How to teach your child the Pre-Test comprehension technique

English comprehension tests a child's understanding of a text, usually by giving them an extract to read and then asking them questions about it. Your child will already have learnt comprehension skills at school, here we take you through how to apply them to the ISEB Pre-Test.

Through the test children will see several short passages (between 300 – 500 words), passages are age-appropriate and could be fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. Each paragraph or verse within the passage will be numbered. The whole passage will be displayed on the screen, but the child may need to scroll down to read it all.

Some questions will refer to specific paragraphs (or verses). This means the pupil need only to refer to this section.
Some questions will refer to specific sentences. These questions will repeat the sentence so you do not have to find it in the passage.
Some questions will be about the whole text.

Questions will assess the following skills:

Retrieving information.
Making inferences.
Explaining the meaning of words in context.
Literary devices (e.g. alliteration, personification, metaphors)
Summarising ideas.
Making comparisons (e.g. across the text, between characters, between formality)

Where the question is about the whole text, we recommend children read the question, then start reading from the beginning of the extract to find the answer.

e.g. How many people live in the city?

Once they think they have found the answer, it is worth them reading on a little further to ensure there is no information that could contradict their answer.

e.g. The population of the city is recorded as 5,000, but recently there has been an influx of 2,000 people. This means the total population has increased to 7,000.

Usually, the Pre-Test comprehension questions are in chronological order, so the answers can be found as the child moves through the extract. There are however sometimes exceptions, so your child will need to be prepared to go back to an earlier part of the passage. BOFA's ISEB Mock Tests include some questions that are not in chronological order to ensure children feel prepared for this scenario. It is also worth noting that as the ISEB Pre-Test is taken on a computer, children will not be able to annotate a paper copy of the extract. As an online mock exam, BOFA's ISEB Mock Tests help familiarise children with this process.

Helping your child

Don't worry, it's easy to help your child develop this style of comprehension technique with a little practice. Find a short text and come up with two or three questions about it your child could answer. Show them the questions first, ensuring they understand them before showing them the text. It's a good idea to practice with different genres.

Here are three examples:

A paragraph from the middle of a fictional story
A verse from a poem
A short online news item

The whole process should only take five minutes - give it a try over breakfast!

Why not try our practice questions below using this article as the extract?

How long is the ISEB English Pre-Test?
List two genres of text that are good for comprehension practice.

If you don't have the time to create your own practice questions, BOFA's ISEB Mock Tests are ideal for easy preparation. Available as packs of 3, they mirror the content and format of the ISEB Pre-Test exam. They are highly effective in developing a child's exam technique, building their confidence and identifying and improving any weak areas.

You can buy BOFA^® ISEB Pre-Test Mock Test packs here: pre-test.co.uk/shop

Take a BOFA^® ISEB Pre-Test Mock Test demo here

Learn more about the ISEB Pre-Test here.

See which schools use the ISEB Pre-Test here.

Read our other ISEB Pre-Test blog posts

Last review: July 2025