The Reading and Use of English (UOE) exam is one of the four exams that you will do when you take the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) exam. Below you'll learn some essential information about the Reading/UOE exam (what the exam is, how long you have, what you need to pass etc...) and what the parts of this exam are and how they are different.
How many parts of the exam
In the Reading/UOE exam there are eight different parts/exercises in which there are questions to answer.
How much time you have
You have 1 hour and 30 minutes to do this part of the exam in both the paper-based and computer-based versions of the exam. But in this time if you do the paper-based exam you also have to fill in your answers on the answer sheet (which they will give you along with the question paper). This takes about 5 minutes to do (which you should do at the end of the exam). So in effect you have 1 hour and 25 minutes.
In the computer-based exam, you don't have to add your answers to an answer sheet. So if you do the computer-based exam, you have 1 hour and 30 minutes to answer the questions in this part of the exam.
Differences to the FCE Reading/UOE exam
If you haven't done or studied for the Cambridge First Certificate in English (FCE) exam before, you can ignore this part and start reading the next one. But if you have, I recommend that you read it.
It will be no surprise to hear that the CAE Reading/UOE exam is more difficult to do than the FCE Reading/UOE exam. One of the reasons is that the level of the vocabulary and grammatical structures used is more advanced.
But in addition to this, there is a difference in the topics used for the exercises in this part of the exam. Firstly, the number of topics you can find used in the exam is both a lot more and more diverse in the CAE exam. In the FCE exam the topics used for different exercises is restricted to about 8 key topic areas. This is not the case with the CAE exam.
And secondly, you'll find many of the topics used are more specialised/academic and less commonly talked about (e.g. on science, the arts, types of jobs etc...) than in the FCE exam.
This means that before you do the exam, you have to have a good knowledge of the English vocabulary used in a large number of different topics.
To learn about the vocabulary used in the CAE exam, read our article called 'Vocabulary Used in CAE Exams'.
Although the majority of the exercises in the CAE exam have the same in format (what you have to do, the type of questions etc...) as in the FCE exam, there are two which are a bit different. In the FCE exam for the exercise for part 4 (which you have to complete the missing part of a sentence), you have to use between two and five words. In the CAE exam for this part you have to use between three and six words.
In the FCE there is an exercise (part 6) which asks you to add missing sentences into a text. However, in the CAE exam for this part (which is part 7), instead of adding missing sentences in this exercise, you have to add missing paragraphs.
On top of this, there is also an additional exercise that you have to do (part 6 in the exam). So instead of 7 exercises you have to do (like in the FCE exam), you have 8 exercises to do instead. You'll find out more about this new exercise in the 'the parts' section below.
The last difference is the time you have to do the exam. In the FCE Reading/UOE exam you had 1 hour 15 minutes to do it. In the CAE Reading/UOE exam you have 1 hour 30 minutes instead. This may seem like a lot of time, but due to the increase in difficulty (more advanced vocabulary/grammatical structure and the increased range of topics you could find), it is more difficult to complete the CAE Reading/UOE on-time than the FCE one.
The parts
Different formats & things to do
As I said above, there are eight different parts of the Reading/UOE exam. Each part of this exam is different in some way.
Some of the parts have multiple choice questions (where you are given a list of possible answers), while in others you have to decide the answer yourself.
In addition to the type of questions you will find, in the the parts you will have to do different things. In one part for example, you have to rewrite the missing parts of sentences. In others, you have to decide what the missing words from a text are. And in others, you have to find the answers to questions from a piece of text.
What the parts are
Below I will explain what the format/structure of each of the seven parts is and what you have to do in each.
Part 1
In this first part of the exam you have to identify missing words in a text. There is a short text with eight gaps in it. For each gap you have to choose what the missing word is. This is a multiple choice exercise and you are provided with a list of four possible words for each of the gaps. Only one of these four is correct for the sentence where the gap is.
'Click here to see an example of part 1 of the Reading/UOE exam'.
Part 2
Part 2 is similar to part 1 in that you have a short text with eight gaps in it and you have to identify what the missing word for each is. But unlike in part 1, you are not given a list of possible answers for each gap. Instead, you have to decide what each of the missing words is yourself.
'Click here to see an example of part 2 of the Reading/UOE exam'.
Part 3
Like in both parts 1 and 2 you have to identify what eight missing words are in a short text with eight gaps in it. But unlike both of the other parts, you are provided with a word for each of the gaps (at the end of the line where each gap is). You have to modify this word (e.g. change it from a verb to an adjective, use the negative form of it etc...), so that it makes sense in the sentence.
'Click here to see an example of part 3 of the Reading/UOE exam'.
