2.1 How to Prepare

2.1 How to Prepare

Quick Answer: Prepare for the AQL with official NBTP exemplars and the AQL educators'/teachers booklet, active academic reading, and calculator-free quantitative practice. Past papers stay confidential. Commercial courses are not endorsed by NBTP. On test day you write timed Academic Literacy (AL) first, then Quantitative Literacy (QL), in one morning session — so sleep, logistics, and pacing matter as much as content review.

The National Benchmark Tests Project (NBTP), housed with the Centre for Educational Assessments (CEA, formerly CETAP) at the University of Cape Town, frames AL and QL as measures of transferable senior-phase skills applied in tertiary-like contexts. That framing should shape every study hour: you are not cramming a school syllabus checklist; you are rehearsing how you read, reason, and quantify when the setting looks more like first-year study than Grade 12 revision.

Start with Official Materials Only

NBTP publishes a limited set of AQL exemplar questions (English and Afrikaans) and an educators'/teachers booklet that explains what AL and QL assess, how the domains are organised, and how teachers can strengthen the underlying literacies. Download these from the official NBT website (nbt.ac.za) under Preparing your learners / What to expect. Work through the exemplars to learn item style and cognitive demand — not to memorise answers.

Past NBT papers are confidential. The FAQ states clearly that past tests are not available to anyone. NBTP does not release full papers to the public so that writers are treated equally and so that "teaching to the live test" does not replace real literacy and quantitative development. Treat any site advertising "real NBT past papers" as unreliable and potentially unethical.

Commercial Courses Are Not Endorsed

The AQL teachers booklet addresses special preparatory sessions directly: organisations may offer downloads or classes that claim to prepare learners for the NBTs, but none of those organisations have authority to speak on behalf of NBTP, and none have special knowledge of the content of the live tests. Teachers who help learners build AL and QL foundations are doing legitimate work, yet they also lack authority to speak for NBTP or to use NBTP / Universities South Africa logos in ways that imply official sanction.

Practical implication for you as a writer:

1. Prefer free official exemplars and booklet guidance over paid "guaranteed NBT" packages.
2. Judge any paid resource by whether it builds transferable reading and quantitative reasoning — not by marketing claims of insider items.
3. Ignore branding that mimics NBTP language or logos; endorsement is not for sale through advertising.

Build Academic Literacy with Active Reading

AL rewards writers who can negotiate meaning at word, sentence, paragraph, and whole-text level; track discourse and argument structure; infer beyond the explicit; separate essential from non-essential information; and handle graphs, diagrams, and carefully worded options. That skill set grows from active academic reading, not from skimming literature setworks or drilling only vocabulary lists.

Use this weekly reading loop on non-fiction texts (editorials, science explainers, policy briefs, university orientation readings):

• Preview: skim headings, first sentences, and any figure captions before deep reading.
• Annotate purpose: mark claims, evidence, examples, and transitions (however, therefore, in contrast).
• Infer on purpose: write one sentence that goes beyond what the text states but remains justified by it.
• Rank information: list the controlling idea, then two supports, then one detail you would drop if summarising.
• Check visuals: explain a graph or flowchart in plain language without copying the caption.
• Paraphrase under time: give yourself five minutes to restate a dense paragraph accurately.

Active reading trains the same transferable senior-phase abilities CEA/NBTP describe: skills developed at school, applied in contexts that resemble tertiary study.

Practise Quantitative Literacy Without a Calculator

QL asks you to solve problems in real and academic contexts using quantitative information presented verbally, in tables, charts, graphs, diagrams, or simple symbolic form. Candidates do not require a calculator for QL; where necessary, formulae are provided. On test day, calculators (along with dictionaries, notebooks, and phones) are prohibited.

Train the way you will be tested:

• Do percentages, ratios, rates, and multi-step arithmetic by hand.
• Estimate before calculating so unreasonable options stand out.
• Translate a short worded scenario into a table or sketch before choosing an option.
• Practise reading compound bar charts, stacked bars, line graphs, and simple geometric measurement problems with only pencil and paper.
• Time short QL sets so you learn which steps you rush or reverse.

QL is generic quantitative reasoning, not a mini version of the CAPS Mathematics examination and not identical to Mathematical Literacy exam technique. Keep your practice contextual and calculator-free.

Pace Timed AL, Then Timed QL

The AQL is one combined multiple-choice test with separately timed AL and QL sections inside a three-hour morning sitting. CEA publishes the item counts — AL ≈ 75 questions, QL = 50 — but not a per-domain minute allocation, so ignore prep sites that quote an exact AL/QL time split as though it were official. Plan from the item share instead: AL is roughly 60% of the paper and QL roughly 40%. Results for AL and QL are reported separately.

Pacing habits that transfer:

Because sections are timed separately, finishing AL early does not "buy" extra QL minutes in the way an untimed combined paper might. Practise each mode under its own clock.

Sleep, Logistics, and Test-Day Discipline

NBTP's "What to expect" guidance is concrete: be at the check-in desk by 7:30 AM, bring official ID, two sharpened pencils and an eraser, and plan lunch and water if you also write MAT in the afternoon. Get a good night's sleep and firm travel plans. Bathroom breaks are not allowed during the writing session — plan ahead. Leave calculators, dictionaries, scrap paper, notebooks, and smart devices packed away.

Logistics checklist (night before):

1. Confirm venue/session communications and travel time with a buffer.
2. Pack ID, pencils, eraser, water; know what you must leave at your feet or outside the room.
3. Stop late-night cramming; sleep protects reading stamina for the long AL block.
4. Eat a normal breakfast; avoid experimental foods that risk discomfort during a three-hour sitting.
5. If you also write MAT the same day, plan lunch between sessions without rushing.

A Four-Week Prep Skeleton

You can adapt this skeleton to more or fewer weeks, but keep the balance of literacies, timing, and official materials:

1. Week 1 — Orient: Read the teachers booklet framing; complete a first pass of official exemplars; note AL vs QL error patterns.
2. Week 2 — AL depth: Daily active reading sessions; practise inference, cohesion, and essential/non-essential sorting on unfamiliar texts.
3. Week 3 — QL depth: Calculator-free sets from tables/graphs/worded contexts; emphasise multi-step accuracy and estimation.
4. Week 4 — Integrate: Timed AL-then-QL simulations; logistics rehearsal; light review of weak sub-skills only.

Preparation that respects CEA/NBTP intent builds transferable readiness for university reading and quantitative demands — not a secret list of recycled items.