Advanced Reading & Use of English

In the Cambridge C1 Advanced Exam both the Reading and Use of English exercises are in a single exam. The total time for the exam is 1 hour 30 minutes. However, they are marked separately and when you take your exam you will get an answer sheet which lists the questions from 1 to 8.

The C1 Advanced Reading & Use of English Exercises

Use of English starts the paper and there are four exercises listed from 1-4.  The Reading tasks are listed as questions 5-8.

Number of Questions

The complete Reading & Use of English exam has a total of 56 questions.

Use Of English Part 1 Multiple Cloze

There are 8 questions in this part and each correct answer is one mark.

Use Of English Part 2 Modified Cloze Gap-Fill

There are 8 questions in this part and each correct answer is one mark.

Use Of English Part 3 Word Building

There are also 8 questions in this part and each correct answer is one mark.

Use Of English Part 4 Word Transformation

There are 6 questions in this part and each completely correct answer is two marks.

Reading Part 5 Multiple Choice

There are now 6 questions in this part and each correct answer is two marks.

Reading Part 6 Cross Text Comparison

This task consists of 4 short texts and 4 multiple-matching answers. There are 2 marks for each correct answer.

Reading Part 7 Paragraph Matching

There are 6 questions in this part and each correct answer is two marks.

Reading Part 8 Multiple Matching

There are 10 questions in this part and each correct answer is one mark.

Final Thoughts

One thing will never change is that your answer sheet is where your answers must go in the written version of CAE. With computer correction now used for much of the exam, it is better not to leave empty spaces on the answer sheet might have been. There are no marks are deducted for wrong answers but no marks are given for empty spaces either.  

Remember too that the 10 minute reminder at the end of the paper-based exam may be too late to start copying your answers. The 5 minute reminder certainly is and you will not get any extra time to finish copying all of your answers.

Download a sample exam from the Cambridge website