Part 4
In this part you have to rewrite a missing part of a sentence. There are six questions in which there are two sentences which mean exactly the same thing but written in different ways. One of the sentences is complete, while the other sentence below it has a part missing. You have to fill this missing part with between three to six words so that the sentences means exactly the same as the complete sentence above it. In the words you use in the gap, you have to use a specific word. The word you have to use is written between the two sentences.
'Click here to see an example of part 4 of the Reading/UOE exam'.
Part 5
In this part of the exam you have to answer six questions about a long text. You have six multiple choice questions with four possible answers for each. The answer for each question is in the text, you just have to find it. The answers to each question will be found in the text in the same order as the questions. So, the answer to question one will be first in the text, the answer to question two with be second in the text and so on.
'Click here to see an example of part 5 of the Reading/UOE exam'.
Part 6
In this part you you will be given four short texts from different people who are giving their opinion on one specific thing (e.g. a piece of art, an exhibition, an invention etc...). In each text they basically talk about exactly the same things (e.g. is it important, does it work etc...). You have four questions where you have to identify who agrees and disagrees with each other about these things.
'Click here to see an example of part 6 of the Reading/UOE exam'.
Part 7
In this part you have to add missing paragraphs to a long text. In the text there are six gaps between the paragraphs. You are given a list of seven paragraphs (one of which you don't use in any of them). You have to decide from the context of the both the paragraphs and the sentences either before or after the gap which one of these seven paragraphs is correct for each gap.
'Click here to see an example of part 7 of the Reading/UOE exam'.
Part 8
In this last part of the exam you will be given four (or sometimes five) short texts from different people talking about the same topic (e.g. photography) or an article separated into four (or five) distinct paragraphs. You will have to answer ten questions. In each of the questions you will find a sentence. You have to identify which of the four (or five) people or paragraphs says the sentence. In the texts/paragraphs they will use different words than what are used in the sentences in each question.
'Click here to see an example of part 8 of the Reading/UOE exam'.
They test different areas of English
Not only is each part different in some way in its format and what you have to do, but the parts have also been designed to test different areas of your English knowledge and abilities.
Each part could be testing:
1. Your knowledge of vocabulary:
How broad your knowledge of English vocabulary, synonyms, uses of words and word/phrases structures (e.g. what prepositions are used with words or phrases) is.
2. Your knowledge of grammatical structures:
How to correctly structure a sentence and your ability to identify what type of a word (e.g. verb, adjective, pronoun etc...) that a word is.
3. Your ability to use the context in a piece of text to predict what a word or phrase means or what feelings somebody is expressing.
Knowing what area of English that a part of the Reading/UOE exam is testing you on, will help you to do the exam better. To learn what area of English each part of the Reading/UOE exam is testing you on, read our article on 'What the CAE Reading and Use of English Exam is Testing You on'.
How many points per question
The number of points you get for a correct answer depends on the part of Reading/UOE exam. For some parts of the exam you will only get 1 point per question you have answered correctly. For other parts of the exam you will get 2 point per question you have answered correctly.
But there is one part which is different. For part 4, if you write all of the part of the sentence which is missing correctly, then you will get 2 points for the question. But if you only write a half of what missing is from the sentence correctly (either the first half or the second half), then you will only get 1 point for the question.
Below I will tell you how many questions there are in each part of the exam and how many points you will get if you get a question right:
Part 1
Number of questions: 8
Points per question: 1
Part 2
Number of questions: 8
Points per question: 1
Part 3
Number of questions: 8
Points per question: 1
Part 4
Number of questions: 6
Points per question: 1 or 2
Part 5
Number of questions: 6
Points per question: 2
Part 6
Number of questions: 4
Points per question: 2
Part 7
Number of questions: 6
Points per question: 2
Part 8
Number of questions: 10
Points per question: 1
The percentage of the final mark it gives
The Reading/UOE exam contributes 40% of your final mark, so of the 4 exams you will do, this is the most important (the Speaking, the Writing and the Listening parts only contribute 20% each).
When you get your results for the Certificate in Advanced English exam, you won't see a score for Reading /UOE, instead you will be given one score for your Reading and another score for your Use of English. And each of these contributes 20% to your final score.
Image of part of the Results Statement that candidates receive after doing the CAE exam. It shows the 5 different scores which candidates receive for the exam.
Both of these scores come from the Reading/UOE exam you will have done. The mark you get from parts 1, 5, 6, 7 & 8 of the exam are what make up your Reading score and the mark you get from parts 2, 3 & 4 of the exam make up your Use of English score.
How much you need to pass
Like in all the parts of the CAE exam, to pass you need to get 60% or over of the possible points (which is equivalent to a 'Cambridge English Scale Score' of 180 or over).
Remember, you can still fail the Reading and/or Use of English parts of the exam (get less than 60% (180 points on the Cambridge marking system which you'll see on your results)) and still pass the CAE exam as long as you do well on the other parts of the exam and your average score for all of the exams is 180 points or over.