The reading part of the B1 exam — four tasks and one hidden trap

The reading part is the longest — 50 minutes — and has the most questions: 33 across four tasks. Texts come from newspapers, magazines and fiction.

The four tasks

1. Matching situations to adverts, 9 questions. You get 9 situation descriptions and only 6 adverts — you have to decide which advert fits which situation. Adverts get reused, since there are fewer of them than situations. Tests scanning, selective reading.
2. Multiple-choice comprehension, 6 questions. One 200–300-word text, three options per answer. Tests finding precise details.
3. Multiple-choice gap-fill (word level), 10 questions. A text up to 200 words, three word options per gap. Tests inferring meaning from context.
4. Banked gap-fill (phrase level), 8 questions. 8 phrases or clauses have been removed from the text — pick the right one from the bank beside it. The bank has more options than gaps, so some of the offered answers don't fit anywhere.

The trap worth knowing before the exam, not during it

The first task (situations vs. adverts) surprises almost everyone the first time, because people assume there are equal numbers of situations and adverts. There aren't. 9 situations, 6 adverts — meaning at least three adverts fit more than one situation. This isn't a mistake in the task; it's part of testing how well you can use one text in several different ways.

Similarly in the fourth task: the bank has more phrases than gaps. If every option seems to fit somewhere, that means some will be left over — that's normal, not a sign you got something wrong.

Practical tips

• Start with the questions, not the text, especially in tasks 1 and 3 — know what you're looking for before you start reading.
• Don't read word for word. 50 minutes for 33 questions means less than 1.5 minutes per question on average, including reading — scanning is faster than full reading.
• In task 4, read the whole bank before picking your first answer — a phrase may fit grammatically in several places but make sense in only one.
• If time runs short, answer the questions you're sure of first — you can come back to the rest if time is left.

This site's reading exercises include exactly this same set of four task types, including the situations-vs-adverts asymmetry and the banked gap-fill structure.

Sources: Eesti keele B1-taseme eksam — eristuskiri (test specification, Harno); Information sheet for the Estonian language proficiency examinee (Harno, 2025). Facts reviewed 14 September 2026.

An explanatory article, not legal advice.