0.2 TKT Task Types, Exam-Day Strategy, and How to Use This Guide

Cambridge TKT Teaching Knowledge Test

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1 Introduction & Exam Overview

0.1 About the Cambridge TKT: Modules, Format, and Band Scores 0.2 TKT Task Types, Exam-Day Strategy, and How to Use This Guide

2 Chapter 1: Describing Language - Grammar, Lexis, Phonology, and Functions

1.1 Grammar Concepts and Sentence Structure 1.2 Lexis, Word Formation, and Semantic Relations 1.3 Phonology, Sound Systems, and Connected Speech 1.4 Language Functions and Exponents

3 Chapter 2: Language Skills and Sub-Skills

2.1 Receptive Skills - Reading and Listening Sub-skills 2.2 Productive Skills - Speaking and Writing Sub-skills 2.3 Integrating Skills and Text Analysis

4 Chapter 3: Background to Language Learning

3.1 SLA Theories and L1 vs. L2 Acquisition 3.2 Learner Characteristics, Learning Styles, and Autonomy 3.3 Learner Needs and Motivation 3.4 Errors, Slips, and Interlanguage

5 Chapter 4: Background to Language Teaching & Assessment

4.1 Presentation Techniques and Introductory Activities 4.2 Practice Activities and Task Types 4.3 ELT Methodologies, Approaches, and Frameworks 4.4 Assessment Types, Purposes, and Task Formats 4.5 Assessment Methods: Self, Peer, Portfolio, and Continuous Assessment

6 Chapter 5: Lesson Planning & Aims

5.1 Identifying and Selecting Lesson Aims 5.2 Components of a Lesson Plan and Stage Sequencing 5.3 Anticipating Learner Problems and Planning Solutions 5.4 Planning a Sequence of Lessons: Assumptions, Timetable Fit, and Common Sequences 5.5 Choosing Assessment Activities for a Lesson or Sequence

7 Chapter 6: Selection and Use of Teaching Resources

6.1 Coursebook Evaluation, Adaptation, and Supplementation 6.2 Supplementary Materials, Authentic Texts, and Teaching Aids 6.3 Reference Resources and Educational Technology

8 Chapter 7: Classroom Language & Interactions

7.1 Teacher Classroom Language, Instructions, and Eliciting 7.2 Functions of Teacher Language and Classroom Exponents 7.3 Learner Classroom Language and Interaction 7.4 Appropriacy of Teacher Language: Simplicity, Formality, and Using L1

9 Chapter 8: Classroom Management & Dynamics

8.1 Teacher Roles in the Communicative Classroom 8.2 Grouping Learners, Seating, and Interaction Patterns 8.3 Managing Classroom Participation and Pace 8.4 Classroom Rules, Routines, Praise, and Managing the Teaching Space

10 Chapter 9: Correcting Learners and Giving Feedback

9.1 Categorising Learners' Mistakes by Linguistic Type 9.2 Errors, Slips, and Deciding When to Correct 9.3 Immediate and Delayed Correction Techniques 9.4 Giving Effective Feedback and Encouraging Self-Correction

0.2 TKT Task Types, Exam-Day Strategy, and How to Use This Guide

Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI

Every TKT question is either a matching item or a multiple-choice item, and TKT multiple-choice items typically offer three lettered options.

Matching tasks may include extra options that are not needed and may or may not allow options to be reused, so the rubric must be read for every task.

TKT is a terminology test: items present classroom evidence and ask you to label it, which is why the free TKT Glossary is core preparation.

Eighty questions in eighty minutes allows roughly 60 seconds per item, including rubric reading and, on paper, shading the answer sheet.

Because no marks are deducted for wrong answers, a blank is always worth less than a guess on TKT.

Last updated: July 2026

• 0.2 TKT Task Types, Exam-Day Strategy, and How to Use This Guide
• Only Two Task Formats

Every one of the 80 questions in every TKT module is either a matching item or a multiple-choice item. There is no writing, no short answer and no interview, so recognising both formats instantly is worth marks.

Multiple choice

A TKT multiple-choice item gives a short stem — a question, a classroom situation or a sentence to complete — followed by three lettered options (A, B, C), exactly one of which is correct. With only three options, elimination is powerful: ruling out one clearly wrong option lifts a blind guess from one-in-three to one-in-two.

