Duration: 90 minutesModule: General Training ReadingFocus: The three-minute map · TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN vs YES/NO/NOT GIVEN · summary completion · the word-class trick
Objectives
Explain why Section 3 decides the band for anyone targeting 7 or above.
Build a paragraph map of a long text in three minutes and use it to locate every subsequent question.
Distinguish a question about facts from a question about the writer's views, and write the words the instruction asked for.
Complete a summary using the correct word class, not just the correct meaning.
Work a full 13-question Section 3 inside twenty-five minutes.
0:00 – 0:15
Section 3: Where the Band Is Decided
One text, around 900 words, general interest, and about thirteen questions. It reads much like an Academic passage, and for a candidate aiming at band 7 or above it is the section that decides the outcome.
The arithmetic
Suppose you are perfect on Sections 1 and 2 — all 27 marks. To reach band 7 you need 34, so you must find another 7 out of 13 here. To reach band 8 you need 37: that is 10 out of 13. Nobody is perfect on the first two sections, so in practice Section 3 is where a 6.5 becomes a 7.
This is also why the 15/20/25 budget is not negotiable. Arriving at Section 3 with twelve minutes left caps your band, however good your English is.
The three-minute map
Before you look at a single question, spend three minutes doing this — and only this:
Read the title and any subheading.
Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph.
Write two or three words in the margin next to each paragraph saying what it is about.
You now have a map. Every question that follows becomes "which paragraph is this in?" rather than "where on earth is this?". Three minutes spent here saves eight later, which is the whole game in Section 3.
0:15 – 0:45
TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN vs YES/NO/NOT GIVEN
These look identical and are not. Getting the difference straight is worth several marks a paper, and almost nobody is taught it properly.
TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
YES / NO / NOT GIVEN
Tests
Facts — information stated in the text.
Views — the writer's opinions, claims and beliefs.
The question is
Does the text say this happened / is the case?
Would the writer agree with this?
Look for
Dates, numbers, events, descriptions.
Argues, claims, believes, suggests, unfortunately, surprisingly, it is clear that.
Write
TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
YES / NO / NOT GIVEN
Write the words you were asked for
If the instruction says YES/NO/NOT GIVEN and you write TRUE, the answer is marked wrong, even though you understood the text perfectly. This is a free mark and candidates give it away every day. Check the instruction line, then check it again before you transfer.
Fact or view?
Decide which task type each statement belongs to, then answer it against this extract:
"Night trains disappeared from most of Europe in the 2000s, and by 2016 only a handful of routes survived. Their revival since then has been striking. It is often said that the appeal is environmental, and no doubt that is part of it — but I suspect the real driver is simpler: nobody enjoys airports. A night train delivers you to the centre of a city having slept, which no budget airline can offer at any price."
Only a small number of night-train routes were still running in 2016.
The writer believes environmental concern is the main reason for the revival.
The writer thinks the dislike of airports matters more than people assume.
Night trains are cheaper than budget flights.
TRUE — a fact, stated directly ("only a handful of routes survived").
NO — a view. The writer concedes it is "part of it" but says the real driver is something else. Note that a candidate reading quickly sees the word environmental and answers YES.
YES — a view, and the writer's central one.
NOT GIVEN — the text says no airline can offer what a night train offers "at any price", which is about value, not cost. It never compares fares.
Question 4 is the one to sit with. "At any price" feels like a statement about price. It is not.
0:45 – 1:05
Summary Completion
A short paraphrase of part of the passage with gaps in it. Two varieties: words from the text, or words from a box of options. The technique differs.
From the text
Read the whole summary first, ignoring the gaps, so you know what it is about.
Find the part of the passage it summarises — usually one or two paragraphs, in order.
For each gap, decide the word class needed: noun, verb, adjective?
Find it and copy it exactly, within the word limit.
From a box
The box always has more words than gaps.
Group the box words by word class first — that alone eliminates half the options per gap.
Expect synonyms of the passage, not the passage's own words.
Do the certain ones and cross them off.
The word class trick
Before you look for meaning, look at the grammar around the gap. "…a significant ________ in demand" needs a noun. "…demand ________ sharply" needs a verb. Half of all summary-completion errors are answers that mean the right thing but are the wrong part of speech — increase where the gap needed increasing, or growth where it needed grew.
1:05 – 1:30
End-of-Class Drill — A Full Section 3
One long text, thirteen questions, twenty-five minutes. Do the three-minute map first. Check every instruction line for whether it wants TRUE or YES.
Vocabulary from today
Tap a word to reveal its meaning. These are the terms General Training texts use again and again.
to be stopped or taken out of service. The route was withdrawn in 2009.
the trains, carriages and wagons a railway owns.
fondly remembering the past, sometimes unrealistically.
for a government to pay part of the cost so the price stays low.
certainly — used to concede a point before disagreeing with it.
a formal way of disagreeing. A strong signal that a view question is coming.
compared with; when weighed against.
to cause it to fail. The bureaucracy has defeated more than one route.
a period when the economy weakens.
Wrap-up
Wrap-Up & Homework
Two habits from today. The three-minute map, which feels like wasted time and is not. And the instruction check: TRUE or YES? Look before you write, every single time.
Tonight is a second full Section 3, timed. Next session is the mock — come rested and bring a watch.