5 things your students need to know about the GCSE reading exam

The GCSE reading exam may feel like the ‘easiest’ paper, but make sure your French, German and Spanish GCSE students don’t let these simple mistakes trip them up!

What I mean by 'easiest' is that the answers are all in English, students can work at their own pace (within reason!), they don't have to produce any language themselves, a lot of the questions are multiple choice, and unlike listening, they can go back and re-read as many times as they need to.

However, it's frustratingly easy to lose marks if you aren't careful, which is why I recommend reminding your students of the following 5 things:

1. Answer every single question. It may sound so obvious, but it's always worth reiterating this one. A blank answer gets zero marks every single time! However, if they have a guess, they have at least a chance of getting a mark.
2. Read the information and questions in English carefully. Information such as the topic and context tells them exactly what they will be reading about. Plus, when they read the question carefully, they'll spot key info such as how many things to find, whether there's an exclusion like "other than X", and which tense or time frame matters. Missing these details is an easy way to drop marks unnecessarily.
3. Watch out for distractors. The text will often contain words that appear in the answer options but aren't actually correct. Students need to read carefully rather than jumping at the first familiar word they spot. And this leads to...
4. Look out for negatives. The tiny words "no", "nunca" or "nada" in Spanish, "pas" or "jamais" in French, or "nicht" or "kein" in German can completely flip the meaning of a sentence. I've seen these constructions catch students out more than almost anything else.
5. Don't panic and waste time on one question. Students have (very) roughly one minute per mark. Spending five minutes on something they don't know will just cost them marks elsewhere. If they find themselves stuck on a question, they need to try not to panic, take a deep breath, have a guess, and move on. They can then always come back to that question if there's time at the end.