Comprehension Exercises Advice

In this document, you can

1) pick up some tips on how to do a reading or listening comprehension exercise, and

2) find out how the comprehension exercises work.

1) How to do a reading or listening comprehension exercise

➢ Look at the title before you read or listen and try to predict the type of text you are going
to read or listen to. If you’re right, great! If not, that’s OK too because either way, you are
preparing for the activity.

➢ Remember that when you’re doing a reading or listening comprehension exercise,

although it would be great to understand everything, you only need to understand
enough to answer the questions.

➢ It's a good idea to read or listen to the complete text or recording once, without stopping,
to get the general idea of what you are reading or listening to. While you read or listen,
don't worry too much if there are some words you don't understand. Focus on the
overall meaning and remember you don't have to understand every word to answer the
questions. In fact, it's more important to understand the questions!

➢ Before you start to read or listen to the text the second time, read the questions carefully
as this will help you find the information. For the reading comprehension exercises, the
paragraph number where you can find the answer is given.

➢ If you need to, you can read or listen again to confirm your answers before submitting
them.
2) How the comprehension exercises work

➢ The links to the comprehension exercises are inside the classroom (see image below).
Each exercise will become visible just before the exercise begins (see CA guidelines for
dates).

➢ When you access a comprehension exercise (e.g. Reading 1, Listening 1 etc.), first click
on "Attempt quiz now". Work your way through the questions on each page.

Question types

➢ For the ​Reading Comprehension Exercises​, there are two types of questions:
Multiple-choice ​questions and ​Gap-fill questions. For the ​Listening Comprehension
Exercises​, there are only ​Multiple-choice​ questions.

o Multiple-choice​ questions:

In these questions, select the best answer (a, b or c) after reading the text
carefully.
 o Gap-fill​ questions:

In these questions, you have to write the answer in the space provided.
Take care when writing your answers; check your spelling and punctuation.

➢ When you finish the questions on each page, click ​Next​ at the bottom of the page.

➢ When you finish the final page of questions, you will see a summary page. If your
answers are saved for each question, click on ​Submit all and finish​; if not, you can
Return to attempt​.
 ➢ Confirmation message​: if your answers for each question have been saved, click
Submit all and finish ​again. Alternatively, click on ​Cancel and ​Return to attempt ​to
change your answers any time before the deadline.

➢ If you click on ​Submit all and finish​, you will not be able to change your answers for
this attempt afterwards. However, you ​will be able to re-attempt the quiz any time before
the deadline.

NB: The marks for the ​LAST set of answers you submit before the deadline will be
counted.

NB: ​If you try to do an exercise BEFORE it is open, you will see a message that says the quiz is
not currently available. You have to wait until the date/time when the quiz opens.