Sample test (AQL)

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):

Academic literacy sample test

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.