How to prepare for an English equivalence test for teacher training

Since April 2020, England no longer requires teacher applicants to pass a national literacy skills test. The QTS Professional Skills Tests were abolished and replaced with a provider-led assurance model. Your ITT provider must be satisfied that you have “fundamental English” at a standard equivalent to GCSE grade 4 — but they decide how to assess that.

If you already hold a GCSE grade 4 (or grade C) or higher in English Language, that usually satisfies the requirement. If you don’t, many providers offer an equivalence test — an assessment they design themselves to evaluate your English literacy skills. This guide is for people preparing for exactly that.

Why English literacy matters for teachers specifically

The requirement isn’t bureaucratic box-ticking. Teachers write reports, give written feedback to pupils and parents, mark written work accurately, and model precise language in classrooms. The grade-4 standard reflects the minimum literacy expected to do those things well.

That context is worth keeping in mind as you prepare — you’re not cramming for a test in the abstract. You’re building skills you’ll use daily.

What English skills do you actually need?

Because there’s no standardised national format, content will vary between providers. However, the standard mirrors what the old QTS literacy test assessed, and that aligns closely with GCSE English Language grade 4. Expect questions in some or all of these areas:

Grammar — sentence construction, subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, relative clauses, conjunctions, active and passive voice
Spelling — common spelling patterns, homophones (affect/effect, practise/practice, their/there/they’re), prefixes and suffixes
Punctuation — commas, apostrophes (possessive and contraction), colons, semicolons, speech marks, hyphens
Vocabulary — precise word choice, understanding word meanings in context
Reading comprehension — understanding and summarising information from written passages, identifying the writer’s purpose, inferring meaning
Writing conventions — recognising errors in written text and knowing how to correct them

A practical preparation plan

1. Ask your provider what their test covers

Start here. Every provider’s equivalence test is different. Contact your ITT programme’s admissions team and ask what format they use, how long it is, and whether they have any preparation guidance or sample materials. Many providers are helpful with this — they want you to succeed.

2. Identify your specific weaknesses

English literacy weaknesses are usually specific, not general. Most applicants are confident readers but uncertain about grammar terminology (what is a subordinate clause?) or specific punctuation rules (when does an apostrophe go before the ‘s’?). A diagnostic test will surface your real gaps faster than guesswork.

3. Revise systematically — not all at once

Four to six weeks is a reasonable preparation window for most applicants. Suggested focus areas by week:

Week 1: Grammar fundamentals — sentence structure, parts of speech, verb tenses
Week 2: Punctuation — apostrophes, commas in complex sentences, colons and semicolons
Week 3: Spelling — systematic patterns, common homophones, word families
Week 4: Reading comprehension — summarising, inferring, identifying purpose and audience
Week 5–6: Mixed practice under timed conditions; review weak areas

4. Read widely

Reading good prose — news articles, non-fiction, quality fiction — builds vocabulary and grammar intuition faster than rules alone. Aim for 15–20 minutes of deliberate reading a day. When you notice a sentence structure that feels sophisticated, try to understand why it works.

5. Practise editing — not just writing

Many equivalence tests ask you to identify and correct errors in a passage of text rather than write freely. Editing is a distinct skill from writing. Practise reading sentences slowly and methodically, looking for specific error types one at a time rather than scanning generally.

A note on spelling

Spelling is often the area applicants feel most anxious about, because it feels arbitrary. It isn’t — English spelling follows patterns, even if those patterns have exceptions. Focus on the high-frequency words that teachers commonly misspell (separate, necessary, accommodate, receive, beginning) and the homophones that cause the most confusion in written feedback and reports.

What about reading comprehension?

Reading comprehension questions typically present a short passage and ask you to answer questions about it — main idea, author’s purpose, vocabulary in context, or a specific inference. The skill being tested is precise, careful reading, not general intelligence. Practise slowing down and reading passages twice: once for overall meaning, once to find evidence for specific answers.

Find out where you stand right now

Our free UK diagnostic gives you an instant picture of your English literacy skills — which areas are solid and which ones need work before your equivalence test. No sign-up required to see your score.

Take the free UK English diagnostic →

— The people of SN Academy