Free QTS Professional Skills Literacy Test Practice

It should come as no surprise that proficiency in English is crucial to becoming a qualified teacher within the UK. The QTS skills test is administered by the Department for Education to evaluate aspiring educators on their ability to perform basic professional duties. Keep in mind that the QTS is not used to assess your capacity to teach a certain subject, but rather proves your competency in basic skills.

The QTS is administered in two parts: one for numeracy and one for literacy. The QTS literacy test covers spelling, punctuation, grammar, and comprehension. These sections consist of approximately 45 questions.  Seeing as you are only given 48 minutes to complete such a large amount of questions, it is crucial that you practise beforehand. Practising allows you to not only understand the material but increase your answering speed and accuracy throughout.

Continue reading to find out more about the different sections of the QTS literacy test and what you can do to improve your chances of success.

In this section of the QTS, you will be presented with 10 sentences, each with a missing word. These sentences will be read aloud twice via a headset with each sentence appearing on-screen. You are tasked with finding the correct spelling for each missing word. You will either select the correct option from a list or to spell it out in the space provided. You will need to work quickly through this section as each sentence will only appear on-screen for a limited amount of time. Practising beforehand will greatly increase your answering speed and accuracy prior to your test day.

1. We have __________ new guides for the latest devices to help parents stay up-to-date with the latest technology.

2. It is their __________ to deal with bullying in the first instance.

3. The information will be monitored __________ by the Assistant Head of Care Guidance and Support.

4. Every student has a right to a safe and secure environment and to be treated with __________ and respect.

5. __________ can be made through the school office.

6. Our school has a positive __________ for embracing and celebrating every kind of achievement.

7. Learning is our core purpose, and we champion challenge and learning within a safe school __________ where people are helpful, considerate, and respectful of each other.

8. We continue to focus carefully on __________ of students at school as it has such an important impact on building relationships with others as well as achieving their full potential in studies.

Need more spelling practice? find our full PrepPack >>

In this section of the test, you are presented with a passage containing 15 different punctuation errors. These errors can range from simple capitalisation and adding full stops to those that are more complicated, such as adding hyphens and commas. During this exercise you are to read the provided text and pinpoint all the errors within. Practising prior to taking the QTS literacy test will allow you to find and fix punctuation errors more quickly and accurately.

In this section of the test, you will be presented with a variety of different passages to read. These passages are focused on school-based subjects like open evenings, school trips, etc. You will need to find the grammatically correct sentence or sentences associated with each passage. Your answer options will often be presented in a list format making it somewhat difficult to locate the correct answer at first. Below you will find an example of the types of questions you are bound to encounter during this section of the test.

General Guide Lines:

• Below you will see the entire text with sections missing.
• Each underlined section refers to a separate question.
• There are four answer choices for each question and you must select the correct answer.
• The correct answer is judged to be the best fit if it gives the greatest clarity. 
• An excerpt from the text referred to is included above the answer options. 

The QTS comprehension test is like many other comprehension tests in that you will need to read a passage of text to answer questions. Whereas traditional comprehension test passages contain no more than 250 words each, those found on the QTS can often exceed 600 words. This, in turn, makes the QTS comprehension test significantly more difficult than other English comprehension tests. Preparing for this sort of test in advance is crucial to understanding the best methods to approach each passage.

There are several skills being assessed during this section of the QTS. They include:

• Identifying the main points in a text
• Making inferences and deductions
• Distinguishing between fact and opinion
• Showing that you grasp the relative importance of points being made
• Presenting parts of the information in a different way from the original text
• Retrieval of facts and specific points
• Re-presenting information from several parts of the text
• Gathering information from several parts of the text
• Seeking evidence relating to statements from or about the text and making judgements

There are several ways you may be asked to respond to questions, including sequencing information, choosing the main points from a list, and matching text to summaries. However, most questions are multiple-choice, and you must pick the correct response.

As you can see, preparing for the literacy section of the QTS is crucial to your success. By using our QTS-style preparation materials, you will greatly improve your chances of passing the first time around. Start practising today to get an edge over the competition and become the qualified teacher you know you can be.