important ones, such as the formation of plurality after “y,” etc. (“Literacy Test Advice and Free Literacy Test Practice”). Moreover, there are special practice tests online, which one can take prior to the final one to understand their weaknesses and work on’them. Preparing for an aptitude test requires effort from a person, but what is particularly important is attention. Knowledge might not be enough to pass the test if one lacks concentration and can be easily tricked.

Learning to Read

Reading is such a fundamental starting block for any learning. It is the main channel for learning in most schools or educational settings and a necessity for future academic achievement in mainstream education.

Children are however not always ready for the world of reading by the time they go to school. The reason for this is as important as the solution. Some of these reasons or causes for why they may not be susceptible to the world of reading are exactly what you need to identify in order to find the best solutions.

A younger sibling might feel intimidated by the reading ability of the older. Best solutions would include reading separately with the younger sibling to build their confidence.

Advice about Learning to Read

  • A child may not be developmentally ready for reading. Ways to help with this is to
    • Make sure your child knows their sounds. This can be tricky as English is not a phonetical language. Find games, whether on screen or paper to help them learn the rules. Teach Your Monster To Read has been a favourite for us.
    • Start off with pictures, discussing the story told by these and developing a curiosity for the story and expressing themselves in language.
    • Follow your child’s reading with your finger to give them a point to focus on.
    • Find stories that interest them. Whether they are into dinosaurs or princesses. Topics that interest them is the key.

Always remember not to put pressure on your child to start reading. We all do things in our own time, but a negative feeling towards reading can last a lifetime. Instead, focus on creating a love for readingby reading them stories from a young age. When they are ready they will want to carry on finding the stories they love. Children will more readily follow what you do, so also make sure to show them that you make time to read.

Our Free Psychometric Test Practice

Literacy development advice and free literacy test practice