Matching

A matching task gives a lettered option bank and a set of numbered items; you decide which option belongs with each item. Two rubric features change the arithmetic, and they vary by task:

Extra options. Many matching tasks include one or more options that are not needed , so never assume every letter must be used and never force a leftover option onto your weakest item.

Reuse. Some tasks allow an option to be used more than once ; others allow each option only once. The rubric states which.

Read the rubric on every task. Candidates lose marks by carrying an assumption from one task into the next. Settle the items you are sure of first, then resolve the doubtful ones against the options that remain — which is where the extra-option and reuse rules bite.

Why TKT Is Fundamentally a Terminology Test

TKT rarely asks whether you would run a particular lesson; it asks whether you can name what is happening . An item may describe a teacher gapping a sentence on the board for learners to complete, then ask you to name the technique. If you hold eliciting , concept checking question , drilling , scanning , recast , interlanguage and fossilisation precisely, you answer in seconds. If you half-know them, all three options look plausible.

That is why the free downloadable TKT Glossary from Cambridge English is the most valuable preparation document after the handbook: it defines ELT terminology in the exact sense the test uses. Learn it actively: self-test in both directions (term to definition, definition to term) and concentrate on pairs that are easy to confuse, such as aim versus procedure , slip versus error , accuracy versus fluency , and ICQ versus CCQ .

The Item Stems You Will Meet

Stem type What it asks Typical wording

Identify the sub-skill Name the reading or listening sub-skill practised Learners read a timetable to find one departure time

Identify the aim Say why a stage or activity is there The teacher uses this activity in order to ...

• Match exponent to function Link a teacher's utterance to its function Right, in pairs now, three minutes
• Label the mistake Classify a learner's error by type The learner says: I have seen him yesterday

Choose the solution Pick the best fix for an anticipated problem Learners confuse the two forms. What should the teacher do?

Nearly every stem is classroom evidence plus a request to categorise it . Read the evidence and predict your own answer before looking at the options, then pick the option closest to it; reading the options first invites you to rationalise a wrong one.

Timing: Sixty Seconds a Question

Eighty questions in eighty minutes gives an average of 60 seconds per question — and that average must absorb reading each rubric and, on paper, shading the answer sheet:

Work in task blocks, not question by question: give a six-question task about six minutes and move on.

If an item passes about 90 seconds, record your best answer, mark it, and return only if time remains.

On paper, shade the answer sheet in pencil as you finish each task , not in the last five minutes; keep three or four minutes at the end to confirm no line is blank and nothing has slipped out of line.

Never Leave a Blank

Marks are not deducted for wrong answers , so a blank is strictly worse than a guess: with three options an uninformed guess is worth about a third of a mark, and half a mark once you have eliminated one. Sweep the paper before time is called and fill every gap.

When Two Options Both Look Right

Some items ask for the best answer, not the only defensible one. Three tie-breakers:

Match the focus of the stem. If it asks for a stage aim, the right option says what the learners will be able to do, not what the teacher does.

Prefer the specific to the general. Scanning for a specific number beats understanding the text .

Reject true but irrelevant options. A statement can be sound ELT practice and still not answer the question asked.

A Four- to Eight-Week Study Plan

• Weeks Focus Why
• 1–2 Module 1: describing language, skills and sub-skills 40 of 80 marks
• 3 Module 1: background to learning and teaching 15 + 25 marks
• 4–5 Module 2: planning first, then resources 40 marks per part
• 6–7 Module 3: classroom language, then management 40 marks per part
• 8 Sample papers under timed conditions Handbook paper + answer key

On a four-week schedule, compress to one week per core module plus one week of timed practice. Either way, sit at least one complete 80-minute paper per module before test day; pacing is a skill only rehearsal builds.

How to Use This Guide

The chapters map directly onto the three core modules:

Chapters 1–4 → Module 1 — describing language; skills and sub-skills; background to learning; background to teaching and assessment.

Chapters 5–6 → Module 2 — lesson planning and aims; selection and use of teaching resources.

Chapters 7–9 → Module 3 — classroom language and interaction; classroom management; errors, correction and feedback.

Read a section, then answer its questions immediately while the terminology is fresh, with the TKT Glossary open beside you. One deliberate difference: the practice questions in this guide offer four options , whereas real TKT multiple-choice items offer three. The extra distractor makes revision harder than the test itself, which is the point — if you can eliminate three wrong options here, three-option items will feel comfortable on the day.