Short Answer Questions

Tips

1. The answers appear in the same order as the text.
2. Look at and understand the questions first before you start reading the text. What is the question actually asking?
3. You will probably be given a word limit, for example ‘NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER.’ Make sure you don’t go over this limit.
4. The answers do not need to be grammatically correct, just short answers.
5. Don’t give your opinion, just the answer in the text.
6. Keywords in the question will normally be nouns or noun phrases.
7. When you find your keywords always think synonyms and paraphrases.

Strategy

1. Read the instructions carefully and note the word limit.
2. Read and understand the questions. Think about the information you will need to find.
3. Underline any keywords in the questions.
4. Think about synonyms or paraphrases for these keywords.
5. Find part of the text question 1 relates to.
6. Read question again.
7. Read the section containing the answer carefully and identify answer.
8. Continue with next question and repeat until finished.