TKT: Young Learners 2026 — the number that should shape your whole study plan
If you are sitting the Cambridge TKT: Young Learners (YL) module, start with one figure: 33.
That is how many of the paper's 80 questions Cambridge assigns to a single syllabus area — Teaching young learners. It is 41% of the test, and it is more than Parts 1 and 4 put together (13 + 13 = 26). Revise the four parts as four equal blocks, which is what almost every TKT: YL course outline implies, and you will hand the same hours to a 13-question area as to one worth two and a half times more.
This guide gives you the official part-by-part question split from the Cambridge handbook, the exact task-by-task order of the paper, what Bands 1–4 really mean (there is no pass mark, and Cambridge has never published band boundaries), the paper-versus-digital booking decision that most TKT pages still get wrong, and how YL actually differs from TKT Modules 1–3.
FREE TKT: Young Learners practice questionsPractice questions with detailed explanations
TKT: YL at a glance (2026)
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Teaching Knowledge Test: Young Learners |
| Owner | Cambridge University Press & Assessment (Cambridge English) |
| Who it is for | Teachers and classroom assistants who teach, or will teach, English to children aged 6–12 |
| Questions | 80, across 12 tasks |
| Time | 1 hour 20 minutes (80 minutes) — exactly one minute per question |
| Task types | Matching and multiple choice only (objective tasks) |
| Delivery | Paper-based or digital, at an authorised Cambridge centre |
| Result | Band 1–4 — no pass or fail |
| Certificate | Issued to every candidate who completes the module |
| Entry requirements | None; Cambridge describes the audience as teachers with English at B1 or above |
| Fee | Set by each authorised centre — Cambridge does not publish a single global price |
Facts confirmed against the official TKT: Young Learners Handbook for teachers (UCLES, November 2019) and the current Cambridge English TKT pages.
One definition worth fixing early, because it decides whether this is your module at all: Cambridge states that TKT: YL defines a young learner as a child in their first six years of formal education, from the age of 6 to 12. Teach pre-schoolers or teenagers and the syllabus is not aimed at your classroom.
The four parts — and the question count Cambridge gives each
This table is the single most useful thing on this page, and it is buried on page 11 of a 44-page PDF everywhere else.
| Part | Syllabus area | Tasks | Questions | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Knowledge of young learners and principles of teaching English to young learners | 2 | 13 | 16% |
| 2 | Planning and preparing young learner lessons | 3 | 21 | 26% |
| 3 | Teaching young learners | 5 | 33 | 41% |
| 4 | Assessing young learner learning through classroom-based assessment | 2 | 13 | 16% |
| Total | 12 | 80 | 100% |
What each part actually asks you to know:
Part 1 (13 questions) — children's characteristics as language learners, and how language learning develops their learning strategies, cognitive strategies and communication strategies. This is the theory-facing part: capacity for play and indirect learning, needing to feel safe, learning from social interaction, using chunks, plus the learner variables (L1 background, motivation, attention span) that differ child to child.
Part 2 (21 questions) — lesson-plan components and headings; providing support and challenge when selecting and using coursebooks and supplementary materials; and additional resources — selecting, adapting and supplementing them. Expect stories, games, puppets, realia, flashcards, art and craft, action rhymes, chants, ICT and video clips.
Part 3 (33 questions) — the big one. Three strands: scaffolding children's understanding and use of language through teacher language and teaching strategies; using practice activities to consolidate learning; and managing young learners in class.
Part 4 (13 questions) — purposes of different types of classroom-based assessment, the focus of each type, and acting on classroom-based assessment evidence.
