📚 Reading — Year 3 Skills & Strategies
What is tested and how to approach it
What Reading Tests
The Year 3 Reading section has 36 questions across 4 different text types — narrative, poem, informational and functional. Students have 45 minutes.
📖 Narrative — A story with characters, setting and plot. Questions test events, character feelings and word meaning.
🎭 Poem — A poem with rhyme or imagery. Questions test phrase meaning, the poet’s purpose and literary techniques.
🔬 Informational — A factual text. Questions test comprehension of facts, sequence and technical words.
📋 Functional — Real-world texts like rules or notices. Questions test locating specific information quickly.
Top Strategies for Year 3 Reading
- Read the whole passage first before looking at the questions.
- Read the question carefully — look for key words like “mainly”, “best” and “most likely”.
- Find the answer in the text — most answers are directly stated.
- Eliminate wrong answers — cross out clearly incorrect options first.
- Do not rush — 45 minutes gives about 75 seconds per question.
💡 For functional texts, go straight to the questions first — these are designed to be searched, not read fully.
