CEPT forum - Secret of answering CEPT

CEPT forum

Question: What is the secret of answering the Reading and Listening exercises on CEPT correctly?

Answer: 
The correct answer to any question must be based on something that was written in the text or heard in the audio recording. This means that it does not allow you to interpret the meaning based on the following:

• any personal knowledge you may have of the subject
• your personal beliefs
• your own opinions about the subject
• something that may sound logical but is not actually mentioned or implied

The answer must be objective, meaning that it must be based only on what you read or what you heard.

This only allows for two possible answer types:

• repeating information directly from the text or audio, or
• restating the idea through paraphrased information (restating the information or idea using different words).

This is the secret! Almost every single correct answer in the Reading and Listening sections of the CEPT are synonyms and paraphrased ideas and information.

Knowing this, it makes it easier to identify the best answer as well as eliminate the distractors, or wrong answers. In a general sense distractors are wrong because they do not restate the idea or information from the part of a passage or audio that contains the answer to the question. The distractors are constructed by the test makers with this fact in mind.

The four things you must learn to do are the following:

1. Analyze the questions, the text, and the answer choices.
2. Look for paraphrases of key words from the questions of the text.
3. Look for paraphrases from the text in the answer choices.
4. Eliminate the wrong answer choices to help you find the best answer.

Share your CEPT Experience by commenting below to help other students taking the CEPT Test!

Check an example below.

1. Incomplete Sentence - Use of English (Vocabulary)

I've applied for the job but I don't really _____________ to get it.

a. expect
b. think
c. believe
d. suppose

Answer: The correct answer option is expect. The word 'expect' is the only verb that can be commonly followed by to + infinitive.

The words think, believe and suppose are not followed by to + infinitive.

2. Multiple-Choice Cloze

A Communication Problem

Dear Mr. Maddox,

I am writing in ______1_____ to your telephone conversation with my assistant about our new product lines, and to explain my failure to answer your enquiries.

I believe your difficulty in ___2____ me, and in getting information on our new lines, arose because of our recent ___3____ of premises. I sincerely regret any trouble you have had.

As my assistant promised, I have attached the new product details which you requested.

I hope I have ___4____ to explain the reason for problems you have had in contacting me recently, and that we can look ___5____ to continuing business with you.

Yours sincerely,

Jim Blakeney

1) response
    subject
    respect
    accordance

2) communicating
     speaking
     contacting
     corresponding

3) removal
    replacement
    change
    movement

4) got
    made
    managed
    succeeded

5) after
    on
    up
    forward

Multiple-choice cloze answer key

1) The correct answer is response. 'In response to' which means 'concerning'.

'With respect to' or 'in respect of' would also mean 'concerning' which would require changing a preposition in order for either choice to be correct. 'In respect to' is not a proper response.

2) The correct answer is contacting. 

Communicating, speaking and corresponding all require the preposition 'with'.

3) The correct answer is change. 

'Premises' are the buildings and land that a business or organization uses. 'Change of premises' means moving to a different location and is a commonly used expression.

4) The correct answer is managed. 'Managed' means 'To succeed in accomplishing or achieving, especially with difficulty.' It is commonly followed by the infinitive form. 

'Have got to' is used to express necessity and obligation and does not fit the context of the sentence.

5) The correct answer is forward. 'Look forward to' is a phrasal verb meaning 'to be thinking with pleasure about something that is going to happen because you expect to enjoy it.'