The exact order of the paper
The official sample test in the handbook shows the 12 tasks in sequence, so you know precisely which question numbers belong to which part on the day:
| Questions | Task | Part |
|---|---|---|
| 1–6 | Match teachers' comments to young learner needs and characteristics (A–G) | 1 |
| 7–13 | Match teachers' instructions to the cognitive strategies they develop (A–D) | 1 |
| 14–20 | Match comments on a vocabulary lesson plan | 2 |
| 21–27 | Match materials problems to ways of supplementing or adapting (A–H) | 2 |
| 28–34 | Three-option multiple choice: using additional resources (A/B/C) | 2 |
| 35–41 | Match teacher classroom language to scaffolding strategies | 3 |
| 42–48 | Match what fast finishers do to scaffolding strategies | 3 |
| 49–54 | Match activity descriptions to types of practice activity (A–G) | 3 |
| 55–60 | Three-option multiple choice: uses of classroom practice activities | 3 |
| 61–67 | Match teachers' comments to areas of managing the class | 3 |
| 68–73 | Three-option multiple choice: assessing children in class | 4 |
| 74–80 | Match examples of teacher feedback to the focus of the feedback (A, B, C) | 4 |
The matching trap. Look closely at the option banks. Questions 1–6 give seven options (A–G) for six questions, so one option goes unused. Questions 7–13 give four options (A–D) for seven questions, so options must be reused. Never assume a matching task is one-to-one — check the letter range against the question range before you start, and tick options off only when a task clearly has spares.
On paper you mark the correct letter by shading boxes on an answer sheet, and Cambridge specifies a pencil — so bring one, and shade as you go rather than leaving a batch of transfers to the last minutes.
There is no pass mark — what Bands 1–4 actually mean
Cambridge is unambiguous on this: "There is no Pass or Fail." Every candidate who completes the module receives a certificate showing a band.
| Band | A candidate at this level demonstrates |
|---|---|
| 4 | extensive knowledge of TKT: YL content areas |
| 3 | breadth and depth of knowledge of TKT: YL content areas |
| 2 | basic, but systematic knowledge of TKT: YL content areas |
| 1 | limited knowledge of TKT: YL content areas |
Two consequences most guides skip.
First, Cambridge publishes the descriptors but not the mark boundaries. If a page tells you that "70 out of 80 gets you Band 4," that number is not from Cambridge — no official TKT handbook or results page states a mark range for any band. Plan for the band you want by covering content, not by aiming at a threshold nobody has published.
Second, "no fail" is not the same as "no risk." Because everyone who sits gets a certificate, an underprepared sitting produces a Band 1 or Band 2 certificate — a permanent document that says "limited" or "basic" knowledge, which is worse for a job application than not sitting yet. Schools that recognise TKT are generally looking for Band 3 or 4. Cambridge's published TKT information does not set an expiry date on certificates or a compulsory wait before re-entering a module; confirm re-entry arrangements with your centre.
Paper or digital? The booking decision most TKT guides get wrong
TKT is now offered in two delivery formats, and they are not interchangeable when you have a deadline.
| Paper-based | Digital | |
|---|---|---|
| Booking notice | Six weeks before the test date | Three working days |
| Availability | Centre-set session dates | 365 days a year |
| Questions | Every candidate sits the same paper | Randomly allocated — each candidate sits a slightly different version |
| Answering | Shade boxes on an answer sheet, in pencil | On screen |
| Results | About six weeks | 7–10 working days |
| Certificate | The same TKT certificate | The same TKT certificate |
Source: Cambridge English's current About the TKT tests page. If you need your band for a job start date, a visa file or a school's hiring window, digital turns a two-month wait into about two weeks.
A note on conflicting sources. The official TKT: YL handbook was printed in November 2019 and still carries the line that computer-based TKT Modules 1, 2 and 3 are "no longer available." That statement has been overtaken by Cambridge's current digital TKT offering. Where a 2019 handbook and the live Cambridge English site disagree on delivery or logistics, the live site controls; the handbook remains the authority for syllabus, task counts and band descriptors.
