The following explanation will help you to make sense of our free sample test which can be downloaded in PDF.
What does a test of academic and quantitative literacy look like?
Academic and quantitative literacy is sometimes abbreviated as AQL. A typical AQL test will normally have a single topic, on which a number of subtests are built. These subtests will test different components of academic literacy. If a test is well designed, its subtests should provide answers to questions such as:
- Do you understand the relations between different parts of a text?
Subtest: Scrambled text - Do you know the right words to deal with academic vocabulary?
Subtest: Vocabulary knowledge - Do you know how to find evidence, how to make inferences, and how to extrapolate? Subtest: Verbal reasoning
- Can you interpret graphs and other visual information?
Subtest: Interpreting graphs and visual information - Can you instantly recognise the genre in which text is presented?
Subtest: Register and text type - Can you comprehend meaning, nuance, emphasis and argument in a given text?
Subtest: Text comprehension
[Note: A subtest will often test more than one component of academic literacy. The table below provides a more complete picture. Click image to enlarge it].
Now see our academic and quantitative literacy test example (for viewing purposes only):
If you wish to learn more, or you need to sharpen your ability to use academic language, consider buying our book of practice tests with answers: Academic literacy: Five new tests.
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