Reading practice test
Damaged-word passages, real-or-invented vocabulary, gapped sentences and the long interactive set.
- 18 minutes, 4 task types — not a full hour
- Moves Reading, Literacy, Comprehension on your report
- A real adaptive engine — difficulty moves with your answers
This section serves only the task types that feed your Reading subscore, at difficulty that adapts to how you answer — the same engine that runs a full mock, pointed at one skill.
Because Reading also feeds Literacy and Comprehension, work here moves three of the eight numbers on your report.
Three reading tests, no shared questions
Each one draws from its own slice of the bank, so sitting all three measures you three times rather than measuring what you remember.
Reading Test 1
The first slice of the reading bank, running the full difficulty range so it finds your level wherever it is.
Take test 1Reading Test 2
A separate set. Nothing here appears in test 1 or test 3, so a second sitting is a fresh measurement rather than a memory test.
Take test 2Reading Test 3
The third disjoint slice, same difficulty range and same scoring, so all three reading scores are directly comparable.
Take test 318 minutes each. Free for a limited time.
What is in the reading section
Read & Complete
A short passage appears with roughly every second word cut in half. You type the missing letters to restore each damaged word.
How it is scored → 5 secondsRead & Select
A single word appears. You decide whether it is a real English word or an invented one. Roughly half are invented.
How it is scored → 20 secondsFill in the Blanks
A sentence appears with one word partly deleted. The first letter or two are given; you type the rest.
How it is scored → 7 minutesInteractive Reading
A passage with five linked tasks: completing sentences, choosing what comes next, highlighting the part of the text that answers a question, identifying the main idea, and choosing a title.
How it is scored →What happens when you start the reading test
A short equipment check
A quick check that the page and timers are behaving. Nothing is recorded on this section.
The engine starts near the middle and moves
Your first item sits around the centre of the scale. From there difficulty tracks your answers — get one right and the next is harder. It is the same item-response engine that runs a full mock, pointed at Reading alone.
4 task types, 18 minutes
Each task carries its own timer, exactly as it does in the real test. Timers do not pause and there is no going back to a submitted answer.
A score on the same scale
You get a Reading estimate on the 10–160 scale with a confidence range, not a percentage. Because it is one skill, there is no overall score — that needs all four.
Feedback where a rubric applies
Every written and spoken response comes back with what worked and the one thing to change, graded by model against a rubric.
What reading is really costing you
Reading is the most heavily sampled skill on the DET — more individual items feed it than any other subscore, which cuts both ways. It gives the engine a lot of evidence, so the number is usually reliable; and it means a systematic habit, like guessing on Read & Select, compounds across fifteen or more items rather than costing you once.
Find your pattern, then fix that
Four failure patterns cover most of what goes wrong here. Read down the left column until one describes you — the fix is beside it, and it is usually not the fix people assume.
| If this sounds like you | What to actually do |
|---|---|
| You lose marks on damaged words but know the vocabulary | Your gap is grammar, not vocabulary. Label your wrong answers as agreement, tense, preposition or unknown word — for most people "unknown word" is the smallest pile. |
| You run out of time before finishing a passage | Completion beats accuracy here, because partial credit is real and an empty box is a certain zero. Practise at 2:30 instead of 3:00 and force yourself to fill every gap. |
| You accept invented words as real | The single most expensive habit on the test. Selecting only words you genuinely recognise is the correct play, not caution. |
| You understand each sentence but miss the argument | That shows up in Interactive Reading, where title and main-idea steps cannot be answered from local reading. Summarising everything you read in one sentence trains it. |
Where reading shows up
One skill, three numbers. This is why a single weak section costs more than people expect.
Reading
Measured directly by every task in this section.
Literacy
An integrated subscore built partly from Reading, so it moves when this does.
Comprehension
An integrated subscore built partly from Reading, so it moves when this does.
Start a practice test
An hour under real conditions, all eight subscores, and feedback on every written and spoken answer.
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