Answers and Discussion

  1. Which question is testing a prefix?
    Question 34. The context requires ‘independence’ as opposed to ‘dependence’.  Candidates need to read carefully and consider the possibility that, in addition to a change of part of speech, a prefix is required.

  2. How many different parts of speech are tested across the six questions?
    Two: five nouns and one adjective.  Adverbs are also tested (see Sample paper Question 28) and it is also possible that verbs will be tested.

  3. What spelling considerations arise from Questions 31, 32 and 35?
    To form ‘variety’ from ‘vary’ candidates need to be aware of the change of the final ‘y’ to an ‘i’ (this is a common spelling rule that candidates should be aware of); the ‘e’ at the end of ‘innovate’ is dropped to form ‘innovation’, as is an ‘e’ in ‘proceed’ to become ‘procedures’.

  4. How many different suffixes are tested across the six questions?
    Six: each question targets a different suffix. Question 34 also requires a prefix.