How TKT: YL differs from TKT Modules 1–3
TKT is modular. You can take any combination, in any order, and you receive a certificate for each module you complete — YL does not require Modules 1–3 first. But the modules are not built the same way:
| Module | Syllabus areas | Question split | Tasks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Module 1 — Background to language learning and teaching | 3 | 40 / 15 / 25 | 13 |
| Module 2 — Lesson planning and use of resources | 2 | 40 / 40 | 12 |
| Module 3 — Managing the teaching and learning process | 2 | 40 / 40 | 12 |
| TKT: CLIL (specialist) | 4 | 25 / 25 / 20 / 10 | 13 |
| TKT: YL (specialist) | 4 | 13 / 21 / 33 / 13 | 12 |
Every module is 80 questions in 80 minutes and is banded 1–4, so the difference is entirely in what is tested and how it is weighted.
- Modules 1–3 test general ELT. Module 1 is heavy on terminology for describing language — parts of speech, lexical sets, phonemes, IPA symbols, word and sentence stress — none of which appears in YL. Modules 2 and 3 cover lesson planning and classroom management for language learners in general.
- YL applies planning, teaching and assessment to children specifically, and adds developmental content that exists in no other module: how language learning builds children's learning, cognitive and communication strategies.
- Weighting differs sharply. Modules 2 and 3 are perfectly even 40/40 splits, so even revision is rational there. In YL it is not: one part is worth 33 and two are worth 13.
- YL and CLIL are the two specialist modules. CLIL is for teaching a curriculum subject through English; YL is for teaching English itself to 6–12s. Also note that TKT: KAL and TKT: Practical are no longer available.
A study plan weighted to the real split
Six weeks, allocated by question count rather than by part number:
- Week 1 — Part 1 (13 questions). Children's characteristics as language learners, and the three strategy families (learning, cognitive, communication). Read the handbook's background essay on young learners while you do it.
- Week 2 — Part 2 (21 questions). Lesson-plan headings and what each one means; how a coursebook page provides support versus challenge; the resource list — stories, games, puppets, realia, flashcards, craft, rhymes, chants, ICT, video.
- Weeks 3–4 — Part 3 (33 questions). Give it double time. Split it into its three strands: scaffolding through teacher language, practice activities, class management. This is where a band is won or lost.
- Week 5 — Part 4 (13 questions). Purposes and focus of each type of classroom-based assessment, and what a teacher does with the evidence. It is the most schematic part of the syllabus and the fastest to lock in.
- Week 6 — Timed full papers. 80 questions in 80 minutes, no pauses. One minute per question is the pace; matching tasks should run faster than that to buy time on the three-option items.
Throughout, work the TKT Glossary. TKT items test precise labels — recasting, echo correcting, prompting, eliciting, drilling, differentiation, formative assessment — and a matching task is unforgiving if you know the concept but not Cambridge's word for it. This is the single highest-return habit in TKT preparation, and it is the one candidates most often skip.
Five mistakes that cost candidates a band
- Splitting revision evenly across four parts. Part 3 is worth more than Parts 1 and 4 combined.
- Assuming matching tasks are one-to-one. Some give spare options; some force you to reuse options. Check the letter range first.
- Studying methodology in your own words. You will recognise the idea and still miss the item, because the option is written in Cambridge's terminology.
- Writing off Part 4 as "only 13 questions." It is the most learnable 13 questions on the paper — two tasks, a small closed set of assessment purposes and focuses. Combined with Part 1, that is 26 questions of highly schematic content.
- Booking paper when you need the result fast. Six weeks versus 7–10 working days is the difference between making a hiring window and missing it.
Free official resources
Cambridge publishes more for TKT: YL than most candidates realise, and all of it is free:
- The TKT: Young Learners Handbook for teachers — the full syllabus, the part-by-part task and question counts, band descriptors, and a complete sample paper with answer key.
- The TKT Glossary and free sample tests for every module, on Cambridge's Prepare for TKT page.
- Entry is only through an authorised Cambridge exam or teaching qualification centre, which also sets the fee and confirms available dates — use Cambridge's centre finder rather than a third-party price list.
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