For people learning Italian
Italian Reading Practice for CILS, CELI and PLIDA
The reading paper is the one most candidates underprepare, because it looks like the easy one.
What the reading section is testing
Not vocabulary. Speed and inference. You are given texts you do not have time to decode word by word, and asked questions whose answers are implied rather than stated. Candidates who translate mentally run out of time; candidates who read run out of nothing.
That is why past papers alone are a poor preparation. They teach you the format. They do not build the reading speed the format assumes.
The question types, and where people lose marks
- Multiple choice on a long text. The wrong options are usually true statements that do not answer the question. Read the question twice, not the text twice.
- Matching headings or people to paragraphs. Do the ones you are sure of first; the last two solve each other.
- True / false / not stated. The killer is “not stated”. If the text does not say it, it is not true, however obvious it seems.
- Gap fill in a text. Grammar, not meaning: look at what the gap needs syntactically before you think about sense.
How to prepare with novels
Read one graded novel a level below your exam level, then one at your exam level. Every chapter in the series ends with comprehension questions built the way exam questions are built — inference, not recall.
- Sitting B1: read at A2, then B1. B1 books
- Sitting B2: read at B1, then B2. B2 books
- Sitting C1: read at B2, then C1. C1 books
Do the timing practice on past papers, in the last month only. Do the reading work in books, for the six months before that.
Choosing the right exam first
CILS, CELI and PLIDA are not interchangeable, and which one you need depends on what you need it for — study, work, residency or citizenship. Getting this wrong costs a second exam. See CILS vs CELI vs PLIDA before you book anything.
