What's in it?

In the Cambridge B2 Exam both the Reading and Use of English are part of the same exam. The total time for the exam is 1 hour 15 minutes. However, there are separate scores for each and the questions are listed from Part 1 to Part 7. 

Reading & Use of English Exercises

Number of Questions

The complete Reading & Use of English exam has a total of 52 questions.

Use of English

Use Of English Part 1 Multiple-Choice Cloze
There are 8 questions in this part and each correct answer is one mark. Each question has four multiple choice options 

Use Of English Part 2 Modified Cloze Gap-Fill
There are 8 questions in this part and each correct answer is one mark. Only one word is needed in each of the gaps. 

Use Of English Part 3 Word Building
There are also 8 questions in this part and each correct answer is one mark. For each gap candidates need to modify the word at the end of the line to create a new form of that word. 

Use Of English Part 4 Keyword Transformation
There are 6 questions in this part and each completely correct answer is two marks. Using the given word candidates need to complete each sentence with 2-5 words.  

Reading Exercises

Reading Part 5 Multiple Choice
There are 6 questions in this part and each correct answer is two marks. Candidates need to choose one of four options as the right answer.

Reading Part 6 Paragraph Matching
There are 6 questions in this part and each correct answer is two marks. There are six missing paragraphs from the test and seven possible options. 

Reading Part 7 Multiple Matching
There are 10 questions in this part and each correct answer is one mark. This can be a single text or separate short texts. It is generally in 4-5 parts.    

Exam Tips

Be careful with your time
You should spend 30-35 minutes on the Use of English and 40-45 minutes on the reading.

Order of exercises
It is generally a good idea to do the Use of English exercises first as you can finish them more quickly. With the reading exercises do them according to how difficult you find them, with the most difficult exercise last.

One thing that will never change is that your answer sheet is king. With computer correction now used for much of the exam nobody can guess what those empty spaces on the answer sheet might have been so it very important to put an answer to each question if possible.

Remember too, if you do the  paper-based exam that the 10 minute reminder at the end of the 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.